The Twilight Is So Bad It's Good. And It's Even More Fun in Hindsight

Who hasn't heard of the Twilight? Several years ago, it was a worldwide phenomenon that was widely discussed. It was literally everywhere, from cinemas to grocery stores, where notebooks, notepads or pencil cases with photos of movie characters were available for purchase. Stephenie Meyer's work about the love adventures of humans, vampires and werewolves, as well as its cinematic adaptation, took the world by storm, primarily reaching teenagers who got crazy about this series. However, the series got as much love as hate.

It was a strange phenomenon that probably would not have achieved such great success in another era. But the timing was perfect, considering that Twilight filled the gap left by Harry Potter that was coming to an end. A young adult fantasy, which mainly focused on love, met the needs of teenagers experiencing their first loves. But is this fact alone enough to explain this extent of success? There was never seemingly a shortage of romantic stories for teenagers, also fantastic ones. So why did Twilight, with its, arguably, garden-variety story, did so well?

Why did Twilight achieve such great success?

Because it sells a fantasy. This is a story about a beauty and a beast, where a grey mouse catches the attention of not one, but two sexy, inaccessible, and dangerous boys. They are dangerous creatures, too, especially to humans, yet they provide safety to Bella herself. So we're dealing with a girl who's able to break through the "bad-boy armor." There's nothing groundbreaking in this story, but it fulfills teenage fantasies, evokes strong emotions, leads to a satisfying conclusion, and sometimes that's apparently enough to keep readers and viewers engaged. All the more so because the cast consists of an appealing young generation of actors, who have since become wildly popular.

Twilight, Catherine Hardwicke, Summit Entertainment, 2008

In addition, both the weakness and the strength of Twilight is its main character – Bella Swan. She's almost painfully ordinary. She doesn't stand out in any particular way, she's not the "chosen one" supposed to save the world (which is generally a popular theme in that kind of movies). Bella is a simple girl, without strongly defined personality, which makes her seem almost boring. On the one hand, the lack of distinguishing features can be seen as her flaw, but at the same time, it's one of her strongest points. Why did you add it? Because it makes her a character that everyone can easily identify with. Twilight sells a fantasy, and because the main character is simple, it's very easy to empathize with her and imagine that everyone can experience something similar.

However, this is not all that helped Twilight achieve success. A separate acknowledgement should go to the marketers, who did a great job promoting this series. In the times when it was released, it was practically ubiquitous, so it was very hard not to hear about it. I remember that back then, the public spaces and store shelves were full of newspapers, backpacks, notebooks, anything you could imagine – with the images of the actors. This, in turn, made it virtually impossible not to recognize the title. This didn't necessarily mean that someone, seeing another bread bin with Edward's noble countenance on it, would immediately grab a ticket for the movie, but many people certainly checked out of curiosity what it was about, and when they saw it broadcast on the TV, they were more likely to try it, because it already seemed familiar. Twilight therefore became something familiar to people who would otherwise have nothing to do with it, encouraging them to become more interested and involved in the franchise in smaller or larger ways.

"Twilight" Saga: New Moon, Chris Weitz, Summit Entertainment, 2009

And so this crazy Twilight fandom grew exponentially. Crazy in a good way, too. It's hard not to remember the lively and emotional discussions led by fans of this series. The fight to defend the beloved title from critics, as well as the never-ending discussion about whether "Team Edward" or "Team Jacob" was better, were among the biggest tropes of the fandom that even reached the "outsiders." I have the impression that back then, it could have been the loudest and most engaged fandom, and it also immensely helped the series, because whether you wanted to or not, it was easy to get at least passively involved in the next conversation about who Bella should choose – Edward or Jacob.

Twilight after years

As a teenager, I admit that I watched and liked these movies. I neither collected gadgets nor hung posters in my room, but I enjoyed watching the subsequent installments of the series. But today, I wouldn't be able to watch it unironically. My take on this is that Twilight hasn't aged well. Current teenagers are not really interested in the love triangle created by Stephenie Meyer, and the old fans have grown up and can more clearly see the problems it always faced. And there are quite a few of these. Poor CGI (Bella and Edward's daughter will probably never cease to humor me), plot holes, illogical decisions of the characters and some disturbing ideas, which make me understand now why Twilight was considered harmful.

Still, I didn't think twice when I found out a few weeks ago that all the Twilight movies would rerun on the TV. However, I did not expect to be delighted and fall in love with this series once again. I approached it with the same attitude as Tommy Wiseau's The Room, because Twilight is also so-bad-it's-good. And during the screening, you can really have a good time if you watch it with a pinch of salt and approach its numerous ailments with humor. With such an approach, I admit, I had a great time recently watching all the movies together with a friend. Due to to certain nonsenses of these productions, watching it can be brilliant fun, and watching itself was also a nostalgic journey back to teenage times, which I still remember with fondness.

"Twilight" Saga: Eclipse, David Slade, Summit Entertainment, 2010

I must admit, even with a bit of embarrassment, that I was excitedly looking forward to these Sunday screenings, during which I had so much fun. Maybe these are not brilliant movies, but they gave me lots of fun both in the past and now. And after years, I had the opportunity to get to know this series from a slightly different angle, maybe as something bad, but still providing a lot of entertainment, which is ultimately what I expect from every movie I watch – I mostly want to have a good time.

But I don't think Bella and Edward's story will conquer the world again. Moreover, this was proven by the subsequent books written by Mrs. Meyer, which went largely unnoticed. And while I had heard a bit about the novel written from Edward's perspective before, I only found out about the book in which the genders of the characters were swapped last Sunday during a conversation about movies. The book was released in 2016 to celebrate Twilight's 10th anniversary and told the story of Beaufort Swan and Edythe Cullen – for real. This may be a nice treat for old fans of the series, but that's it. Twilight is probably deader than the Cullens by now.

"Twilight" Saga: Breaking Dawn. Part 2, Bill Condon, Summit Entertainment, 2012

The Future of Twilight

But who knows, maybe despite my dark vision, this will change, because in April this year, there were reports that we would get a Twilight TV show. There's not much information about this project, it has not even been officially confirmed. So, we don't know whether it will actually be created and whether the story of Bella and Edward will be retold anew, or maybe the creators will decide on a different tale from this world. We do know that Sinead Daly, who worked on Raised by Wolves and Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, will be responsible for the script. And if this series is ever made, I will probably check it out out of curiosity, due to nostalgia.

Edyta Jastrzebska

Edyta Jastrzebska

A graduate of journalism and social communication as well as cultural studies. She started at Gamepressure.com as one of the newspeople in the films department. Currently she oversees the Gamepressure movie&TV newsroom. She excels in the field of film and television, both in reality-based and fantasy themes. Keeps up with industry trends, but in her free time she prefers to watch less known titles. Has a complicated relationship with popular ones, which is why she only gets convinced about many of them when the hype around them subsides. Loves to spend her evenings not only watching movies, series, reading books and playing video games, but also playing text RPGs, which she has been into for several years.