Twilight 'Eclipse' Lures Dueling Vampires and Wolves

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.

Like everywhere in the nation, Twilight mania swept the county yesterday as the premiere day of final epic movie in the series based on Stephenie Meyer's bestselling novel hit theaters big and small.

And nearly equal numbers of fans on either sides of Team Jacob (the werewolf romantic lead) and Team Edward (the vampire heroine Bella is in love with) showed their support in a very special Patch survey.

I decided to venture out among the true fanatics and risk my very own blood supply to meet up with other warmbloods that had made it a priority to see the film on its opening, and craziest, day. (Spoiler alert for those of you who haven't read the books or seen the movie – though the dramatic events are all rather foreseeable, especially if you've got vampiric telepathy.)

Darryl Davis, who works at the Mamaroneck Playhouse, said the opening night there was jam-packed. "People were coming in by 10:45 p.m. to buy their tickets and make sure they had their seats. People were lining up all along the wall here just to get inside," he said. 

Normally he said the theatre would be closed that late mid-week, but they stayed open for the special event. Inside the theater itself, he said people crammed themselves into every seat in the house.

"It was just packed. They loved the jokes - there were a lot of puns, about the wolves and the vampires, and they were loving it. We still had people hanging out in the lobby and on the street when it was time for us to lock up, talking about the movie and goofing around after the whole experience," he said.

Though he didn't see any Team Jacob or Team Edward shirts, he definitely heard people choosing sides. Personally, "I will always say werewolf," he said, after a nickname his twin brother calls him.

The United Artists Cortlandt Stadium Town Center in Mohegan Lake had five midnight showings for Eclipse, selling 1,000 tickets. said Eric E., an employee at the movie theatre. Tickets could be purchased up to a month in advance, though only a few sold that way. Although, theaters were not filled to capacity during opening night, last night their evening show was sold out to mainly teenage and college-aged girls.

"They were wearing T-shirts Team Edward and Team Jacob," he said. 

So far we had two vampire votes, and two werewolf votes, but our tally would continue in White Plains, where City Center 15: Cinema De Lux (the only theatre with a subtitle) had the film on four screens, including IMAX, and it played every half hour from 11 a.m. onward.

We found some more wolf fans among a group of Eastchester teenagers coming out of an evening show.

Fayrez Alama, 13, said, "I thought it was amazing, especially when Taylor Lautner [the werewolf] was shirtless." Her friend Jennifer Paez, 13, called it the best out of the three, and Jocelyn Merlo, 14, agreed, adding, "they got the most details from the book right." 

Julia Alex, 14, admitted "I like Taylor Lautner the best...but I thought it was sweet when Edward proposed to her." Three werewolf votes and one vampire were among them.

White Plains teenager Jasmin Mann, 14, said her favorite part was when the simmering, nay, smouldering tensions between Bella and Jacob come to a head before the werewolf pack engages in a battle against a coven of newblood, or young, vampires. "When Jacob and Bella kissed, like how she told him to kiss her," she said, a die-hard werewolf fan.

Her friend Natalie Malescio, 14, agreed, adding, "I liked when Jacob was hugging her." But their friend Leo Baena, 13, said, "I just liked the fighting. I never knew a vampire looked like ice on the inside. Like, they could break."

Inside my theater, the audience was too eager to share their votes on who was better, hotter, more heroic, or, mainly, who deserved Bella's love and life commitment.

While the audience was quick to hoot and whistle at the moment Taylor Lautner appeared on screen, it was Edward's (played by Robert Pattinson) sweet-talk and inherent vampiric charm that lured the audience to "awwww's" as he watched Kristen Stewart's character sleep, proposed to her and begged for her to slow down their physical relationship. (Yes, it's laid on just that thick.)

But despite a steamy sleeping-bag scene with Jacob and an epic, three-films-coming kiss on a mountaintop, the fans of Westchester have spoken.

Werewolves: 58      Vampires: 63

Me personally? Totally team werewolf. Scalding sleeping bag moments and campfires are just too worthwhile to give up for Alaska and an endless existence in high school or college.