So listen, I know it’s easy to make fun of Twilight. It’s very meme-able, between lines like “hold on tight, spider monkey,” the whole “say it loud” bit or all the long intense stares between Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. But without the specific choices made in the film, it wouldn’t have become the cult classic it is now. And one specific cinematographic decision we overlook is the blue filter Catherine Hardwicke used for the first 2008 film. So as you would expect fans had thoughts when seeing what Twilight would look like without the filter.
Many have pointed the blue filter out as somewhat of an odd choice, but have you seen the rest of the Twilight saga? The blue filter was actually quite genius and that’s just been proven by an on-set image taken in the light of day. Once Twitter got a hold of it, we were reminded how necessary the tint was to the first Twilight. Take a look at the viral photo:
Once the Twilight fan account @twilightreborn shared the image, it spread far and wide. It seriously hits differently to see the baseball scene in broad daylight sans blue filter. As one person reacted:
Yeah… that’s exactly what it looks like. But more importantly it reminded fans of another movie featuring teens and baseball:
I cannot unsee this. The cast of Twilight looks exactly like the cast of High School Musical 2 during the sequel’s “I Don’t Dance” sequence. You know, the one that had everyone theorizing that Ryan and Chad were into each other. With the blue lights gone, the way the group of vampires is standing just looks like something you’d see in a musical, and it just doesn’t sit right with fans:
It’s a pivotal scene in the movie that sees the Cullen Clan meeting Twilight’s baddie vampire James and his squad Victoria and Laurent. The scene breaks up the iconic “Supermassive Black Hole” baseball sequence, which absolutely takes full use of the blue-filtered aesthetic as the vampires play a game in a lightning storm.
Rosalie actress Nikki Reed recently disclosed that the vampires actually went to a cat movement class and the ridiculousness of that is ever-present in a shot like this. Just as one user realized, the blue filter was ultimately a godsend to Twilight:
As the movies continued with different directors, the blue filter was left from the films. I don't know about you, but I think it added to the ridiculousness of them. Sometimes a movie just needs a bold stylistic decision like this.
Anyways Twilight fans, the franchise’s Emmett, Kellan Lutz, totally just welcomed his first baby girl, and we’re still processing Edward Cullen’s perspective of the story with Stephenie Meyer’s Midnight Sun. We’ll catch you at the next thunderstorm!
