Sunday 22 November 2009

Twi-Hards and the Twilight movie phenomenon

If you are of a certain age it is entirely possible the words “Twilight”, “Twi-Hards”, “Bella Swan”, “Edward Cullen”, “New Moon” or the actors Kristen Steward and Robert Pattison mean little or nothing to you but for millions of fans of the Twilight film franchise these represent the hottest movie franchise in years.

Twilight is part of the recent wave of Vampire romantic fantasy films and TV shows that have hit the screens along with TV hits True Blood and The Vampire Diaries.
The common theme they all have is the Vampires are no longer just sullen dark brooding evil creatures, but rather come blessed with striking “boy next door “ looks and just want to be loved by the women of their dreams.



This appeals to the perennial desire of many a young woman to tame a bad boy, to heal his hurts, to staunch his emotional wounds and it is this dangerous but cute theme that has pulled in millions of adoring teenage and early twenties mainly female fans and propelled this genre to the hottest trend in Hollywood.


The first Twilight movie start Robert Pattison as the incredibly handsome but aloof Edward Cullen a 108 year old Vampire who wants love but is held back by the knowledge that for him it has a high price.

Bella Swan is a 17 year old girl played by Kirsten Stewart who moves to the tiny in the middle of nowhere town of Forks in Washington where her live, love becomes intertwined with Edward and this relationship underpins the appeal of the movie.

Normally a relationship between a 108 year old man and a 17 year old girl would trigger interest by some not-so friendly law authorities, but in the world of teenage Vampires they may have been around for decades but in all senses they have not transformed from the teenagers they once were.



Edward and Bella develop a relationship at High School, but Edward is held back by fears that his innate Vampire yearnings for blood may drive him to harm her if they get too intimate. The love he has for her is overriding but unfulfilled and he is forced to demonstrate this as he battles a troop of not-so friendly vampires who move into town with intent of doing real harm to humans including Bella.

It is the pureness of their love, the bad boy who deep inside is truly in love that has spawned the obsessive hordes of Twi-Hards, ardent (mostly teenage) devotees of the film. This devotion in turn has sent the film soaring to box office records.

The recently sequel to the original Twilight, ‘Twilight Saga: New Moon’ posted the largest opening-day box office gross on record, taking in $72.7 million on its first day. While the original Twilight movie made for $37 million has grossed over $384 million to date.

No comments:

Post a Comment