Vampires Rising

November 10th, 2009

For a slideshow of vampires in the movies click here.

By Tal Brooke

On the outer edges of your perception you sense you are being watched by what few people believe even exists an ancient race of predators hidden within the population. They resemble humans but aren't. You feel like prey. Once the sun sets they roam the darkened world of night freely and shrink away into the darkness when dawn returns. They are extremely cunning and endowed with superhuman powers. What makes them feared is that they drink from the arteries of the living, leaving the drained carcasses behind like empty wine caskets. Only a small percentage of their victims are chosen to join their ranks. They have no moral constraints as they gaze at the human cattle before them. Some have amassed great fortunes over the centuries, even accruing

titles of nobility, estates, castles, antiques and fine art. They are hidden in the world's great cities, freely commuting between centers of commerce and culture including Paris, Rome, Budapest, London, New York, Vienna, Tokyo and beyond. They are without human sentiment, and, apart from their own kind, regard all others as insignificant, to be used and appropriated. Theirs is a veiled evil, a darkness outward- ly cloaked. They are parasites that act as lures, constantly tempting, seducing, then trapping their victims. They are unmoved by and estranged from nature itself and its vast beauty. They hold no loyalty to the nations in which they reside and detest all that is good, virtuous and holy, despising the very mention of God or the sight of the cross. These are vampires, and they have taken hold of the public imagination in twenty-first century America and England through such blockbusters as the book, then the movie, Twilight.

Twilight: The Hidden World of Vampires

Bella Swan-the 21st century counterpart to Maria of West Side Story-in the motion picture Twilight, crosses a vast cultural divide and becomes a doorway into the strange, baffling and remote world of vampires through the backdrop of a high school romance. The vampires are mysterious, intriguing and fully other as we enter their world through her eyes. As the highest grossing vampire movie of all time at 200 million dollars and counting, Twilight com- bines the drawing power of the supernatural with a powerful and unusual romance, a huge draw for the primary target audience of girl teens, twenty-somethings and young couples. Twilight has been an all-woman production conceived and written by Stephenie Meyer, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, with the screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg, in all, creating a powerful magnet for girls in particular. Twilight also sets the standard for the newly emerging genre of vampire-human couples, as we will explore later. Now to the story.

Bella has just landed in Forks, a small, remote town in a perpetually overcast region of Washington State with boundless forests and a low population density. She has just left her long-time single mom in Arizona, who has just remarried, the new husband now living in the house.