This week we take on the cultural and cinematic behemoth that is 2008’s TWILIGHT. After some…contrasting reviews, we have a surprisingly enjoyable (and extended: strap in, listeners!) time talking about genre mash-ups, missed moments of poignancy, the traumas of High School, and how this isn’t really a film about vampires at all.
Our film next week, closing the genre of vampire movies, is the 2014 mockumentary WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS.
CELEBRITY MASTERCHEF (2019): Franc Roddam, Gregg Wallace, John Torode
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 1–3 (2012—18): Genndy Tartakovsky, Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968): George A. Romero, Judith O’Dea, Duane Jones
AMERICAN ULTRA (2015): Nima Nourizadeh, Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart
THE CHILDHOOD OF A LEADER (2015): Brady Corbet, Bérénice Bejo, Liam Cunningham
THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999): Daniel Myrick, Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard
WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS (2019): J.M. Coetzee, Ciro Guerro, Mark Rylance
Firstly, there are a number of Wikipedia ‘holes’ to disappear down with respect to this film: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werewolf, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quileute (Jacob’s tribe of Native Americans), and (one which is relevant in a later film in the series) www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhampir. We mentioned some other films which we’ve covered on the podcast, so here are links to our CLERKS and Linklater episodes: www.kaiju.fm/prestige/clerks-slacker-cinema, www.kaiju.fm/prestige/2-31-before-sunrise-1995-and-time, www.kaiju.fm/prestige/2-32-before-sunset-2004-and-memory, www.kaiju.fm/prestige/2-33-before-midnight-2013-and-change. We talked about the strong female-led legacy of this film, in the decade or so since its release, and this article covers just that: www.theguardian.com/film/2018/nov/02/ten-years-of-twilight-the-extraordinary-feminist-legacy-of-the-panned-vampire-saga. Finally, it seems appropriate, as we’re moving towards the end of our focus on this genre, to include this article: www.collider.com/best-vampire-movies.