Time was, the Twilight movies represented a kind of apotheosis of vampires and their infiltration of a specific moment in popular culture. Remember? Starting with Buffy and then moving into the years beyond it, it seemed like every time you turned around, someone was writing a new vampire book. Making a new vampire show. Filming a new vampire-themed movie. The True Blood book series transformed into a wildly successful HBO series. And, similarly, author Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight book series was adapted into an insanely successful juggernaut of a feature film franchise. In fact, here’s a good example of the degree to which the world she launched so deeply enthralled fans. All five Twilight movies got added to Netflix a few days ago. And they’re all, as of this moment, occupying the top five slots on the Top 10 movies on Netflix ranking that the streamer tabulates daily.
Top 10 movies on Netflix
Does it say something about the degree of Twilight fandom that’s still out there? About the quality of the Netflix original movies that they’re currently beating out on the Top 10 list? Maybe a little bit of both.
The folks at Polygon argue that this is no accident. That there is “quality” to be had here. That includes, for example, the original, directed by Catherine Hardwicke — an “earnest, corny YA romance that works, because Kristin Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner are legit and commit to the bit.”
As far as the Netflix original movies they’re beating out, meanwhile, the Fear Street horror trilogy and Gunpowder Milkshake are some of the others that round out the current Top 10 movies on Netflix list. The latter is from director Navot Papushado. And it includes performances from Karen Gillan, Lena Headey, Michelle Yeoh, Angela Bassett, and Carla Gugino, as well as Paul Giamatti. As far the movie itself, Gunpowder Milkshake, as we’ve noted previously, is a violent, hyper-kinetic assault on its viewers’ senses. There are girls with guns. A cadre of sexy female assassins. Plus stylish action scenes, dark humor, and colorful anime-like visuals.
The Fear Street trilogy, meanwhile, is based on the book series by R.L. Stine. And it includes three movies released in recent days that quickly made it on to Netflix’s Top 10 movies list. They include Fear Street Part One: 1994, Fear Street Part Two: 1978, and Fear Street Part Three: 1666.
Reaction
Unless I’m mistaken, meanwhile, this is the first time all the Twilight movies have been able to be streamed at no extra cost, other than the price of your streaming membership. Bottom line: The Internet was certainly excited and ready for the movies to be added to Netflix, as these tweets show.
I was getting sad but twilight is gonna be on Netflix tomorrow pic.twitter.com/DdnhpQfAr0
— N444T (@nautalii) July 15, 2021
now that the twilight saga is finally on netflix this is going to be me the whole day pic.twitter.com/zO1aS348MK
— daisy (@ahadaisy) July 16, 2021
today is an extremely important day in our society, the twilight saga is now available on netflix in the US! pic.twitter.com/nlbiCKFQf4
— ᴛᴡɪʟɪɢʜᴛ ʀᴇɴᴀɪssᴀɴᴄᴇ (@twilightreborn) July 16, 2021
