WTF: Twilight Smacked Me Upside the Head

Posted by Kevin Carr (kevin@filmschoolrejects.com) on April 30, 2008

I consider myself to be pretty much in tune with pop culture, at least as far a movies go. But just this week, something came out of nowhere and smacked me upside the head.

That thing was Twilight and the buzz surrounding this book-turned-movie phenomenon. The whole thing started when our illustrious Executive Editor Neil Miller sent the editorial staff an email requesting someone to do an “in-depth write-up” on the upcoming Twilight adaptation. I personally hadn’t heard of the book, but Neil assured us that this was the series that knocked the Harry Potter books off their best-seller throne.

Of course, as a lazy member of the FSR staff, I saw the term “in-depth” and ran for the hills. I much prefer to puke out editorial commentary (like what you’re reading right now) rather than do actual research. Fortunately, FSR’s Michelle Graham took the ball and ran with it, giving us two cracking-good pieces (here and here) to serve as a primer for the series and a fresh update, to help bring us pre-Twilighters up to speed. I now feel like I’m at least prepared to experience this movie.

And even though I’m not a teenage girl, I’ll probably pick up a copy of the book this week to fully get with the program. Who knows. By the end of the week, I might be converted to a Twilighter, similar to how Neil Miller was recently and somewhat reluctantly converted into the ranks of Battlestar Galactica fandom.

But the other day, when I looked at the article, I noticed something incredible. At the bottom of the page, there were 109 comments within the first 24 hours of publication.

109! What the @#$%?

FilmSchoolRejects gets its fair share of reader comments, but 109 in one day is unheard of, especially without the boost of a popular social bookmarking link. Even more impressive is that the comment count on that first article is up to 120.

What’s impressive about these comments is that by and large, they are detailed, passionate and very well informed about the source material. I’ve never seen this much zeal for any media property on this site. Not Iron Man. Not The Dark Knight. And not even Harry Potter (which alone should make the Twilighters squeal with glee.)

I don’t think Twilight is a slam dunk because Hollywood has proved time and again that a raging fan base isn’t enough to make a movie bulletproof (remember films like Eragon and Serenity?). However, judging by the buzz being generated on the internet, Twilight has a damn good shot.

At the very least, this film looks like it might be the thing that will finally put Kristen Stewart on the mainstream star map, and that’s a great thing.

See… and you all thought I was going to yammer on and on about those Miley Cyrus photos, didn’t you?

Sound off: Who would win in a fight… Twilighters or Trekkers?

Read more articles by Kevin Carr