Eclipse is running in a cinema near us and my 15 year old brother refuses to go. My fifty + father (whose role in this tale, somewhat incongruously, is that of a real twi-hard) is losing the argument,which is quite simply: “I’m going to drop five social levels at school if the boys ever find out, besides I really, really don’t want to watch it, also its a chick flick.” I’ve already watched the movie, and were it not for a certain gorgeous werewolf and a few minutes of Dakota time, I think I might have caved at the intermission.
Even so, the long awaited proposal scene nearly did me in. As you can imagine, my father is disappointed in his progeny – even though I’ve read the first two books (skipping to the end of the fourth for laughs) and watched the movies, it’s because I love to hate the twilight series, call it informed loathing if you will.
A friend once pointed out, and I quote him loosely, that Meyers has taken centuries of vampire
lore and put a stake through its heart. For instance, instead of bursting into flames in the sunlight like the more respected members of their breed, Meyers’ vampires sparkle.
Ugh. This, of course, has a great deal to do with Meyers being a pious Mormon who famously steers clear of coffee and Dracula films. While Edward cannot hold a candle to Vlad the Impaler, I’ll admit the latter’s box office draw might be limited to the crowd that watched Saw. Edward on the other hand, seems to present an irresistible attraction to a disconcertingly large group of viewers. Case in point, my father.
Pretty much from the moment that the first movie came out, I knew that there were Twilight moms. But I’m discovering that the men are far from immune, even if they’re bit late to the game. Thewebsite www.twilightdads.com is still under construction, whereas www.twilightmoms.com not only has several forums, it appears to have its own dedicated reporters. It’s from them that I hear about a new spoof movie making the rounds. “Bella Swan is Becca Crain in Vampires Suck,” says Matt Lanter, the star of the film. In an interview with E! he explained,“it was the Twilight fans, the Twi-hards, who I was really worried about, but they seem to like it actually. I think the Twilight fans have a sense of humour, so it’s making it that much more fun.”
But if you really want to know what the fans think, you need to track down some twi-hards, and the elite of this group can be found on the fan fiction sites. These are fans who devote months of their lives to first immersing themselves in, then re-imagining Meyers’ universe – and they number in the thousands. Random sample: ‘She Chose Paris’ by susan1124. ‘What if Bella chose Jacob? What if Alice called Edward first? The decisions that we make everyday alter the course of our future. What about Bella's future? My first attempt at fan fiction answers these questions.’
Now that Eclipse has pretty much finished its run, fans will have to wait till late 2011 for their next hit. (In the meantime, you must check out the Reuters story that says James Patterson might berelated to Count Dracula through the British royal family.) ‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn,’ the fourth movie in the vampire franchise, will be split in two. I haven’t read the book – except for a few choice excerpts shared by a friend – and I’m not sure quite what to expect. I imagine though, that I’ll feel a pang – with its “vegetarian” vampires, its lovelorn, muscle building werewolves, and angsty school girls, Twilight practically makes fun of itself...and that kind of entertainment is going to be hard to find.
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