Is Twilight the New Rocky Horror?
By Hannah Carapellotti
My senior year of college, a group of friends and I got together for a late-night screening of Twilight. In honor of the first film turning 15 years old, the local theater on campus brought back the five-movie saga for a winter marathon, and as arts writers for our university’s student newspaper, we were of course the prime demographic. Sitting in the screening room I’d been in countless times before, to see a movie I had watched countless times before, I wasn’t expecting anything special. But the minute the title card appeared, the audience began cheering wildly, and I knew I was in for a viewing experience unlike any other.
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I’m no stranger to talking during a movie — my family rewatches films so often that we can recite certain scenes from memory. But this was on a whole other level. People in the seats next to me were yelling out all kinds of lines, and not just the most iconic (and cringeworthy). That wasn’t all they would do, either. Characters would get rounds of applause when they first appeared on screen, and any time we heard a favorite song from the soundtrack start to play, we were all dancing in our seats and singing along. The energy was electric. It was exactly how I’d imagined the fabled late night screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, an annual staple not just on my campus but at movie theaters across the world. The more I compared what I’d seen and heard about this experience with my own winter rewatch, the more I wondered whether Twilight could ever reach the same heights as a cult classic.
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But what makes a cult classic to begin with? Whether a box-office flop or a more transgressive film, the title is generally afforded to any movie that didn’t perform well upon its original release but picked up a passionate fan base later. Such is certainly true for Rocky Horror, which got shelved shortly after its 1975 release but was resurrected through midnight screenings that have since become more of a massive party than a traditional movie night. Since then, not only has it become the longest continually running movie release of all time, it’s also considered to have one of the most prominent cult followings in history.
Taking into account that the entire Twilight franchise grossed over $3 billion globally, it’s already at a disadvantage. Growing up when the books were at peak popularity and the first few movies had been released, I remember going to Target as a kid and seeing everything from T-shirts to jewelry to school notebooks with either Edward or Jacob on the cover. Even now, we’re seeing a bit of a renaissance in Twilight merch in stores, and as the weather gets colder, the number of Twilight-inspired Spotify playlists increases exponentially. Its cultural presence continues to dominate a decade later.
So does that rule out the potential for cult classic status? Some film fans may say yes. But there’s more to consider than just the franchise’s mainstream success. I think part of the reason Twilight has remained so relevant is because the older they get, the easier it gets to acknowledge that these movies are objectively terrible. It’s not like they simply haven’t aged well; they were never good to begin with. A character calling someone “spider monkey” with a straight face? Werewolves imprinting on human babies? It’s these memorable moments that make it so easy to laugh at the screen, and so much more fun to do it in a group setting. Plus, for some moviegoers, that “so bad, it’s good” mentality is what makes a good cult classic.
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I feel the need to give a disclaimer that I have never actually seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Maybe I should have revealed this earlier, and for some, it might invalidate everything I’ve said so far. But thanks to other media like The Perks of Being a Wallflower and even Glee, I’m more than familiar with not only the film’s plot but also its cultural importance, particularly for the queer community. Because of this, I recognize that Twilight can never surpass it in terms of its impact on audiences. One rowdy late-night showing in a college town does not a cult classic make, but I think it absolutely has the potential to fill theaters across the country with costumed fans, snarky callback lines and more like “Rocky Horror” someday. I’m not even the first to be thinking of these movies in the same way — and I’m sure I won’t be the last.
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In the meantime, though, there’s plenty of similar fun to have from the comfort of my living room. I have plans with friends for a Twilight marathon of our own, just in time for Halloween. We’ll drink “skin of a killer” cocktails and laugh so hard we cry. It won’t be a sold out theater, but I bet it will be just as electric.
