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Twilight | 2008 | PG-13 | - 4.7.2
A high school junior (Kristen Stewart) moves to Washington State to live with her father (Billy Burke) after her mother (Sarah Clarke) re-marries. Upon arrival she meets an unusual classmate (Robert Pattinson), whom she finds irresistibly attractive, and he reciprocates. He and his family are a curiosity in the small town, keeping to themselves and rarely mingling with others, and she soon realizes that they are vampires. Based on the novel of the same name by Stephenie Meyer. Also with Taylor Lautner, Gil Birmingham, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Ashley Greene, Jackson Rathbone, Kellan Lutz, Nikki Reed, Cam Gigandet, Rachelle Lefevre, Edi Gathegi, Justin Chon and Michael Welch. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke. [2:00]
SEX/NUDITY 4 - A vampire teen boy and a teen girl kiss tenderly, then passionately, she leans back on her bed (she is wearing a T-shirt and panties) pulling him on top of her, they continue to kiss, and he jumps off and tells her to stop.
► A teen girl and a boy vampire dance close together at a dance, they kiss, she asks him to bite her neck, and he dips her and kisses her neck instead.
► A teen girl and a vampire talk while lying in bed; she falls asleep and rests her head on his chest. A teen vampire boy kisses a teen girl on the forehead. A teen boy kisses a teen girl on the cheek. Two couples (male and female vampires) hold hands as they walk through a school cafeteria and it is explained that they are part of a foster family and that the couples are "together"; other teens talk about that being strange. A vampire and a teen girl lie on the ground and look at each other, without touching.
► Two teen girls try on evening gowns that are low-cut and reveal cleavage, bare shoulders and backs and one remarks about her dress making "her boobs look good." A vampire is bare-chested to the waist. A woman wears a low-cut top that reveals deep cleavage and a tattoo on her chest. Young women wear low-cut tops and dresses that reveal cleavage in a few scenes.
► A teen girl's mother asks her if there is a boy in her life and then asks, "Are you being safe?" A vampire and a teen girl stand close to each other, and he caresses her neck and chest and says, "The lion fell in love with the lamb." A vampire tells a teen girl, "You are like a drug to me." A teen girl talks about a vampire "thirsting for my blood." A vampire tells a teen girl that he doesn't have the strength to stay away from her anymore. A teen girl tells a vampire that he is beautiful. A teenage boy asks a teen girl to a dance and she declines. A man talks about having dressed up as Santa when a teen girl was young and a woman describes him as "Butt crack Santa." A vampire reads the minds of people in a restaurant and says that several are thinking about sex or money and one is thinking about cats.
► A teen vampire boy and a teen girl exchange looks of longing in many scenes. A teen vampire boy and a teen girl flirt in several scenes.
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VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - Two vampires hold a vampire, and a third, female vampire, jumps on his chest and rips his head off (we see her twisting and we hear crunching); a fire is then built and the vampire is torn to pieces and burned (we see movement and hear crunching but we do not see separation of body parts).
► A vampire grabs a teen girl by the throat, pushes her against a wall, and films her reactions; she yells at him, sprays him with pepper spray, he throws her against a column (she strikes her head and we see blood on her hand), he slams his hand down on her leg breaking the leg (we hear a crunch and she screams), and she falls on a shard of broken mirror and we see a very bloody leg wound.
► A frightened man is chased by three vampires: he is surrounded and we see him thrown down, we hear snarling, we see his legs thrashing as the three pounce on him and we hear later that he was killed by "some kind of animal."
► A female vampire kicks a man and he falls to the floor of a boat, and a male vampire says, "Let's not play with our food"; the man is frightened as the two attack him (we are told later that the man was killed but the attack is not shown).
► A vampire bites a teen girl on the arm, she writhes as venom works its way into her blood stream, she screams and we see the bite mark on her arm.
► A vampire sucks venom out of a teen girl's arm and struggles to stop before killing her.
► A vampire pins another vampire against a wall, and moves toward his neck to bite him but is stopped.
► We see a dead body on a stretcher being wheeled toward an ambulance -- the feet are exposed and the sight upsets a teen girl.
► Two vampires fight: they throw each other through the air and onto the floor, the walls crumble and the floor breaks apart. Three vampires threaten to attack a teen girl and other vampires snarl and hiss and threaten them. A vampire threatens to kill a teen girl's mother.
► We see drawings and paintings of demons eating people, and drawings of vampires, and read about people being eaten.
► A vampire says they have to kill another vampire, and "Tear him apart and burn the pieces."
► A teen girl walking alone at night is surrounded by four teenage boys who try to touch her and are threatening; she kicks one of them in the crotch as he moves toward her, and a vampire in a car speeds toward them, the attackers back off, and he says he wants "to go back and rip their heads off." Several vampires surround a teen girl and talk about her "smelling good." A teenage boy driving a van loses control on a patch of ice, the van slides and nearly strikes a teen girl, a vampire jumps between the girl and the van and stops the van (the driver of the van has blood on his forehead and we see the girl being checked in a hospital and she's OK). A woman describes a teen girl falling down a flight of stairs and crashing through a glass window and we see a girl imagining the fall. A vampire tracks a teen girl, and he stops and breathes in deeply sniffing the air for a scent.
► We see four vampires standing over a deer in a forest and preparing to "eat" (that is, drink its blood), before being interrupted by other people who are wearing wolf pelts. We see a frightened deer running through a forest and it is caught by someone (we can barely make out the scene).
► We hear about a man saving people from death by turning them into vampires and we see him biting a few people on the neck (one man is shown crying out from pain and we hear that the pain was excruciating).
► A vampire has blood red eyes. A vampire stands in the sun and we see his skin becomes translucent.
► A vampire breaks a glass bowl in her hand when she becomes frustrated (we see the shattered glass and food on the floor and she is not harmed). A teen girl opens a car door and accidentally strikes a teen boy that's standing nearby. A teen boy is struck in the back of the head by a volleyball. A teen girl slips on ice and falls on the ground (she's OK).
► A vampire moves fast and jumps back and forth around a teen girl, rips a tree out of the ground and throws it trying to scare her. A vampire seems angered and physically agitated by a teen girl's presence in a few scenes. A teen girl is frustrated and upset when a teen boy does not show up for school for several days. A man grieves over the death of a friend. A teen girl and her father argue and she leaves home. A teen girl has a dream and wakes up with a start; she sees a vampire standing at the end of her bed, she rubs her eyes and the person is gone (she thinks she is imagining his being there). A teen girl is startled when a vampire jumps on the side of her truck while she's driving, and another vampire jumps on the back of the truck with a thud. A teen girl is startled when she touches a vampire's hand and it is very cold.
► A man gives his daughter a pepper spray canister to use as protection. A man loads a shotgun when his daughter asks him to meet her date.
► A vampire picks up a teen girl and puts her on his back, and he runs up the side of a mountain to the top where he puts her down. A vampire puts a teen girl on his back, and he climbs through very tall trees and across limbs. A group of vampires play baseball during a thunderstorm and when they strike the ball with the bat the crack sounds like thunder.
► A vampire says that his family is different and that they only "eat animals." A vampire calls himself an animal and a killer of things. A teen girl is upset and tells a teen boy that she thinks he is a vampire. A teen boy talks about his descendants coming from wolves. A teen girl talks about a vampire "thirsting for my blood." We hear a teen girl talking about thinking how she might die. We hear a teen girl talking about dying in the place of someone she loved.
► A teacher pours a cup of "compost tea" from a compost barrel, a teenage student takes the cup and the teacher says, "Don't drink it."
LANGUAGE 2 - 3 mild obscenities, name-calling (freak, low-life), 2 religious exclamations.
SUBSTANCE USE - A man drinks beer in a few scenes, and a man has 6-packs of beer in both hands as a friend arrives to watch a football game. A vampire tells a teen girl, "You are like a drug to me... like my own personal heroin," and a man talks about having dressed up as Santa Claus and makes a remark about the kids "liked the little bottles" presumably referring to small alcohol bottles.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Vampires, life choices, divorce, love, fear, immortality, death of loved ones, death of a friend, regret, loneliness, super heroes.
MESSAGE - Love can be found in the least likely places and between unlikely people.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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