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Remarkably faithful to the spirit of its source material, the film version of Twilight crams most of the key episodes from Stephenie Meyer's novel into its breathless, 122-minute running time. Under the direction of Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen), Twilight gallops along handsomely, showcasing the cloudy, misty beauty of its gorgeous Pacific Northwest forest locations; you can practically smell the pine trees and feel the crunch of fallen leaves beneath your feet. Using voice-over narration sparingly, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg trots out all the major (and most of the minor) characters from the book, recounting the story in abbreviated fashion while demonstrating respect for Meyer's novel and its huge, faithful audience.

Twilight may not add up to much more than the sum of its parts, but those parts can be mighty entertaining, especially when handsome Edward (Robert Pattinson, oozing uncertain charm) is whooshing through the woods with plucky Bella (Kristen Stewart, self-assured and determined) on his back. Still, the romance at the heart of the book has been shorn of some of its heart in the translation to the big screen, sacrificed on the altar of a broader demographic. Readers of the book could feel somewhat shortchanged by the relentless emphasis on forward momentum rather than romantic fantasy; the flip side is that newcomers can enjoy the whirlwind pace and the brooding, ominous atmosphere, and everyone can revel in the spectacle of flying vampires playing a pinball version of sandlot baseball.

The craziness about the romance between a high school girl and a beautiful vampire has stretched across the Atlantic into some very strange territory. Blogging for The Guardian UK, Lisa Marks claims that Twilight has spawned a "rather interesting hybrid demographic who are getting their knickers in a twist" about the film's upcoming release (November 21 in the US, December 19 in the UK).

She defines the demographic as "teenage girls, young female adults and their mums" and says the demographic needs a name. She prefers "Twums," though she also suggests "Vampults," "Fantaseenagers," and "Mothersuckers." I finally made time to read the first novel in the Twilight series this summer, though I haven't delved into the many fan sites that have blossomed since the book's publication. But if you need a name to refer to Twilight fans -- besides, I don't know, "Twilight fans" -- what's wrong with "Twilighters"?

The larger question, though, and one that might have broader implications, is whether this "hybrid demographic" is actually new and will support films other than Twilight. Odd designations aside, that's the claim of Marks' blog post, but she doesn't point to any other possibilities down the road.

What other movies could spark interest among teenage girls, young female adults, and slightly older women (a press release from Fandango claims 42% of respondents to their online survey about Twilight are 25 or older) to this degree? The Guardian thinks romance is the driving force behind the "new" demographic, but doesn't the book (and series) tap into a wider array of issues, beyond the love story, that makes it appealing to so many people?

One of my colleagues just IM'd me with the following: "Did you see there's a 1-minute clip of 'Twilight' online???? OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG." While I suspect he was being just a teensy bit sarcastic with the "OMGs," there is indeed a nice little one-minute clip up over on MTV of part of the scene at the ballet studio with James going after Bella, and Edward coming to the rescue. It's a short clip, but it definitely gives you a feel for how director Catherine Hardwicke is handling the action of the vampire fights, and it's pretty intense.

It's just enough to whet your appetite a bit for the full scene up on a big screen ... and of course, by that point in the storyline, there will be plenty of dramatic tension from what's taken place before that to up the intensity level even more.

My daughter and I are huge fans of the Twilight series. We've both read all three existing books -- Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse -- and are marking the days off on a mental calendar until the August 2 release date of the fourth book, Breaking Dawn, and my daughter and I could discuss the books endlessly.

We've had countless conversations about whether Bella should become a vampire, or if Stephenie Meyer will ever stop teasing us with that and let Edward turn her, already. And whether Bella will have a vampire "superpower" once she does turn, and what that power might be. And which characters we like the most. And so on, and so on, as I'm sure the rest of you hardcore Twilight fans do.