Tuesday 3 August 2010

Twilight (2008) - Horror Film Review


I quite enjoyed Twilight: Eclipse, so borrowed the previous two films off my friends daughter.  I was one of the many who derided the Twilight series, and while I find some parts of it unintentionally laugh out loud I do really like the films!

Twilight is the first of the Twilight films.  A beautiful pale skinned girl; Bella moves to a sleepy forest Town called Forks to live with her Dad.  At first she hates it there, but upon attending the local School she becomes curious about a odd boy named Edward.  Edward and his family are very close and keep themselves separated from the rest of the School.  After saving Bella's life in a impossible way Bella comes to realise that Edward isn't a normal person.  As their romance blossoms she comes to realise that Edward is a Vampire.  Everything is going well until a group of 'bad' Vampires turn up (Edwards family only drink the blood of animals).  One of the bad Vampires becomes obsessed with killing Bella.  It is up to Edward and his family to protect Bella, and stop the obsessed Vampire.


The film looks fantastic, the setting of a dank dreary forest Town is well realised, and contrasts with the bright location of later on in the film.  The characters are cool, specially the attractive leads of Bella and Edward.  Having seen the third film in the series first, it is surprising how much the actors have grown up.  Jacob in particular looks titchy here compared to his muscular later appearances in Eclipse.  Here he has very much a bit part with his Werewolfness not directly revealed.

Vampires in Twilight have super strength, super speed, and super senses.  They glow in direct sunlight.  Saying that the part of the film where Edward reveals his Vampire nature in a bid to scare off Bella is hilarious due to the silly fast motion effects, and his pitiful 'angry' voice.  That ruined an otherwise good scene.  My favourite scene of the film is the Cullen's baseball game, it is just so surreal, and ends in a really tense, brilliant way.

The film is not horror, it is only the last 1/3 of the film which has action in it, and very good action at that, with thriller moments, and poor Bella being beaten about a bit.  Some plot holes are apparent (such as the psycho Vampires seemingly teleportation techniques) but the characters are all interesting, and the romance is lovely.  I love a good love story, one with Vampires is always better.  I have never been a big fan of the romantic notion of Vampires, but I do readily admit that it is harder to do a romantic Zombie film (ones I can think of are 'Return of the Living Dead Part 3', and the unique 'Zombie Honeymoon', and perhaps the utterly dreadful soft porn film 'Zombie Lake').


Overall, a great film, I enjoyed it far more than I did Eclipse, but then Werewolves are one thing I like even less than Vampires.  I am ashamed to say that I am kinda a closet Twilight fan! Oh yeah; a fab soundtrack, includes Muse, and Radiohead and other bands of which I cannot recall.

SCORE:

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