Catch the Fang Fever
Caitlin Carter
November 2, 2009
Filed under A & E
Check the queue at your favorite movie theater. While you are at it, take a gander at the largest advertisements at the nearest book store or library. Browse the arts and entertainment blogs for a good debate. Finally, flip on the television. What do you see? Fangs. Lots and lots of fangs.
Although Halloween last weekend may have upped the average person’s relish for some monster pop culture, the trend over the past few months has been undeniable: vampires are in vogue.
It all started last year with the suddenly huge and unprecedented wild success of the last volume of the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn. The Twilight series, as nearly everyone in the Western Hemisphere probably knows, is the story of a common human girl’s romance with a beautiful and “vegetarian” (meaning he limits his blood-sucking to animals, refraining from attacking humans) vampire. Last November, the film adaptation of the first, eponymous installment of the series premiered to the gleeful cries of vampire fangirls everywhere. The movie made Robert Pattinson an international heartthrob and vampire fiction into a rather indelible mark on modern storytelling.
There is no lack of Twilight adoration within the walls of North Augusta High School. Christine Pawlowski and Courtney Bowen are two of the series’ most devoted fans.
Christine notes that she became a fan of the series before it was a hugely popular phenomenon, hearing about through the recommendation of a close friend. “I thought that it was written very well, and it actually captured my attention. It is a series that you seriously cannot put down. It isn’t a gushy love novel like everyone believes. It has a lot of suspense in it, and it keeps you on the edge of your seat. However,” she adds honestly, “it does have a little bit of a romantic air to it, but it’s not supremely overdone.”
Courtney, who began reading the series religiously during the summer of 2008, said that the vampires actually were an impetus to check it out. “I read it for the vampires and the romance,” she proclaimed with a laugh.
The movement spread to other media—most notably, megahit television series. HBO’s insanely popular (and equally graphic) True Blood is another adaptation of a series of books about a young woman’s inter-species romance with a creature that could kill her and occasionally wants to.
Finally, this fall the CW (an amalgam of the old UPN and the WB, former Mecca for teenage romance-lovers) showcased its own vamp-centric series, The Vampire Diaries. Fun fact: the show garnered more viewers for its premiere than had any other show on the network—ever. The storyline, you ask? Yet again, it is based on a series of books about a young girl and her love for vampires.
What is with this new obsession, you ask?
First of all, the extreme literary devotion to the sanguine creature and its translation into mainstream popular culture is hardly a novelty. Older readers may recall a time in which Brad Pitt was single, Tom Cruise was relatively sane, and one of the most popular cult films of the nineties was Interview with a Vampire. The film was adapted from, you guessed it, a series of books—although, it is significant to note that the most central romances occur within the vampire species in this particular mythology.
Secondly, popular media is shaped by and feeds the national political or social climate. Times of hardship inspire writers, directors, readers, and viewers to create and appreciate depressing or horrifying fiction as a reflection of their collective angst. Put simply, times of war and economic instability do not often inspire happy-go-lucky films about a friendship between a puppy and a kitten.
Finally, the usage of an unbelievable premise creates a safe feeling of escapism for the viewers: they can deal with their feelings of temptation, guilt, and fear in a distant way that is certain not to hurt them.
A great example of horror films having an allegorical interpretation is Dawn of the Dead. The late 1970s zombie flick, while also showing brain-chomping dead people out and about, also featured an atmosphere of heavy isolation, desperation, and entrapment. Combined with its setting of the safe haven of a shopping mall, it has been read as a condemnation of the corporations and insane consumer instinct of the 1970s. In addition, the fear of the zombies by the living and the intense paranoia associated with the idea of a friend getting bitten and turning into an enemy feeds into Cold War Era hysteria.
However, there’s a faction of literary and film critics that would hardly think Twilight and its fanged comrades are worthy of a George A. Romero (the Living Dead mastermind) association.
In fact, a simple Google search reveals a virulent strain of hatred against the series. The number of related results for “Twilight hate?” Roughly 25,400,000.
In addition, while there is an immense about of love in the Twilight community for that particular brand of vampire fiction, that sentiment does not necessarily spread to wholesale acceptance of vampires in other media.
For example, Christine felt lukewarm at best toward the film adaptation of her beloved book, Twilight. “The movie tried to rush the plot too much, so the intensity and suspense of the novel was not portrayed in the movie at all. In the book, it took months for Edward and Bella to start being friends. In the movie, it was just way too rushed, in my opinion. In order to make it more like the book, the movie should be longer.” She went on to cite the Harry Potter films as an example of a movie series that remains more faithful to its original text by lengthening run-time.
In addition, Christine’s response to The Vampire Diaries was, “I’ve never watched that, honestly,” while Courtney’s viewership of the show is only occasional. “I try to watch it when I can,” she added.
Whether you love blood-sucking entertainment or wish there was a vampire slayer around to ram a proverbial wooden stake through the heart of every piece of this insanely popular brand of fiction, just sleep easy knowing it remains fictitious. Our necks are safe, even if our televisions aren’t.
Best example of how ridiculous, inconsistent, thoughtless and just plain dumb the Twilight series is:
http://community.sparknotes.com/index.php/2009/07/16/blogging-twilight-index-page/
Examples: “That conversation ends, and Edward still says visiting the werewolves in La Push is a bad idea, calling the wolves unstable, and saying, “Sometimes, the people near them get hurt. Sometimes they get killed.”
Edward is such an [censored]. Not only do the werewolves rule this entire series, but they never hurt Bella. Meanwhile, Eddie’s own vampire brother nearly tore Bells apart after she received a tiny paper cut. Who’s unstable now, Sled-Ward! (This nickname would work better if a sled was some sort of silly, irrational animal, and not just a fun mode of transportation.)”
“Will Edward leave again? Does this rescue mission change things? But she doesn’t want to hear the answers. So they continue to make sexy, passionate faces at one another. Meanwhile in the death chamber, I bet a young newlywed couple is being killed. But that’s fine, because Edward is so sexy-looking and kisses Bella’s hair so delicately that we shouldn’t think about those people.”
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