Catherine Hardwicke
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If she had been smart enough and sly enough she could have created an adult fairy tale along the lines of Neil Jordan's "The Company of Wolves."
(For the quintessential film treatment of the story, see Neil Jordan’s 1984 film The Company of Wolves, which is based on the short story by Angela Carter.)
Seyfried and Fernandez enjoy a few stolen kisses and a chaste roll in the hay, but the film never tries to plumb its source's psychosexual depths in the manner of, say, Angela Carter's "The Company of Wolves" (filmed by Neil Jordan in 1984).
The second horror movie inspired by the Little Red Riding Hood tale (the first was 1984's "The Company of Wolves," directed by Neil Jordan), the new movie takes place in a deliberately artificial, almost Rankin/Bass-looking medieval village called Daggerhorn -- a doubly phallocentric name that ought to sound a warning to any young maiden.
The film you’re looking for is probably 1984’s certifiably crazy “The Company of Wolves,’’ with its Freudian psychology, icky transformation scenes, and Angela Lansbury as a malevolent granny warning Little Red to “never trust a man whose eyebrows meet in the middle.’’
Like many a classic fairytale, the Red Riding Hood story has been much revised and revisited over the years, perhaps most notably by the late British author Angela Carter, whose 1979 short story collection The Bloody Chamber (the basis for Neil Jordan’s 1984 The Company of Wolves) offered three distinctive variations, including one in which little Red cuddled up with the Big Bad Wolf himself—and in Granny’s bed no less!
The film, with its contemporary twist on gothic themes, seems designed to appeal to the "Twilight" crowd, except that they have proven a most fickle group to reach.
It’s exactly the type of movie you’d expect “Twilight” fans to swoon over.
I’m a half-century too old for such tween swill as that which is regurgitated in CBS Films’ “Beastly,” another in the ever-expanding clones of “Twilight” wannabes where a young, bare-chested, handsome (to some) teenage lad (former model Alex Pettyfer) sends all the young lassies in the audience into a tizzy.
Unfortunately, “Beastly,” based on the teen novel by Alex Flinn, doesn’t make the “Twilight” zone as a new twist on an old fairy tale.
Say what you will about Twilight—whose look and supernatural-romance tone Beastly occasionally tries to copy—but at least its endless angsty wallowing finds an emotion and dives in deep.
Hey, it’s a Beauty and the Beast update for the Twilight set, and Olsen is indeed pretty scary.
Despite all the huffing and puffing, "Thirteen" is the kind of film (like the even-worse "Kids") that will be described as "shocking" and "a wake-up call" by critics who havent had any contact with actual kids since their own adolescence-real kids will probably bust a gut laughing at the hyperbole and consider it a camp classic.
Catherine Hardwickeâs brilliant, terrifying Thirteen has been meeting a similar reaction to the one generated by Larry Clarkâs film Kids when that film came out eight years ago.
"Thirteen" hits as hard as Larry Clark's "Kids" but doesn't use the titillation factor to keep your interest.
But the fact is, this type of material has already been done and pretty recently at that in 1995's "Kids."
In this doubled effect, it recalls Larry Clark's Kids (1995), exposing bad behavior in handheld Super 16 imagery (here the camera is by the endlessly resourceful Elliot Davis [Get on the Bus, 1996]), that hovers between reportage and sensationalism.
Shockingly similar in tone as "Kids," the 1995 Larry Clark film about a group of New York City adolescents experimenting with drugs, sex, and mischief, "Thirteen" is a teen tragedy of monstrous proportions.
Here are the Cliff's Notes on "I Am Number Four": "Twilight" with aliens.
Almost exasperatingly predictable and derivative from the get-go, I Am Number Four is soulless factory-line junk that might even struggle maintain the interest of its core audience – the Twilight set – from numbing over-familiarity; one is too often reliving moments from Heroes, Roswell, The Faculty, Transformers, et al to enjoy the film.
Conceived by Oprah-vilified author James Frey as the beginning of a potential blockbuster franchise, I Am Number Four is nothing but a million little pieces from prior superhero series and the Twilight saga.
They are there for the bottom line: to keep their mouths shut and appease Dreamworks Pictures' derivative, half-assed attempt at appealing to the " Twilight " demographic while earning a hefty paycheck in the process.
The plot of the last “Twilight” movie, right?
…dapting young-adult novels into movies has become big business for Hollywood over the last few years, but the success of the “Twilight” films has led studios to focus on a specific type of story – namely, ones about mopey teenagers falling in love with just the right amount of action to convince male moviegoers to tag along with their female counterparts.
It's like making a Star Wars movie with no space battles, or a Jaws movie without any shark attacks.
It is, as a result, impossible to label the film as anything more than a shameless cash-grab designed to artificially prolong the life of this profitable series, although, as far as shameless cash-grabs go, Breaking Dawn: Part 1 is far easier to stomach than certain other franchise-extending installments (eg the Star Wars prequels).
At times, the dialogue is laugh-aloud bad - almost to the point of being hilarious - and some of the acting is reminiscent of what we saw taking center stage in George Lucas' Star Wars prequel trilogy.
If nothing else, this leading man makes a change from the Judd Apatow brand of romantic hero - the woman-shy slacker who eschews the dating game to stay at home with his collection of Star Wars memorabilia.
The “romanticization” of the vampire has been evolving since (at least) John Badham’s 1979 rendition of Dracula — but we never saw our beloved cinematic bloodsuckers lose their teeth like they did in the feckless Twilight movies.
But the film ends up such a muddled clot of plotlines and tones that it leaves you famished for the exuberance of Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula adaptation, or the expressionistic kink of Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu, or the marrow-freezing solitude of Tomas Alfredson’s Let The Right One In – or even the good, honest gloominess of a Twilight .
But Neil “Interview with the Vampire/The Crying Game” Jordan still manages to return this sort of tale to the realm of adults, with the meaty themes and grim, gory violence that “Twilight” scrubbed out.
The Irish actress now stars in the Ireland-set “Byzantium,” which at times feels like a knockoff of Meyer’s “Twilight.”
But don’t let that scare you -- Byzantium is a cerebral, British indie film, too ruminative and atmospheric to be lumped in with the likes of the Twilight series.
It's difficult to imagine that the vampire film could have anything new to say in these fang-xhausted post-Twilight days.
With its violence, underage drinking, reckless behavior and profanity, "Abduction" falls in the same corner of the youth market as the "Twilight" movies.
Tackling "Twilight" heartthrob Taylor Lautner's first starring vehicle, "Abduction" director John Singleton knows exactly what he's expected to provide: The film's first reel includes scenes of the star strutting shirtless, winning a kickboxing match, winning a wrestling match and tearing around on a motorcycle.
Admittedly, he should not be judged based on his performance in Twilight and its sequels; those movies have an uncanny ability to suck the life out of even the most talented performers (Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning).
Taylor Lautner tries to shed his "Twilight" past in "Abduction".
A sister to the heroines of "Thirteen" and other Hardwicke films, Valerie -- her name likely borrowed from the magical 1970 Czech horor-fantasy, "Valerie and Her Week of Wonders" -- is threatened not just by wolves of varying degrees of hairiness but by a heritage of abuse and dysfunction that, as manifested in the real world, is no fairy tale.
Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)
Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson
influenced by Twilight (2008)
Characters Themes
Dornan plays Christian Grey as icy and one-note (true to its Robert Pattinson/ Twilight inspiration) and Johnson's Anastasia Steele is a revelation, a mumbling, awkward comedic presence on par with Kristen Wiig.
“Fifty Shades of Grey” began in emulation of Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series, whose plausible spiritual lessons are closer to the surface.
Like the character who inspired her, Twilight ’s Bella Swan, I expected Ana to be meek and featureless and utterly passive, a blank, empty vessel for readers’ and viewers’ sexual and romantic longings.
5. James (real name: Erika Mitchell) tweaked the Twilight teen virgin Bella Swan into the slightly older Anastasia, and reimagined sensitive vampire Edward as the well-mannered sadist Christian.
Grey, a vaguely defined "businessman," is an unconvincing mix of Regency aristocrat and high-school hunk, while Anastasia is another Bella Swan ("Twilight"), though with even bigger daddy issues.
As with the first “Twilight” movie back in 2008, the one directed with canny, low-key commitment by Catherine Hardwicke, James’ book has been de-crudified, its most operatic expressions of lust stricken from the record.
Like any film, "Nativity" takes certain liberties, but it contains nothing that could make it as controversial as "The Passion of the Christ" or the earlier "Last Temptation of Christ."
Although one probably shouldn’t go into a film like “The Nativity Story” looking for some radical narrative approach, I kept waiting for it to demonstrate some reason as to why it was made in the first place, other than the fact that “The Passion of the Christ” demonstrated that a contemporary religious film could have a potentially strong commercial upside (especially with the absence of the relentless gore that marked “Passion”).
I thought "The Passion of The Christ" set a high bar for religious films and I wondered if this film could match it.
To the casual observer, it is without the distracting speculative filter imposed on "The Passion of the Christ," but, to be fair, "The Nativity Story" does tell the more upbeat narrative.
Eighth Grade (2018)
Directed by Bo Burnham
influenced by Thirteen (2003), Twilight (2008)
Themes Characters
The theme of youthful isolation has long been a staple of coming-of-age movies, diversely explored in films as different as Catherine Hardwicke’s Thirteen , Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In , Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Mustang and, more recently, Deborah Haywood’s Pin Cushion or Jonah Hill’s Mid90s .
Don't be fooled, this is no censor-baiting Larry Clarke ( Bully , Kids ) or Harmony Korine ( Spring Breakers ) style expose, but rather something more akin to Catherine Hardwick's 2003 tale Thirteen, or the beloved John Hughes movies of the 1980s ( Pretty in Pink , Sixteen Candles ).
Burnham doesn’t feel the need to veer off into ultra-dark Harmony Korine territory, an envelope that films such as Fien Troch’s “Home” and Catherine Hardwicke’s “Thirteen” have pushed clear off the table in recent years.
At home, Kayla plugs in earphones to shut out her single father Mark (Josh Hamilton), whose clumsily proud devotion to his daughter reminded me of Billy Burke’s lovely Charlie Swan character from the Twilight movies (a thumb pricked on a broken phone-screen signals a modern twist on a fairytale trope).
But Twilight is a think piece compared with Bodies .
I was hoping, dear readers, for a relatively painless “Twilight” rip-off at the very most.
Warm Bodies is the product of Summit Entertainment, the distributor of the Twilight movies, and there's little doubt the hope is to attract a fraction of Stephenie Meyer's core audience.
Teresa Palmer plays the object of R's ardor, and though she may have been cast for her not-insignificant resemblance to Kristen Stewart, cashing in on that Twilight for zombies thing, Palmer has a lot of her own spark, and a really lovely, wholesome chemistry with Hoult.
Unsurprisingly, as R(omeo)’s Julie(t), Teresa Palmer will closely mimic Kristen Stewart’s every last hair-twitching, eye-rolling mannerism to ensure that the Twilight tourists in the audience get exactly what they are paying for.
Armchair critics have been comparing the film, sight unseen, to Twilight for its supernatural central pairing, but in execution, it’s far more like a twee, low-key, passive teen romance, along the lines of Nick And Nora’s Infinite Playlist , or Levine’s own 2008 film The Wackness .
Commentators have thus labelled it a Buffy The Vampire Slayer companion piece, and there is room for that argument, but Twilight is more self-serious and less ironic in its execution than the Joss Whedon-penned film/TV series and the subsequent and iconic long-running television programme.
Too bad - high school can be as scary a place as any vampire's lair, a fact that the television version (not the film) of Buffy the Vampire Slayer proved time and again, using monsters as metaphors to portray the very real horrors of growing up.
Similarly, "Twilight" isn't about sex in the way we, as adults, usually think of it: It's more about the things you want before you know you want them, which is what makes it different from another recent vampire-themed phenomenon, Joss Whedon's beloved series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
Combining both elements of gothic horror with high school drama, the film comes off like the next “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” but without the slayer and more soap opera elements than an actual body count.
MORE influenced by Anne Rice than by Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Stephanie Meyer's young-adult novel Twilight and its sequels tell tales of grand, dark passion in a high school setting, equating blood-drinking with illicit sex without a trace of Buffy's knowing irony.
Long since liberated from the shackles of the “Twilight” series, if not the condescension of much of the mainstream moviegoing audience, she aces the tricky feat of seeming utterly plausible in a thoroughly implausible context, bringing a welcome infusion of heat and unpredictability to the proceedings.
It also unintentionally resembles fan-fiction: With the former Twilight star self-consciously attempting to avoid making eyes at initially rule-following X-Men refugee Hoult, the movie becomes a sort of Bella And The Beast.
(A side note: Twilight fans will be happy to briefly observe Kristen Stewart—one of our finest young actresses—borrow mannerisms from her sex-starved days spent with a vampire.)
But this film is mostly a celebration of its two young, attractive stars, who’ve both swam in these forbidden love waters before, with Stewart’s fangbanger in Twilight and Hoult’s lusty zombie in Warm Bodies, and whose delicate features imbue the film with heightened sensuality.
Living in this society (dubbed The Collective) where sexual contact is forbidden are Nicholas Hoult and Kristen Stewart (full marks here to Doremus for attempting to snag the Twilight teen audience).
It’s the Battle of the Franchise Superstars when X-Men’s Nicholas Hoult and Twilight’s Kristen Stewart — both stretching to play physically perfect specimens — take turns commandeering soft-edged closeups in this dystopian dud.
In this doubled effect, it recalls Larry Clark's Kids (1995), exposing bad behavior in handheld Super 16 imagery (here the camera is by the endlessly resourceful Elliot Davis [Get on the Bus, 1996]), that hovers between reportage and sensationalism.
Ashley Greene, best known as friendly vampire Alice in the " Twilight " films, gets the lead here as Kelly.
Nothing is dark and disorienting about the bright sunshine of the Southern California community that’s home to Kelly (Ashley Greene, from the “Twilight” movies) and Ben (Sebastian Stan, from “Gossip Girl”).
You’d think a specter from another dimension would have better things to do than relocate furniture and open garage doors without a remote, but here we are—again—as a vapid couple (Sebastian Stan and Twilight’s Ashley Greene) are taunted by a demon who enjoys making the soap insta-moldy after the heroine disrobes for a PG-13 shower.
Greene, best known for her role in the Twilight saga, is never called on to do much else than look good in various states of dress and undress.
The movie focuses on a boyfriend/girlfriend couple (the latter is played by Ashley Greene from the Twilight movies), and they're shown sleeping in the same bed and walking around in their underwear.
In the opening scenes, the two bland, charmless leads, Ben and Kelly (Sebastian Stan from "Gossip Girl" and Ashley Greene from " Twilight "), struggle to establish their relationship via strained small talk about what to have for lunch.
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Directed by Cecil B. DeMille
influenced The Nativity Story (2006)
Visuals
And it definitely lacks the pomp and circumstance that made arguable classics out of such films as the 1956 version of "The Ten Commandments."
Turning away from the splashy spectaculars of the Cecil B. DeMille school ("The Ten Commandments," "The Sign of the Cross," etc.), Hardwicke and screenwriter Mike Rich have opted instead for a reasonably realistic treatment of the story of Mary and Joseph.
("The way you walked was thorny," indeed -- to quote Maria Ouspenskaya in 1941's "The Wolf Man.")
Other than scant allusions to "Blacula" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Vampires Suck" stays pretty close to a true parody: it lambastes a single work of art--in this case, the "Twilight" series by Stephanie Meyer.
A laugh-free Twilight parody.
In “Vampires Suck,” the “Twilight” spoof by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, the Bella character points out the Cullen family and asks a classmate about them.
HANDOUT Vampires Suck, the latest satire from writer/directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, lampoons the Twilight movies.
No name newcomer Jenn Proske has K Stew down pat -- from her fluttering downcast eyes to her crooked little lip-biting trick, even the mannered way Miss "Twilight" fiddles with her hair.
What makes “Vampires Suck” work to a degree (making it the best film that Friedberg and Seltzer have done) is that it focuses on the “Twilight” vampire craze.
As a shameless contraption of ridiculously sad things befalling attractive people, the engorged romantic tragedy Remember Me stands tall between those towering monuments to teen-oriented cinematic misery, Love Story and Twilight: Beginning with a shock of urban violence set on a subway platform in 1991, then moving forward to a balmy New York City summer a decade later, the movie is one part ''Love means never having to say you're sorry'' and one part Edward's warning to Bella: ''If you're smart, you'll stay away from me.''
In his first official post-Twilight-craze-outing, Robert Pattinson stars as Tyler, the black sheep of a well to do family torn apart by the suicide of their eldest son, with Pattinson stuck in a permanent melancholy while sucking down a never ending amount of booze and cigarettes.
They somehow snared " Twilight " hottie Robert Pattinson .
Remember Me makes for a decent graduation for Twilight fans now ready for actual adult emotions, but anyone older than the central characters-- and really, most smart 22-year-olds too-- will recognize the movie is full of hot air.