True Blood

[yusuo]

blade wasn't even popular. out of all vampire movies i think blade is the last to pop in peoples minds specially in the 90s where interview with the vampire was the vampire defining movie. also buffy was a very popular show in the late 90s.

I stand corrected, blade was popular, well according to box office total grossings, but Buffy didnt come to mind for a second, thinking back on it Buffy would of started the craze, Interview with a vampire was a very good film but it didn't receive the notoriety it should of and in the opinion of alot of my old media students was considered a bit of a cult hollywood movie.

 

[Gahars]

Blade was modestly successful, or so I remember; successful enough to encourage Fox to put the X-Men movie into production.

And as for vampire craze, Twilight absolutely kick started it. Buffy wasn't really popular besides its devoted fanbase, Blade performed decently (as mentioned above), and from what I've read, the True Blood book series (Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries? The actual name evades me) was successful enough to warrant multiple sequels. Although I don't remember any of it, I'm pretty sure that Anne Rice's vampire stories were pretty popular as well; popular enough to get a movie with Tom Cruise, anyway. None of them, however, captured the public's attention like Twilight.

You don't remember this? It was a mini cultural phenomenon - everything vampire was suddenly in. Millions upon millions of fans, mostly preteen to teenage girls, devoured Meyer's "novels", vampires were all anybody talked about in terms of literature, and anything relating to vampires filled store shelves/movie and tv screens to capitalize on their sudden surge of popularity.

Please note, I'm not saying this because I like the series or anything; I detest it with the staunchest of the haters. Unfortunately, those are the facts. Luckily, it seems to be fading, and soon the next cultural fixation will take hold for a few years.

 

[nando]

i guess depends where your eye is looking from. i'm long out of high school so the only times i've heard of twilight is my co worker mentioning how sick his daughter is of her friends talking about it. but i guess if you are still in high school you'd be more exposed to twilight than true blood.

i heard about the southern vampires mysteries long before i was aware vampires sparkled, so to me twilight had little effect on the vampire craze which isn't even a craze. we've had consistent vampire lore every year non stop. but then i don't come into contact with kids.

in my town, interview with a vampire was a huge hit. kids in my school talked about it for days on end and my english class even took a field trip to the movies to see it.

but really the reality is that there has been a steady stream of vampires non stop and just because you are surrounded by teenage girls, doesn't mean that twilight can claim credit to making vamps popular.

 

[Gahars]

Again, while the other series may have been popular, Twilight still was/is a craze that made vampires insanely popular.

You don't remember the magazines that sprung up, devoted to the series? Entertainment Weekly featured it on its cover; hell, even Time magazine had a story detailing the whole thing. Then there were the fast food chains (I remember Burger King's especially) have had promotions with it. I also remember seeing it crop up all over television. Not to mention the fact that, sadly, the Twilight movies have broken box office records.

It's the reason why we've had this recent crop of classic horror icons being repurposed into romance stories. Red Riding Hood (Werewolves and teen romance mixed with little red riding hood) and the Teen Wolf (Yeah, not making that up)series on MTV are just two examples. True Blood and The Vampire Diaries

Sure, I probably experienced more of the fandom first hand, but it still was everywhere. It... it was kind of hard to miss, actually.