In terms of themes, Twilight bears quite some resemblance to the Swedish film, as we meet kind-hearted vampires trying to control their lust, and school loners who are so fascinated by them that they are willing to imperil themselves in order to be near the bloodthirsty few. Whereas Alfredsson cares deeply for his kids and is fundamentally interested in how life would be in a world of vampires, the makers of Twilight are mostly interested in re-defining known vampire axioms in order to make visualised Harlequin-style chick-lit. Based on the popularity of Stephanie Meyer's book series, I choose to believe there is more to the books than director Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen) is able to translate to the big screen here. She obviously has a vision for her film, but it is a puerile and showy vision dominated by MTV stylistics and predictable plot developments coming at predictable times. The result is a half-baked film that might please teenagers who share Hardwicke's rather banal idea of romance, but it hasn't got much of value to offer viewers who are interested in real people – or vampires, for that matter.