It is about 4am on a Saturday morning and a delirious energy is emerging at Randwick Ritz’s dusk-to-dawn, 12-hour marathon of the Twilight Saga. The cinema has the airs of an airport terminal after significant delays; at this point, people no longer care how they look and are doing anything they can to stay comfortable.
We’ve reached the night’s 30-minute “breakfast break”, which means we are three of five films into the romantic tale of clumsy, quiet teen Bella Swan, who moves to the foggy forest town of Forks, Washington and falls for Edward Cullen, a (permanently) 17-year-old vampire.
The Ritz’s Twilight Saga screening – which ran from 8.30pm Friday and ended with dawn truly broken at 8am Saturday – is among the first of many being held across the globe to mark the 20th anniversary of the books by Stephenie Meyer. While the books have sold more than 160m copies and the films have grossed more than US$3.6bn worldwide, Twilight’s enduring power is impressive – evident in the 150-strong who have lasted three films and are now splayed across the Ritz’s 660-capacity main theatre, either napping on the floor or lying across multiple seats.
The crowd is mostly gen Zers and chaperoned Alphas, with a smattering of millennials and more men than you might think. (Though this is mostly thanks to a group of bros who spent the first film audibly asking each other: “Is this meant to be a comedy?”)
At this point, many are still wearing their Twilight merch – but occasionally something more ornate, such as a cape made from various Edward Cullen faces. But some have shifted into pyjamas, wandering around with silk hair nets and face masks. Others are cracking open beers, or downing a flat white. A sour stench comes in waves: the unmistakable scent of energy drinks being sweated out by teenagers.
This is my new family, those who remain after seven hours; in an unspoken vow, they have adopted me after my friends left, citing sleep and responsibilities. “The weak-links and fake Twi-hards have left”, says my fellow brethren Bert. I nod. “My eyes are stinging, but damn it, they’re open,” adds Isabella. Is glitter in her eye too?
Some haven’t tried to stay awake, instead opting for strategic naps during the dud of the five-film Saga, though no one can agree exactly which one that is. Phoebe, a 20-year-old university student, strongly feels that it is the third film Eclipse, offering up the exact same criticism that I hear others use to nominate the second (New Moon) and both parts of Breaking Dawn (four and five): “Nothing happens, bro! It’s lame as hell. Snoozefest.”
I don’t disagree: I haven’t watched the Twilight films in full since the franchise wrapped up in 2012, and I’ve forgotten how repetitive it is. The first four films are as follows: Bella wants to be a vampire; her glittery lover Edward doesn’t want to doom her to an eternity as a monster; a blood-sucking threat is defeated; repeat.
More than once, I think: why am I here, and why am I dressed as Edward Cullen, complete with slowly caking foundation and face glitter? For journalism, I pretend. But no, it’s mostly because, as someone who came of age in the mid-2000s, Twilight is in my veins. To paraphrase Bella Swan, I am “unconditionally and irrevocably in love” with it. I adore its melodramatic world of vampires and werewolves, its bizarre one-liners and baffling cinematic choices big and small – from Emmett Cullen holding a bag of egg yolks to the CGI-atrocity that is Renesmee, Bella and Edward’s hybrid baby.
“There’s just something so ridiculously camp about Twilight,” says Phoebe. “The aesthetics of it, all the really bad acting, and that blue filter in the first one!”
“Now it’s developed into such a big cultural thing, where it’s a mix of cringe, but also love for how ridiculous the story is. It’s just so wild.”
This crowd recites the films’ most pilloried moments, having all become TikTok trends over the past five years which is where gen Z and Alpha have discovered Twilight. Everyone hates Renesmee, booing whenever she’s on screen. Shortly after she’s born, someone even screams out: “Clanker!” Judging by cheers alone, everyone’s favourite character is Bella’s gruff, handsome dad, the police chief Charlie Swan.
When Bella bellows “YOU NICKNAMED MY BABY AFTER THE LOCH NESS MONSTER?” in Breaking Dawn: Part 2, the audience’s screams visibly jostle more than a few awake at 6.27am.
But the best moments of this marathon are the less rehearsed reactions: a solitary clap when Bella and Edward get engaged, or the murmurs of confusion when Bella more or less echoes pro-life arguments to defend a half-vampiric baby that is feasting on her from the inside.
“It’s so much fun,” Phoebe tells me. “I love the cheering, or hearing people and their random conversations that everybody laughs at. It’s the whole point of being here.”
After we’re let out at 8am, there’s a quick photo outside for the survivors, which most people scurry away from, not exactly camera-ready. Even those who hold their ceremonial certificate high in triumph are quick to disperse and chase some sleep. And I’m left alone, glittering in the sun.
The Twilight Saga returns to Australian cinemas on Saturday 1 November, with marathons at Event Cinemas, Hoyts, Village Cinemas and Melbourne’s Cinema Nova. Twilight marathons are being held around the world; check your local cinema for dates
