Twilight Fandom Gets Weird(er)

Published by Jeff Leins on: October 11th, 2009

Since May 2008, I’ve been fascinated with the growing throngs of Twilight fans.  The best-selling novel series is an undeniable success for new author Stephenie Meyer with over 70 million copies sold since 2005.  The movie adaptations only started last November and already it feels like the female-skewed audience has doubled for this fall’s The Twilight Saga: New Moon and summer’s Eclipse.

Anyone who runs one of the countless fan websites (MTV is basically one now) will tell you their fellow Team Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Team Jacob (Taylor Lautner) lovers are loyal, and at times press the boundaries of cult fanaticism.

Twilight fan conventions like TwiCon and the official Summit Entertainment events have sprung up to harness the energy of the phenomenon’s more devoted.  Like Harry Potter, the novels and films have inspired music groups, art, fan fiction, and a “Stephenie Meyer Day” in the now tourist locale of Forks, Washington, where the novels take place. And that’s not even the weirdest part of the Twilight zone.

Twilighters on the Internet have readily admitted to kissing the Twilight books before they go to bed, eating only pizza (because Edward did!), getting excited by cars that resemble the ones in the movie, relating everything back to Twilight, creating shrines to the film and its actors, etc.  The unhealthy addiction goes on and it gets creepier, trust me.  I’d include more, but seriously my eyes are bleeding from reading confessions in caps lock.

There’s now a biographical comic book immortalizing Meyer that tells her life story through the eyes of a vampire pleased its kind are back in style.  A farm in Utah created Twilight crop circles of the male leads.  Of course, there’s also a line of related products from T-shirts, jewelry, and cosmetics to life-size cut-outs, pillowcases, underwear, Twilight-branded feminine hygiene products, shower curtains, and sparkling, phallic (ahem) marital aids.

A documentary is being made about the Twihard obsession with Robert Pattinson, one of the series’ leads, titled Robsessed.  The 23-year-old British actor was struck by a cab fleeing from his own fans this year, so he’s clearly in demand.  However, just reading about the November release sounds like its focused more on the actor than the anxiety attacks of his rabid followers, which might for a more terrifying watch than I could have imagined a year ago.

If you know of more crazy Twilight stuff or you’ll confess to your own obsession, post it in the comments section.  I shudder to think about the things I don’t know about yet.