Both films also arrive at their respective primal scenes—to adopt Freudian terminology for a moment—and those are fascinating in and of themselves. Bear with me now, as these are not only spoilers (though I’m doing my best to word these descriptions so as to withhold critical narra- tive information—I don’t want to ruin either film for the uninitiated), but there’s no way to talk about these core primal scenes without sexualized ter- minology and giving some plots points away. These are, after all, vampire films, and true to that genre, all the sexuality is both implicit and explicit in the vampire imagery: the bite as penetration, the loss of blood as loss of virginity, the “wound” as a site for contagion, and so on. In the American TWILIGHT, the primal scene comes amid the climactic blood and thunder, and it’s all the more unusual for being a vividly com- munal rather than private act. This is most un- usual, and the only precedents in mainstream American films that come at all to mind—in mark- edly different dramatic contexts and to completely opposite intent—are the climactic sexual gang- bangs in THE ACCUSED (1988) and the less-than- mainstream LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN (1989). There, the communal natures of those rape/trans- gressions are profoundly traumatizing; in TWI- LIGHT, the community/family rallies to prevent rape and terminal trauma. In TWILIGHT, the climactic sexualized primal scene is the rescue—the cavalry arrives, so to speak—culminating in the thus-far-avoided con- tact between Bella and Edward that ruptures boundaries Edward had so carefully established, and both partners had lovingly maintained. The “rules” are necessarily violated due to a life-and- death situation arising in the immediate wake of Bella’s traumatizing violent/violation confrontation with the murderous James, a confrontation which stops just short of becoming a surrogate rape. It’s a disorientingly communal scene in which the attempt to rescue Bella dominates the fore- ground, as Bella’s bleeding crotch (I kid you not; it’s her femoral artery, we’re breathlessly told, severed by James’ assault) is treated by Edward’s doctor “father” Carlisle (Peter Facinelli); behind them, there are vividly evoked, but essentially unseen, eruptions of conflict, blood and fire. If the urgency of the father tending to Bella’s bleeding crotch—excuse me, femoral artery— weren’t loaded enough, Carlisle also has to urge Edward to suck vampiric “venom” from a bite wound in Bella’s arm. Edward reluctantly does so only after urgent pleading from Carlisle, Alice (Ashley Greene; note that Alice, until now, was
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presented as disapproving of Bella) and Bella— but as with their celibate sexual relations, Edward can only suck so much, or he may kill Bella by draining her dry. The sexual metaphor is painfully obvious: if Edward goes “too far” after penetra- tion (entering wounds James created moments before), the consequences will be disastrous. As if to emphasize the sexually-inverted insan- ity of all this, Edward’s father shouts at him, “Ed- ward, you must do it now, or it will be too late! Suck it!” (When I first saw the film theatrically, amid a sea of teenage girls and their mothers, I could barely believe my ears!) It all culminates in the indelible image of Edward sucking on Bella’s arm with eyes and temple-veins bulging (looking for all the world like a 17-year-old male eager, but too terrified, to ejaculate) while Bella moans and writhes beneath him.
Is this 21st century teen love during wartime? Seen in a theater, this remains among the craziest spectacles I’ve ever seen or experienced in a main- stream American horror movie, bar none—and, from me, that’s a compliment! This is powerful and heady stuff, and its staging isn’t quite how it plays out in the novel—it is effectively heightened to near- hysteria—so I chalk this up to the filmmakers. I must briefly emphasize the theatrical experi- ence of seeing TWILIGHT on its opening week- end, an impact lost when it is seen in a home environment. I’ve never seen such a vividly carnal sequence in a theater full of teenage girls, which is saying a lot after seeing HOSTEL, every install- ment of the Saw series, and the 2007 THE HILLS HAVE EYES II (with its nasty mutant-rape scenes) in theaters packed with pubsecents. This was light years away from those morbid spectacles, in that the audience was 100% emotionally engaged in these characters and this spectacle. True, too, was the palpable tangle of emotional responses: relief, dread, desire, fear, shock, pas- sion, pleasure, mingled unexpected affirmation (Alice’s sudden caring for/approval of Bella) and acceptance from the family unit—which range so direct and honestly earned and felt. Their (and my) sympathies were aligned with Bella and with the charged rapid-fire dynamic between the vampire family members and Edward and Bella. I dare say no male American filmmaker could have come close to pulling off what director Catherine Hardwicke, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg and novelist Stephenie Meyer did here. This is amazing filmmaking, and particularly stun- ning in a big-budget mainstream American horror film, rendering the genre more vital to its target audience than it has been for years. To my mind,
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