With the 12-year anniversary of the original “Twilight” movie quickly approaching, it’s about time we acknowledge the creative genius that went into making the film a camp classic.
Camp is defined as “a style or mode of personal or creative expression that is absurdly exaggerated and often fuses elements of high and popular culture.”
Though the style is most often recognized in musicals like “Rocky Horror Picture Show” or the dramatics of drag queens like RuPaul, I think it’s time we collectively acknowledge the fact that one set of vampire-loving films trumps all others in the genre.
Today’s phenomenons are incomparable to the pop culture experience that was the Twilight movie craze of the early 2010s. At the register of every drugstore were gossip magazine covers splattered with images of Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner.
Twilight merchandise was even more ridiculous, ranging from bedsheets to condoms to a “Scene It?” game I actually own. The financial hype for the movie was tacky and somehow self-aware and people unashamedly bought a lot of it.
Like, a lot.
The soundtrack, heavy with artists like Paramore, Linkin Park and Christina Perri, also contributed directly to the popular online “emo” and grunge scenes of the 2010s. Today, it makes the perfect time capsule for former alternative kids to sulk and wallow to while they drive to work and do their taxes.
All that’s not even to mention the actual composition of the movies themselves, whose dark and grungy tints reflect an era lost to time. The Hot Topic aesthetic basically hisses: “you just don’t understand, mom.”
Adding in the outdated CGI effects of vampires jumping on trees and werewolves having epic battles in the woods, it was unlike anything else on the big screen at the time.
Every scene is memorable, even when they’re not. The baseball scene in the first movie is so over-edited that it ends up creating the perfect cheesy set-up for conflict to arrive, similar to the reveal of Carlisle’s decapitated head in “Breaking Dawn – Part 2.”
Most important is the love triangle throughout the movies. There’s this campy push-pull relationship between “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob,” only for Jacob to imprint on Bella and Edward’s weird CGI baby.
But what makes the camp culture surrounding the films even more interesting is that the beginning of the Twilight saga coincided with the rise of YouTube. This basically birthed parody culture on the platform, with massive creators like Ryan Higa and Bad Lip Readings satirizing the film for millions.
In essence, the saga was massively influential. You could even go as far as to say the Twilight films inspired a decade of supernatural shows and movies trying to either mimic or just make fun of them.
But, let’s be real, none of those will ever achieve “Twilight” levels of pure ridiculous fun. What’s more camp than a vampire who glitters in the sun? That’s right, nothing.
Gabrielle Martinez is a 20-year-old mass communication sophomore from Gonzales.
