4.19 - TWILIGHT (2008) and Female Autonomy

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.

Next Week
Our film next week, closing the genre of vampire movies, is the 2014 mockumentary WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS.

Recent Media
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

Recommendations
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

Footnotes 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.