Extreme Fans: Documentary Into the Twilight Haze Examines Twilight's Impact on Women
Posted 12.26.12 by Ryan
Just because the Twilight franchise is done, doesn't mean we are done with the Twilight franchise.
Since the first Twilight movie was released in 2008, the Twilight phenomenon has swept the globe, with the franchise's final installment, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2, earning $784 million in worldwide box office. Many Twilight fans have openly admitted that the movies and books have become a full-blown obsession, even an addiction, at times coming at a cost of other relationships in their lives.
So why has Twilight struck such a chord with so many? New York psychologist Dr. Niloo Dardashti believes she has the answer, but will only reveal it in her documentary Into the Twilight Haze, as detailed in the doc's press release. After all, psychologists don't offer all their advice for free.
Into the Twilight Haze attempts to uncover why so many are enamored with the books and films. Written, produced, and directed by a psychologist, it delves into the allure of Twilight as a vehicle to explore male-female dynamics today (what men want, what women want, our differences, and why it is often still so hard to understand one another). It is a journey into the human psyche with regards to our needs/desires for intimacy, love, sex, connection, self-growth, and our inter-relationship struggles. Through a series of interviews, adult psychologist Niloo Dardashti is able to facilitate a deep exploration into the hearts of several women touched immensely by Twilight.
As for Dardashti's reasons behind making the documentary, the psychologist made the — fairly obvious, really — observation that Twilight was "a vehicle" for women to explore "their own longings and questions about relationships in general" and that Twilight "is simply a desire for more connection, excitement, and/or more intimacy in a relationship." Hence, the documentary.
I thought it was too important a topic to not do anything about it. It was clear to me that for many women Twilight was a vehicle, if you will, for exploring some of their own longings and questions about relationships in general. It would be too simple to say what some critics say about Twilight depicting some sort of societally driven desire in women for a man to be their "everything." There has to be balance for most things in life and the balance of feeling whole within one's self and feeling satisfied in a relationship is certainly a big one. Also, the process of romantic to compassionate love is a wonderful yet challenging experience for countless people. Many women in long term relationships feel that Twilight triggers a longing for the first stages of their relationship and this is an issue that often does not come up until something triggers it. I wanted there to be a platform to talk about these matters and what better vehicle to do so than Twilight?
That platform, apparently, is Into the Twilight Haze, the trailer for which can be seen below (via The Playlist).
Intrigued? Ready to dig deeper? We imagine extreme Twilight fans might be curious at least. In the following clip from the documentary, the Twilight movies and books are basically explained as being "foreplay" for women, another proposed key for their popularity.
To watch the entire movie (for a small $5 fee), head to the official website, which claims that it not only uncovers the "allure of Twilight," but can also help "your love, sex and relationships." That's a tall order, but, apparently, Dr. Dardashti is very confident in her first and (so far) only documentary.