Nov 21, 2008 4:10 pm US/Central
'Twilight' Romance, Dread Echo Earlier 'Dracula'
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Bela Lugosi as Dracula
AP
The biggest new movie this weekend appears to be the new vampire flick "Twilight." It's about the undead, but it's not uncool. In fact, it's very cool.
And as CBS 2's Mike Parker reports, it may also be a case of cultural history repeating itself.
Ah, young love. She's the young, one though. He's a vampire and he's something like 100 years old. Even in our hemorrhaging economy, or perhaps because of it, this ill-starred love match is attracting huge crowds of screaming teen-age girls.
But as you watch and ponder the fates of lead characters Bella and Edward, you might want to consider a cinematic mirror image from a bygone, black-and-white age.
It was early 1931, and another Bela – Lugosi, as the vampire Dracula -- was the sensation. The film was billed as the story of "the strangest passion the world has ever known."
Young women around the country went screaming wild, in the earliest days of the Depression. Just as "Twilight" is today, it was an outlet.
"You're going home every day and you're seeing frightened adults," film studies professor Ron Falzone said. "Nothing is more frightening to a 13- or 14-year-old than the people who are supposed to be the ones taking care of them being frightened. So you need a place to let that fear out. The movies do it."
One young "Twilight" fan, Lizeth Aldaba, is worried.
"Actually I am, 'cause I'm growing up and I'm going to have to go look for a job and stuff," she said.
Maybe when fear haunts our real lives, we seek out the fear that fades to black.
The "Twilight" books have sold 10 million copies. The movie looks to do much better than that.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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