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The Transfiguration
Milo isn't your usual introverted, strange teenager; he also believes he's a vampire. Michael O'Shea's dark drama presents a transgressive twist on the teen vampire tale.
Director: Michael O’Shea
Overview
Milo is more than just a typically troubled teenager; an orphaned loner trying to survive in a gang-plagued neighbourhood, he harbours an unhealthy preoccupation with dead animals and online violence. He also believes himself to be a vampire; not in the Gothic sense, but because of his insatiable lust for blood. Unexpectedly, he finds a soul-mate in Sophie, a similarly withdrawn teen with blood issues of her own - a tendency for self-harm. As their unlikely relationship develops, Milo has to find a way of escaping his vampire existence while protecting the one person with whom he's ever bonded.
Michael O’Shea’s haunting debut feature is less a horror and more of a deeply dark teen drama, played satisfyingly straight without a hint of irony. In its combination of gritty urban violence with vampire mythologising, it takes a healthy dose of inspiration from George A. Romero's Martin. But O' Shea's proves himself a distinctive director of promise, not least in the way he boldly provokes his audience to question our sympathy for Milo, right from the off. Following its selection at the Cannes Film Festival 2016, The Transfiguration has won wide praise from top critics including Kim Newman, who declared it "a defining vampire film of the mid-2010s."
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