“Twilight.” We’ve all heard the word, and whether you perk up upon hearing it or throw up a little, there is no question that you know what it is. The saga by Stephanie Meyer has infiltrated almost every home in America in the form of TV commercials, movies, books and even clothing.
“New Moon,” the second movie of the four-part series, grossed $140 million at the box office on opening weekend, earning $72 million on opening night. According to Michelle Lee, an undeclared sophomore, “‘Twilight’ equals ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Harry Potter’ – it’s that big.”
But why has “Twilight” become such a sensation? For one thing, the story allows us to indulge in the idealized love story between human and superhuman and to escape the flaws of realistic relationships in order to experiment with the prospect of eternal love.
Beyond that, “Twilight” has, shall we say, “re-vamped” the popularity of vampires in mainstream pop culture.
The vampire of today is a humanized, tortured hero who struggles morally with its existence as a monster and has compassion for humanity, a characterization that has evolved and transformed numerous times over the last century.
Tim Kane, author of “The Changing Vampire of Film and Television,” categorizes the characterization trends of the vampire in visual media into three cycles: The Malignant Cycle (1931-1948), The Erotic Cycle (1957-1985) and The Sympathetic Cycle (1987-Today).
Movies created during the Malignant Cycle are exemplified by “Nosferatu” (1922), the unauthorized adaptation of Dracula made in Germany (a silent film). Others dealing with the original Dracula, including “Dracula’s Daughter” (1936), “Son of Dracula” (1943) and “Return of the Vampire” (1944), portray the vampire as a ruthless and brutal killer who has no compassion for humans.
As the genre progressed, the vampire evolved from cold-blooded killer into the exotic sex symbol of the Erotic Cycle. During this film period, the vampire most often attacks victims slowly and seductively while the victims, often women, lie sleeping and unaware in a bedroom setting.
The best examples of these vampires appear in the 1974 and 1979 re-makes of “Dracula.” Dracula seduces his female victims by first kissing them as a lover would, then biting them. In both films, the victims respond with moans of arousal and pleasure rather than pain.
The vampire transforms once again during the Sympathetic Cycle, maintaining its erotic symbolism but also taking on some human emotional and psychological characteristics, and even expressing varying degrees of dissatisfaction with its existence as a vampire.
This is where “Twilight’s” Edward Cullen comes in. Cullen curses his existence as a vampire and criticizes the nature of vampires heavily throughout the series.
Author Stephanie Meyers characterizes Cullen as a victim of his condition and grants him compassion, respect, love and jealousy of the position of humans, an emotion that the supernatural creatures have never before expressed in cinematic history.
One of the newest and most recently popular sympathetic vampires is Bill Compton, the Louisiana Civil War soldier-turned-vampire of the HBO series “True Blood,” based on the “Sookie Stackhouse” novels by Charlaine Harris.
In “True Blood,” vampires have “come out of the coffin” in modern-day Louisiana, where Bill Compton tries to the best of his ability to assimilate into the human community.
The series weaves sexuality, religion, politics and the supernatural into a complex allegory that explores the modern search for identity. Compton greatly condemns his existence as a vampire, and tries to reconnect with his humanity through his relationship with Sookie Stackhouse, a human woman.
Exemplified by Bill Compton and Edward Cullen, contemporary vampires maintain their nature as blood drinkers, but attract massive audiences because of their emotional complexity, physical perfection and compassion for humanity.
Their current dynamic and humanistic characterization allows the viewer to interpret vampires not just as immortal monsters but as beings that reflect the nature and image of ourselves.
Tags: Film, literature, true blood, twilight, vampires
Hi Jaime I read your article “How video changed the beast within” and I liked, you mentioned important issues that attract a lot of people in this matter (impossible love,play with the danger, eternal life) there is no age for this.I live in Honduras and like the entire world all these movies and TV series about vampires have been a hit too so, you has explained very clearly why. Congratulations