The Moth Diaries

Rachel Klein's 2002 young adult novel was ahead of its time - it predated the whole Twilight teen vampire sensation by several years - but this belated film adaptation arrives a little too late; moody, adolescent bloodsuckers have become rather passé. Sarah Bolger plays a troubled 16-year-old at a posh girls' boarding school, who becomes concerned that her best friend (Sarah Gadon) is falling under the spell of a mysterious new student (British model-turned-actress Lily Cole), who never seems to eat, loves the night and whose enemies have a nasty habit of turning up dead. Bolger is convinced she's a vampire, but is it all in her head? Unfortunately, it's a question director Mary Harron (American Psycho) never really gets to grips with: while she saturates the film in gothic tones, teenage angst and Sapphic references, it's a little too ethereal for its own good and meanders to an unsatisfying climax.