It seems The Twilight Saga is the new harry potter, in that the whole world seems to be mad for it. New Moon is officially the highest grossing box office release for it's first opening day, taking in 72 MILLION dollars in the US alone. Think about that for a moment, and consider the extra tens of millions made from other countries around the world. This is a film that in it's first day recouped it's production budget. Everything from that point on is profit!
But the thing I'm not understanding is simply why it's so popular. I just don't see what is so interesting about the story line which for me alienates the very vampire legend itself. You see vampires aren't loving caring people, they can't fall in love, they have no sole. They won't rescue you. The folklore of the vampire is simple, they're soulless beasts whom apparently made a pact with the devil in order to rise from their grave. They are the undead. In the context any romantic notions of them are sorta creepy.
I mean seriously, who falls in love with what is essentially a corpse that sucks blood to stay alive? That's more than sorta gross don't you think? I mean what's next? Zombies that fall in love? Or will it be werewolves? Or the creature from the black lagoon? I've seen a LOT of drivel come out of hollywood, and these Twilight movies are right up there with the worst of them.
But in the theme of things, lets explore the vampire legend a little better. As most people know folklore, myths and legends usually have some truth to them, somewhere, no matter how abstract. This is indeed the case for the vampire legend. There are 2 schools of thought on this one, depending on where you come from. The first of which comes from what is now Slovakia and is where we get the Dracula legend.
In 1611 there was a countess by the name of Elizabeth Bathory; she was one of the highest aristocrats of the time and thus had extraordinary power. She not only had people from the local village abducted, but she killed them and drank their blood. No one knows exactly why she did this, but the best respected theory is for it's iron content. Elizabeth Bathory was obsessed with beauty and more over youth. Having a high iron diet will slow the viable aging process, smoothing skin and removing wrinkles.
The second origin for the forklore has to do with what is actually a normal occurrence of death. When a body dies, it starts to lose moisture as a result the skin shrinks back making it seem as though finger nails and hair continue to grow. The gums recede making the canines more prominent as if the person has grown fangs. The hair also starts to lose its colour. Now try to view this from the point of view of a superstitious, highly religious and christian society. One for whom the burial ceremony is quite quick, where a corpse is in the ground within a day or so.
Not enough time to view these traits on a regular basis. But should there be a hold up with the burial for some reason these quite normal characteristics of a corpse can be seen. For such a community it is easy to see how they would mistake the corpse for being alive. Now couple this occurrence with another unrelated one. That of vampire bats. Vampire bats, will feed on humans while they sleep. The experience is painless as the bat's saliva contains a natural anesthetic.
For an already paranoid, superstitious and devoutly religious community linking these to events together must have seemed natural. And so the legend of the vampire was born. A being which made a pact with the devil to cheat death. A being which is dead, but must feed on blood to survive, and must do so by night. And a being capable of turning into a bat. And there you have it, over time the legend of course changed and morphed into something else... new bits where added and eventually we got to a point where we have silly movies and books like those in the twilight series.