Vampire Craze

Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart of the Twilight series

Over the years vampire stories and movies have gone down well with the public. The old Dracula movies were a huge success even though they seemed to be made on a very small budget, then Buffy the Vampire Slayer was also a hit with young tv audiences. They had always assumed the same position, that generally vampires are bad mutants that must die.

Then entered the 21st century styled vampire, where the laws of being a vampire have been re-written to enable a more flexible human like character. Suddenly the vampires who were always confined to the night and could not hide their fangs are now prancing about the day and keeping a human styled smile. They can re-produce and even drink man made synthetic blood. What the hell has happened to the vampires we used to know?

Edward Cullen from the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer has caused a world wide phenomenon probably not seen since possibly the Beatles era. A single character whom is described as the perfect embodiment of man (though he's a vampire), he has undying love for one women and would blah blah blah. The character itself is now the pedestal for all teenage relationships, as girls are now looking for their version of Edward. Hence dumping their non-Edward boyfriends in search for that perfect specimen. What luck do we men have against a immortal pasty faced lover boy who sparkles in the sunlight and listens to classical music? Buckleys.

I was at a K-Mart last week with my girlfriend who is an avid fan of this style of literature, and I was shocked at the number of different vampire series. At a quick count there would have been 15 different series, all aiming at the tweenie/teenie market of bored love struck book worms. Then I was taken on a tour of the various series my girlfriend has read, of which could have quite easily covered half of them. There probably would have been $2000 worth of potential reading on those shelves. I think I need to write a vampire book.

Then there is the movies and tv shows, of which rake in the big advertising dollars. There is True Blood, which is a HBO series full of sex, blood and southern accents. Followed by Vampire Diaries, which follows very closely to the Twilight rythem of plot. Also Moonlight which is touted as a 'paranormal romance thriller' what ever that means (take a breath). Then there is Blood Ties which is well you know, from the past we have seen Buffy and its offspring show Angel. And I bet there is more but naming them is simply promoting that rubbish further.

Twilight's sequel is due out in a matter of weeks, and no doubt will bring in well more than the $70 million it cost to make. Because these films have a lure of repetitiveness in the fact people will pay to see it several times just to immerse themselves in the drama, they generally do this all in the same day too. So not only do you make your money from the overall public, but a lot will come from die hard fans watching it more than once.

I enjoy the films and some of the shows, but cant stand wasting my time reading what is already played before my eyes on TV. I guess we can revel in the knowledge it will only last for a limited time and then the next craze will begin. Lets just hope reading stories about Emo kids wont become popular.