Diehard 'Twilight' fans ready for next installment of vampire saga
November 19, 2009
Tonight, when darkness spreads across Nacogdoches and the midnight hour falls, creatures seeking sustenance will begin to lumber about.
Those creatures are the fans of the vampire series "Twilight," and their needed sustenance is the new movie in the series, "New Moon."
Internet Wikipedia describes Twilight as "a series of four vampire-based fantasy/romance novels by American author Stephenie Meyer. It charts a period in the life of Isabella "Bella" Swan, a teenage girl who moves to Forks, Wash., and falls in love with a 104-year-old vampire named Edward Cullen. The series is told primarily from Bella's point of view, with the epilogue of "Eclipse" and Part II of "Breaking Dawn" being told from the viewpoint of character Jacob Black, a werewolf. The unpublished "Midnight Sun" is a retelling of the first book, "Twilight," from Edward Cullen's point of view. The four Twilight books have consecutively set records as best-selling novels.
The film adaptation of "Twilight" was released in 2008 and the second, "New Moon," is set to be released at midnight tonight.
No good love story is simple, but most couples are not faced with the challenge of one fighting not to eat the other, bringing about the "Twilight" quote, "and so the lion fell in love with the lamb."
The series seems to appeal to all age demographics, despite having high school students as main characters.
"It's something that people of all ages get behind," Chay Runnels, a fan of the series, said. "The stories are fun and exciting for everybody."
Runnels is an assistant professor of hospitality and tourism at Stephen F. Austin State University and loves the stories, but she found that the series even made its way into her work.
"I have had students who have done a number of papers and reports on what the Twilight movies have done for tourism in Forks, Wash.," Runnels said. "It's a town smaller than Garrison that was on economic ruin, and because of the movies, economic development is happening."
Hotels and businesses are beginning to show up in Fork with a "Twilight theme," and even their city's Web site, forkswa.com, has become another fan site for the series and movies.
The vampires in the book are unlike the traditional vampires who are unable to venture out into the sunlight. The vampires found in "Twilight" instead hide from the sun because the sunlight causes them to glitter and glisten.
"The writer wanted to find a place in the United States that had the most amount of rain," Runnels said. "This town that has timber as an industry, and the timber had kind of dried up. The popularity of the books and movies really revitalized the area."
The town offers tours that take visitors on a trip in the footsteps of the characters, and even to the cafe where some of the movie was filmed.
"They have tours now where you can go on the Edward tour and see where the high school is and everything," she said.
Runnels originally bought tickets for the first showing of the second movie that starts tonight at midnight, but as the release dates nears, Runnels said she won't be back from a trip to Connecticut to see the movie in Nacogdoches.
"I may try to find a movie theater here so I can make it," she said. "I'm learning the bus schedule here, so maybe I'll be able to make it."
One person who will be lined up tonight outside the Carmike Theater is Merci Nicklas, who Runnels calls, "the biggest 'Twilight' fan in Nacogdoches." Runnels says this even after she admitted dressing like the Edward's sister, Alice, for Halloween.
"I plan on getting some Java Jacks and going up there around 8," Nicklas said planning for the midnight release. "Chay is the one who got me into Twilight. She and several of my other girlfriends were reading it, and I was making fun of them."
Nicklas decided to give the series a try, and now she says she's hooked.
"I figured I loved vampire movies, so why not," she said. "Now I love it."
Nicklas even attended a "Twilight" convention in June in Dallas, and said despite Runnel's claims, compared to the people there, she's only an average fan.
"There were girls with tattoos and everything," she said. "It was wild."
Nicklas said that like most stories, she enjoyed the book more than the movies, but still looks forward to the new release.
"I'm hoping the second one will be even better than the first one," she said. "We as fans just want to see the story portrayed as best it can be."
The show times for the midnight release of "New Moon" tonight at the Nacogdoches Carmike are at 12:01 a.m., 12:10 a.m., 12:15 a.m. and 12:30 a.m.