Vampire Expert Explains Twilight's Sparkle Is Actually More Accurate Than You Think

Screen Rant spoke to Dr. Sorcha Ní Fhlainn, a vampire specialist, and uncovered one surprising detail about the Twilight saga’s most controversial vampire power. Dr. Ní Fhlainn is an academic who teaches at Manchester Metropolitan University and has become an expert on all things vampire and gothic in modern literature and film over the course of her career.

As part of Screen Rant’s The Expert Take video series, Dr. Ní Fhlainn analyzed scenes from a handful of popular vampire movies and shows, providing profound insight about how these projects adapt the classic mythology and where creatives begin to take more liberties with the mythos and refine the story to become something new.

While the vampire genre has captivated audiences since film first became a popular means of entertainment, the sheer volume of different vampire lore in different projects has resulted in a very loose set of rules about what is and isn’t a vampire. And surprisingly, while Twilight was berated for their interpretation, it’s not all that far from the original myth.

Twilight’s Sparkling Skinned Vampires Is More Accurate Than You Think

Image via Summit Entertainment

Twilight’s spectacular popularity as a book series, first released in 2005, led to the series quickly being picked up and adapted into a film series, with the first movie starring Robert Pattinson and Kristin Stewart being released just three years later in 2008.

However, while the books managed to find their audience in the masses of tween girls, the films opened the stories up to a much broader audience and immediately resulted in criticism and ridicule from individuals who had a wide range of complaints. From the emotionless performances to the corny dialogue, the entire series was a phenomenon that resulted in plenty of discourse.

However, one detail in Twilight appeared to garner more derision than most when Edward Cullen stepped into the sunlight, and rather than burn up as vampire fans may expect, his skin began to sparkle. For many, this was one step too far, and it seemed to defang the dangerous creatures of the night that most people who enjoyed the supernatural were enchanted by.

However, according to Dr. Ní Fhlainn, this interpretation of the myth isn’t all that extreme.

Vampire’s Relationship With Sunlight Has Changed A Lot Over Time

The earliest vampire myths and folklore, which appear to have originated in Eastern Europe, saw these monsters as having a very different relationship to the sun than modern TV and film would suggest. Rather than burning up in the sun, or even experiencing pain and discomfort, the earliest vampire stories did not suggest vampires were harmed in any way by the sun.

There does appear to be a suggestion that in many stories, they choose to be nocturnal due to the fact that they wish to conceal their unusual behaviors, such as drinking blood, but these vampires were able to walk freely in daylight. That being said, there is a suggestion that vampires were unable to use their supernatural powers in the sun, which likely gave rise to the popular idea that they were weakened by the sun’s light, rather than empowered by the night.

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The first popular example of a vampire reacting negatively to the sun comes from the 1922 silent film, Nosferatu, where the film’s final act concludes with the monstrous creature walking into the sunlight before disappearing into thin air. This is then confirmed to be the end of the soulless creature, and thus the legend was born that vampires can’t survive in the sun.

Decades later, this idea was once again reinforced and popularized in the 1990s TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with the show frequently showing vampires reduced to steaming piles of ash if they stayed out in the sun. Today, it’s more unusual to have a vampire story where these creatures survive in the sun than not, but that’s not how the mythology started.

Modern Vampire Stories Follow A New Set Of Rules

Remmick (Jack O'Connell) with a bloodstained face and a sinister smile in Sinners — Remmick (Jack O’Connell) with a bloodstained face and a sinister smile in Sinners

Dr. Ní Fhlainn also discussed modern vampire stories, such as Sinners, where the very first encounter with Remmick (Jack O’Connell) shows him beginning to decay and burn in the new morning light as he seeks to enter a home to find shelter.

However, despite being a powerful creature of the night whose strength far exceeds that of ordinary humans, Remmick is forced to stand in the searing sun until he is invited in. However, this is again a relatively modern invention when compared to the original vampire myths. Bram Stoker’s Dracula, published in 1897, was the first to codify this behavior in the vampire myth, and, again, it has become a universal rule in modern vampire stories.

However, there are differences from adaptation to adaptation, with modern TV and film creating new rules depending on their individual requirements. At the same time, different projects choose to highlight different traditional elements, such as the less popular limitations around running water, or a neurotic need to count grains of rice or untie knots.

Vampire lore is incredibly rich, and there is enough space to create numerous stories that highlight various elements of the legends to such an extent that the vampires which are seen in projects like I Am Legend are almost unrecognizable as being the same species as appears in shows like The Vampire Lestat.

Vampires Continue To Evolve With Every New Adaptation

Lestat onstage with a guitar in Interview with the Vampire season 3

Modern vampire stories continue to build and redefine the lore surrounding vampires, choosing to hold tight to some rules, such as those around sunlight and requiring permission to enter a residence, and let others fade into distant memory. However, it is important to point out that Twilight’s take on vampires was relatively authentic.

With an exploration of powers around mind control and mind reading, explorations of heightened senses and general abilities, and the ability to walk in sunlight, which also comes with a heavy disincentive to do so, the Twilight version of vampires has a lot of connection to the earliest myths and folklore that have paved the way for these terrifying creatures to become an icon of film and TV today.

In reality, the way that we view these mythological creatures may look very different a handful of decades from now, as audiences begin to see new parts of the legend as staples of the genre and older parts fall out of vogue. Whatever the case, it seems as though the undying hunters of the night aren’t going anywhere soon, despite their stories evolving.

For now, Dr. Ní Fhlainn’s insights and a further study of the origins of the myth add a great deal of context to these popular legends in a way that deepens the appreciation for vampire stories and highlights fascinating details that aren’t so obvious to non-experts.