Twilight Fever Hits Bedford

It took over two hours, but what we learned last night includes the following: Vampires can shatter. Werewolves can swoon. And, despite whatever magic you may be imbued with, love can conquer that, too.

Twilight fever hit the area yesterday as the premiere day of the third and final epic movie in the series based on Stephenie Meyer's bestselling novel opening arrived in local theaters.

Patch decided to venture out among the true fanatics and risk our very own blood supply to meet up with other warmbloods that made it a priority to see the film on its opening day—and to find out which character won more local hearts: Jacob (the werewolf romantic lead) or Edward (the vampire heroine Bella is in love with.)

At Clearview's Bedford Playhouse, five showings played starting at 11:30 a.m. While none sold out, the 8 p.m. showing was crowded and ended up accommodating overflow from Mt. Kisco's 7:30 p.m. sold-out show.

While Eclipse's plotline may be particularly difficult to follow without the context of the previous two movies in the saga or at least the narrative of the novels as background, two sisters from Bedford, who are going to be juniors at Fox Lane next year, who don't follow the series but came on a whim.

"But the movie was really good," said Emma Kirshenbaum. 

And their favorite Twilight romantic lead? "Definitely, Jacob is hotter," said her sister Hannah. That's two for the werewolves.

We found some vampire fans in Irina Limas and Yazmine Olivera, who raced over from Mt. Kisco after they couldn't get tickets. "I love the books, they are such page turners. And I couldn't wait to see this movie," Limas gushed. They rushed inside to get front-row seats to see Edward in action.

We spotted a pack of tweens from Thornwood who had just seen the 5 p.m. show,  laughing, falling into each other, and shrieking over the flick. "Two thumbs up!" the ten-year-olds said, talking over each other. Their favorite character was unanimous: "Roooobert," they oohed.

Another pair of sisters, Lauren and Natalie Reddy of South Salem, were thoughtful in their appraisal of the film, and instead of voting for werewolves or vampires, they discussed the merits of Bella, the main female character.

"I read all four books and the novella that just came out," said Lauren. "I can totally relate to her—she's a normal girl. She's shy, but then she starts to bloom. And she can be a klutz…"

"—Like you," her sister interrupted, laughing. "You're right though—she is a normal girl, but in a different world. It's interesting to she how she develops," said Natalie.

A trio of John Jay middle school students, 13-year-old Alex Schecter, Emma Jansen and Antonia Gabrielle, arrived in time to get one of the last few seats for the 8 p.m. showing. All three reported they preferred the movies to the books, but they differed on why.

"We like it when Taylor takes off his shirt," giggled Jansen. Schecter just rolled his eyes. 

Our very unofficial Patch poll results, even counting the shirt-removing fans? The vampires had it all over the werewolves at the Bedford Playhouse last night.