Robert Pattinson's Franchise-Launching Hit Officially Surges on Netflix

The vampire movie genre engages fans unlike any other. Over the decades, vampires have gone from despicable creatures to tragic and action heroes. In recent times, movies like Sinners and Robert Eggers' Nosferatu have given us very diverse versions of the same creature. But the genre's history traces back all the way to F.W. Murnau's silent masterpiece Nosferatu (1922), which introduced Count Orlok as a hideous, rat-like creature.

In the following decades, Universal's Dracula transformed the monster into a suave, tuxedo-clad aristocrat, an image still used widely today. The counterculture peaked in the '80s with Joel Schumacher reimagining vampires as punk-rock, anti-establishment teenagers in The Lost Boys. Later, features like Interview with the Vampire gave the monster an emotionally complex, melancholic turn, highlighting the struggles of loneliness and immorality. 2000s became even more interesting as flicks like Blade and the Underworld franchise introduced a leather-clad superhero aesthetic, heavy firearms, and complex sci-fi lore to the genre. Around the same time came the Twilight franchise, which broke out like wildfire.

Director Catherine Hardwicke's adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's hit 2005 novel helped bring a resurgence to the genre and kicked off the 2010s trend of studios aggressively adapting Young Adult fantasy and dystopian book franchises. Starring Kristen Stewart as teenager Bella Swan and Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen, we follow Bella, who moves to a gloomy, rainy town of Forks, Washington, to live with her father. At her new school, she becomes fascinated by the mysterious Edward, who behaves strangely around her. Bella eventually discovers that Edward is a vampire and, despite his warning that her blood smells uniquely irresistible to him, the two fall deeply in love. Things take a turn when a pack of nomadic, human-hunting vampires arrives in Forks. Made on a modest budget of $37 million, the feature went on to earn $412 million worldwide. Though the movie divided its audience, which can be seen in its Rotten Tomatoes scores: 48% from critics and 72% from the fans, it's the fans' love that is catapulting the movie to new heights.

'Twilight' Aces the Streaming Charts

Twilight has found a spot on Netflix's top 10 charts, as per FlixPatrol. The feature is soon to leave the platform, and fans seem to be checking it out before it does. It stands tall in the company of films like Ben Affleck's Animals, the Ice Age franchise that just landed on the platform, The Breadwinner, and more.