Media Overthrown by the Undead?

By: Katie Forcade
Since when has being able to cheat death been considered “cool”?  Being immortal, living forever, and sucking blood is the new “in” for media.
The Twilight Saga, a book series created by Stephenie Meyer, tells the tale of a young girl named Bella Swan who falls in love with the vampire Edward Cullen.  The series captured  many teenage girls’ hearts and was turned into a movie series as well.
“I love Twilight!  I love the fact that their love binds them forever,” says freshman Sabrina Dyson. “[Twilight] started the whole [vampire] phenomenon, with the movies and the books. A lot of people ‘live’ in their own Twilight fantasy.”
Vampire books that are popular today include The Twilight Saga, The House of Night series, Vampire Diaries, The Vampire Academy series, and Blue Bloods.
TV series such as The Vampire Diaries and True Blood have also made a name for themselves, and they give people a chance to watch different stories about vampires on television weekly.
“The Twilight Saga has such a huge fan base, and [it] gets a lot of attention for being either horrible or amazing. It sparked all different kinds of shows, allowing them to create their own different version of a ‘vampire,’” says junior Rachel Boris.
The Twilight Saga isn’t the only popular movie series out there.  Movies such as Fright Night, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Hotel Transylvania, Underworld, and many others have attracted many viewers, fans, and curiosity.
Not everyone likes the vampire madness.  When asked why people dislike it, Boris thinks it’s “mostly because of how vampires are portrayed in Twilight. They’re totally different than how we used to view them, and it can be either a good thing or a bad thing.”
Sabrina Dyson even said people tend to obsess over The Twilight Saga, and it gets annoying.
“In a lot of movies and books there always seems to be some sort of vampire.  Some people think it’s stupid, I guess,” says sophomore Bailey Sorrell on vampires in media.
The Twilight Saga has sparked many new book series, movies, and television shows.  Ever since the book series came out, people started to become what is now known as a “Twihard.”  There is now Team Edward or Team Jacob merchandise widely available.  Boris says Twilight has a huge fan base and anti-fan base, which is where the vampire haters supposedly come from.
Vampires have taken over media, and so far they have stayed.  Whether it’s Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, The Vampire Academy, or any other story, it’ll be sure to end up in the lap of a fifteen year-old girl dying for a new fantasy and thirsty for more.