The Unconventional Indie Heart of 'Twilight' Hidden in Blockbuster Attire | Vanity Fair

Written by Savannah Walsh

When we reflect on the initial Twilight film, our thoughts inevitably gravitate toward the infamous baseball scene, instead of any dazzling action sequence or special-effects spectacle. This is where audiences discovered that vampires can partake in a game of baseball only during a torrential downpour, as they can mask their supernatural speed and might in the thunder and lightning. A fusion of a gloomy blue filter, slow-motion effects, and Muse's "Supermassive Black Hole" set the mood for this scene. Looking back, some cast members wondered about the movie's potential success while shooting, with Peter Facinelli, who portrayed the head of the vampire clan Carlisle Cullen, reflecting on their little vampire project in the woods.

The film, which was an adaptation of Stephanie Meyer's well-received novel, was a big hit on its 2008 premier weekend, earning $69 million and later raking in over $400 million across the globe. The huge success with Summit Entertainment led to the sequels New Moon (2009), Eclipse (2010), Breaking Dawn-Part 1 (2011) and Breaking Dawn-Part 2 (2012). The Twilight saga precipitated the creation of other YA franchises like The Hunger Games and Divergent, and even the Fifty Shades series based on a Twilight fan fiction. The franchise generated over $3 billion in total.

The Twilight series was a massive hit but also became a target for mockery. Because its creators and target audience were predominantly female, the narrative often got oversimplified to the love triangle involving Kristen Stewart's Bella, Robert Pattinson's Edward, and Taylor Lautner's Jacob. Marketing campaigns fueled the Team Edward versus Team Jacob rivalry further. Looking back, the criticisms directed at Twilight were often sidelined by the stigma associated with female-oriented art.

A change of perspective began around 2020, coinciding with the release of Meyer's new Twilight book, a Netflix deal for the original films, and a global pandemic which led to an increased need for escapist entertainment. The fame of Twilight grew on the social media platform TikTok, with the hashtag garnering above 28 billion views. People who had held back on expressing their fandom began to take pride in it, and a new generation got introduced to Twilight through social media platforms such as TikTok.

The enduring popularity of Twilight is evident with fans visiting its setting in Forks, Washington, in increasing numbers. "In 2022 we had the biggest year, tourism-wise that we’ve had since 2010, and we’ve already beat out those numbers as of this September,” shared Lissy Andros from the Forks Chamber of Commerce. A significant chunk, about 65%, of Forks' visitors come due to their interest in Twilight.

A few pieces by Sloane Crosley, Savannah Walsh, and Anthony Breznican recently mentioned Twilight. The series was discussed in their works and even made into memes, especially lines from the first movie, the most popular of which is Edward's “Hold on tight, spider monkey,” uttered as he carries Bella through the forest. This infamous line didn't even originate from the book. The inaugural Twilight movie, in particular, with its peculiar charm, broke new ground in pop culture and marked the beginning of a remarkable series.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes star Tom Blyth recently told me that filming the $100 million prequel felt akin to making an indie movie. But Twilight could actually be classified as one. It was made for just $37 million, a far cry from the series’ final installment, which came with a price tag of over $120 million. Director Catherine Hardwicke told Vanity Fair in 2018 that she was even forced “to find a way to cut $4 million out of the budget” four days before production began.

Twilight was not predestined to be a hit—and as such, the filmmakers had a level of creative freedom not afforded in the later films. “Nobody knew what it was going to be, what it was. I didn’t have committees giving me notes; I wasn’t watched by big-time producers. I didn’t have the pressure of hitting blockbuster marks,” Hardwicke told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. “We didn’t even have a test screening, so it was really made like an indie film.”

Other actors have echoed this sentiment. Jackson Rathbone, who played Jasper (the less said about his pre-blood-sucking backstory, the better), told Entertainment Weekly that he and Pattinson could even play open mics at a local Portland bar while filming, staying undetected by the eventual hordes of Twihards. The first film “was just like summer camp,” Facinelli agreed. “And then by the fifth one, it was hard to even see each other.”

With each ensuing film, the Twilight saga veered further from Hardwicke’s off-kilter vision, ballooning budgets giving way to CGI werewolves and infants, plus an utterly ludicrous bait-and-switch in the final film’s battle scene. When asked to deliver the second installment, New Moon, in less than a year, Hardwicke declined to return as director. Only men were hired to helm the following films. “There’s lots of projects like that,” Hardwicke previously told VF. “It goes on and on. They’re stories written by women, about women, and given to male directors. Over and over and over.” (The first Fifty Shades was similarly directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson before being handed off to men for the next two installments.) One of the only consistent elements of the Twilight series are its needle drops, in large part because Grey’s Anatomy music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas was retained for all five movies.

After the franchise concluded in 2012, Pattinson and Stewart retreated back into their indie spheres, with a few Caped Crusader and People’s Princess–sized exceptions. And both have maintained that the original Twilight lived in that space too. “It was kind of an oddball, slightly marginal teen movie,” Stewart told SirusXM last year. “I didn’t think everyone was going to take to that—I didn’t think we were going to make a sequel.” In 2020, Pattinson explained to the BBC, “No one realized that Twilight was an arthouse movie.”

In the final scene of Twilight’s first installment, Bella pleads with Edward to change her into a vampire—at her prom, of all places. He slowly leans into her neck, before placing a gentle kiss in the spot where a venom-filled bite mark would go. “Is it not enough just to have a long and happy life with me?” Edward asks. “Yeah—for now,” she replies, a suggestion of the mystical world-building to come. But 15 years later, it feels like fans sided with Edward–content to sway beneath the lit-up gazebo to a mid-2000s alternative song, mismatched and star-crossed for just a little longer.