Pretty Hype Machine

"So, I heard there's some movie about vampires coming out this week?"

"Oh god, please make it go away..."

That was a little (over)dramatization of the two sides of my brain fighting with each other in a valiant struggle to ignore the revving engine of the Twilight/New Moon hype machine. This is not easy, believe me, because as I'm sure you've noticed, the coverage is frickin' EVERYWHERE.

And the bad news is, there are two more books in the series (with more to come, if the author has any sort of sense), and they plan to make and release movies based on them on more or less a yearly schedule, so that means we have at least two more years of this to endure. At least...

Now, don't misunderstand me. I like vampire stuff. I cut my horror teeth on the Saturday afternoon "Creature Double Feature" on channel 56, which had its share of schlocky vampire movies. On Halloween night the Mrs. and I watched The Hunger, which is a rather sexy twist on the vampire myth. The brilliant Buffy The Vampire Slayer is among my all-time favorite TV shows. Vampire stories of all kinds are pervasive, and they've been part of the cultural vernacular for centuries.

So what's the problem? Well first, the target audience for these particular books and movies is teenage girls. I know this because I read reviews, and because the media coverage is heavily weighted toward young ladies screaming and swooning over the two pretty, hunky dudes who star in the movies. The young lady seems to get less attention, and in the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly, she doesn't even look all that happy in the photo spread, like she'd rather be somewhere else. (I read that she's been cast as Joan Jett in a biopic about The Runaways, which may better suit her sulky mien.)

Second, and probably more important, an all-consuming hype machine tends to have a repelling effect on me. The bigger it is, the less likely I am to be interested in it. I don't do this to be contrarian (though that's a sometimes beneficial side effect); it's just who I am.

In the case of the Twilight saga, at least after the movie opens, the roar dies down for a few months, until it's time for the DVD release, then another few months until the next movie opens.