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'New Moon' Fever

Jasmina Meyer, Highlands Today

Fans wait in the lobby for the opening of “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” Thursday night at Lakeshore Mall Carmike Cinema 8 in Sebring. Over 590 tickets sold for the midnight show.

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By AIYANA BAIDA

Highlands Today

Published: November 21, 2009

SEBRING - A quarter to midnight on Thursday and a line of hopelessly romantic teens in flannel PJ's, hoodies and flip-flops were anxiously waiting to grab a seat to the opening of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" at Lakeshore Mall Carmike Cinema 8.

By 11:30 p.m. the line of about 600 giddy fans reached the parking lot.

"We have more people attending this midnight show than "The Dark Knight" ... A lot of them are going to be repeats," Drew Protasio, theater manager, said.

The Twilight film sequel "New Moon" continues the love saga of high school teen Bella Swan, played by Kristen Stewart, and vampire Edward Cullen, played by Robert Pattinson.

Edward decides the only way to protect Bella is to leave her. Devastated by her loss, Bella finds comfort in Jacob Black, played by Taylor Lautner, an old friend who she later discovers is a werewolf.

The love triangle has fans divided into Team Edward and Team Jacob.

Although some fans were wearing Team Jacob T-shirts, the chatter among them seemed to lean toward Team Edward.

"I like that he's a vampire and that he's secretly romantic," said 17-year-old Monica Etchechury, of Sebring High School.

Her friend Ana Molina, 15, said, "I like him 'cause he's cute."

But werewolf and Team Jacob fan Juan Rebollo, 18, couldn't disagree with them more.

"The werewolves are bad, they're gangsta," Juan said.

A few feet ahead of them in line, 16-year-old Twilight fan Kara Taylor sat holding her Edward Cullen pillow. She's been a fan way before the first Twilight film was released. An English teacher got her hooked on the books and since then she's collected just about anything with a Twilight reference.

Her iPod case has the film's poster, her pillow cover has vampire Edward Cullen's face and the New Moon poster has been in her room since it came out last year.

It wasn't hard for her to get permission to watch the late night opening on a school night- especially after reading all four books.

"My mom knows I'm obsessed," Kara said.

"I want to see how the film compares to the book," she added.

Fans reading then watching

Cathy Martin, a Lake Placid resident, became a fan in 2007 when her 15-year-old niece told her about the book.

"I couldn't put it down," Martin, 32, said.

"I hope this one is more like the book ... the first one wasn't," she said.

At the opening one fan after another said they've read at least one of the four Twilight book series.

Ashley James was another fan wanting to know how the film measures up to the love saga that captivated her.

James, 23, went through the four books in about a week and a half, and read them all about five times.

"When I was reading those books I told my husband I'm in the twilight zone. I'm here, you're there," she said.

James said before reading the Twilight series she hated reading.

"I haven't picked up a book since I graduated high school in 2005 but it was just one of those books that captures your attention completely," she said.

James was so spellbound by the series that she got a tattoo inspired by the four book covers.

She wanted to incorporate all four book covers into one tattoo. In June she handed the covers to a tattoo artist with her favorite phrase from the book, "And so the lion fell in love with the lamb," and got it tattooed on her left thigh.

On May 9, James attended a Twilight convention and paid to get an autograph from Robert Pattinson.

"I'll stick to the cute blonde with dimples," James said.

Ticket sales

The theater's Thursday night opening sold 592 tickets total; many were pre-ordered.

"This is three to four times as many people as the Dark Knight," Isaac Carlisle, assistant manager, said.

They also raffled New Moon T-shirts, hats and movie sound tracks.

Reactions

The film's one-liners like, "I guess the wolf is out of the bag," and werewolves rescuing Bella in distress had the fans "ooohing" and "aaahing."

Victoria Jonkerman, 19, saw the first Twilight in theaters seven times. And she's just as amazed with the sequel.

"It makes you want to see the next one even more," she said.

Highlands Today reporter Brad Dickerson contributed to this report. Highlands Today reporter Aiyana Baida can be reached at 863-386-5855 or nbaida@highlandstoday.com

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