Afew months ago, I went to Cinemapolis with some friends to watch the rerun of Twilight, and, let me tell you, it was one of the best movie-watching experiences of my life. The room was crowded with teens, college students, and forty-something year-olds, all laughing, reciting the lines, and booing Taylor Lautner. Out in the hallway, newbies and their friends were planning their next watch party to continue their initiation. It was campy, kitschy, and oh so fun. But seriously, what’s happening? Is Twilight officially back?
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last fifteen years (or just had more important things going on), I’ll recap: the Twilight saga tells the story of Bella Swan, our chronically clumsy heroine, as she is forced to choose between sexy vampire Edward Cullen and fiery werewolf Jacob Black. The series quickly drew a large fanbase, with people dividing into Team Edward and Team Jacob, along with a backlash just as impressive. People who had never truly engaged with the series were spewing insults so vitriolic and pervasive, Twilight became the mocking-stock of a generation. (I’m sure you’re familiar with the phrase, “Still a better love story than Twilight.”)
Eventually, however, interest began to die down after the last movie was released in 2012 and film stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson broke up, and it seemed likely that Twilight would be confined to obscurity along with flip phones and low-rise jeans. But in the past several years, the internet has suddenly been re-flooded with memes, cosplays, and paraphernalia. The resurgence especially took off during quarantine, when everyone was trapped in their homes desperate for something to fill the void and, in a display of seriously strategic timing, Netflix added all five movies to the platform. The new obsession with Y2K aesthetics and culture only fanned the flames, as did the increasing cultural acceptance of the Romance genre (see: Bridgerton). The shift is so dramatic that fans of the series are calling it the Twilight Renaissance.
The nature of this shift is actually fairly complex. Some fans are excited by the opportunity to reclaim an interest that had previously been seen as shameful, viewing the renewed enthusiasm as an act of resistance against “cringe culture.” There are also many fans within the LGBTQIA+ community that are choosing to read Twilight through a queer lens into the text and characters, especially in the wake of Stewart’s coming out. Fan engagement has also changed exponentially within the narrative itself, as many fans move beyond the typical love story and spiral into absurdism. Obscure lines from the series have become almost universally known (“Bella, where the hell have you been, Loca?!”). Edward’s obsession with snails has all but become cannon. The half-vampire half-human baby Renesmee has undergone a similar online treatment as Benedict Cumberbatch. I would argue that Twilight is fast on its way to becoming a cult classic, similar to The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
That said, Twilight certainly isn’t perfect, and critical engagement is necessary when engaging with it. Bella and Edward’s relationship is toxic, the imprinting process pedophilic, and the appropriation of Quilieute legends and culture, along with the portrayal of Native Americans as “savage,” absolutely indefensible. The later books in particular heavily imply a strong pro-life ideology. In these ways, the Twilight fandom has had to confront complex questions about fan engagement, similar to fans of the Harry Potter series. (I would clarify, though, that most of the backlash to Twilight when it first came out was a direct response to popularity with teen girls, and thus a product of misogyny, not concern about the problematic aspects of the text.)
All in all, social norms have changed a lot since the 2000s, so that now what so many used to have to qualify as a “guilty pleasure” can just be a pleasure. So if you need an easy book to read, or just want to try something new, pick up a copy of Twilight. Is it ridiculous? Yes. Is the writing style questionable? Also yes. But is it fun? Absolutely.