New Moon on the rise

Stewart as Bella and Edi Gathegi as vampire Laurent. Photo / Supplied

August 2009: A cinema full of American fans shrieks as a long-haired, dark-skinned, sculpted young man peels off his shirt to blot the blood from Bella's head. They stare into each other's eyes, and lean in.

"Don't do it!" cries someone in the audience.

"It's going to be so good!" whispers another. This, is Twilight mania.

Cover your ears, and cover your eyes, or the characters will bewitch you too. The fantasy vampire series is turning sensible people fanatical, one magazine cover, one billboard, and one movie trailer at a time...

This YouTube clip, posted three months ago, showed the effect the New Moon trailer had on fans when it gave American cinemagoers a taste of what was to come. Three months is a long time to wait when you're that thirsty.

It is now November 19, and 91 New Zealand cinemas are ready: New Moon has hit our isles.

There's no need for a doomsday-voice announcement. It's caused such a phenomenal amount of talk and Twitter that even those actively avoiding the craze know a bunch of pale teenagers who yearn for each other and each other's blood, have been holding the world to ransom.

The tag New Moon is tracking at 100 tweets per minute.

This was Twitter on Sunday night:

* robert pattinson, you make my heart burn. (yes, i'm watching twilight)

* Yay yummy vampires = P

* A confession of twi-hard fans, just a real sucker for anything twilight..even read 2 teen magz today..Go Jacob!

hows this for ironic i found the grey jacket that bella wears in new moon for $130, looked on ebay and same price + $15 P&H.

* Oh god, I'm actually starting to look forward to New Moon. Slightly. What has the world come to?

5 more days until New Moon. I'm soooo excited! I have never been this excited for a movie before.

* haha it's not a movie, it's a movement.haha

That's right. It is a movement.

SkyCity's chief executive Nigel Morrison says New Moon has generated more pre-sales than any film, ever. Hoyts Sylvia Park has also sold more seats to its La Premiere luxury cinemas for this film than any other film.

New Moon is expected to be twice as big as Twilight, which took $2.7 million in New Zealand. Most cinemas are holding midnight sessions to cope with demand.

But what is it that makes Twilight so popular?

Twenty seven million Googlers have asked the same question, and there doesn't seem to be a straight answer.

My flatmates, who are definitely outside the target demographic of 13 years old, and have never been particularly into vampires, can't give me a definitive answer. "It's just good," they keep saying when I hit the Google search key.

Twilight has more than 90 million Google hits, which far surpasses other cult films. Lord of The Rings and High School Musical get 38.4 million and 78 million respectively.

But the search engine won't tell me why.

Perhaps it's the film's lusty cast: vampire love interest Robert Pattison gets 15.5 million Google hits, almost trumping Johnny Depp who gets 15.6 million. Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe gets 7 million.

Maribeth Armstrong, a 40-year-old Auckland mother of two who has booked out an entire cinema for a private screening of New Moon tonight, says she was drawn in by the books.

"I like sci-fi horror-fantasy storylines."

She is surprised by how quickly the 180 tickets to her screening were snapped up, and by grownups too: "I can't believe how many people over 20 are obsessed with teenagers."

It seems that the vampire tale with its subtle sci-fi and lusty storyline can appeal to the romance, imagination and teenager within anyone. It offers pure escapism, but then there's no escaping it, because one taste will only leave you hankering for more.

One respondent to a "why is Twilight so popular" Yahoo forum just typed "you have to try it to find out".

That sounds dangerous.

But, always one to give things a go, I'll be taking a big breath and getting my fangs into the New Moon screening this morning.

And yes, I have read the books and watched the first film in preparation.

The Twilight timeframe:

* Twilight was one of 2005's most talked-about novels.

* Its sequel New Moon came out the next year and spent more than 25 weeks in the number 1 position on the New York Times bestseller list.

* In 2007 the third book, Eclipse knocked Harry Potter off its perch to become number 1.

* Breaking Dawn was released at 12.01 on August 2, 2008, and sold 1.3 million copies in 24 hours.

* The Twilight movie, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, was released last year. It opened at number 1 and generated US$70 million, the highest grossing opening weekend for a female director.