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The Most Controversial And Polarizing Vampire Movie Franchise Ever Is Streaming On Hulu

By Nina Starner

July 25, 2026 7:00 pm EST

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Summit Entertainment

Do you love vampires, but you wish they were a little less scary? What if you don't want them to be scary at all?!_ I've got amazing news for you: all five of the Twilight Saga movies are on Hulu.

For the uninitiated or, perhaps, people who have been in comas since the late aughts and are playing catch-up, author Stephenie Meyer allegedly had a dream about a handsome vampire one night and gifted us with "Twilight," the first book in the series, in 2005. The following three novels — "New Moon," "Eclipse," and "Breaking Dawn" — followed every year thereafter, and in 2008, indie director Catherine Hardwicke ("Thirteen") kickstarted the cinematic franchise with "Twilight," casting future superstars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson as a pair of lovers kept apart by vampirism.

Across five films — "Breaking Dawn" was split into two films, like its fellow franchise-finishers "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" and "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay," the final book in the Hunger Games series — the Twilight Saga charts the relationship of awkward teenager Bella Swan (Stewart) and her handsome, sparkly vampire boyfriend Edward Cullen (Pattinson), as well as the couple's bond with Edward's adoptive vampire family the Cullens. To say the Twilight Saga is divisive is. an understatement. Yes, the vampires are a little sillier than people are probably used to, the movies are a bit campy, and there was an original fake baby in "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2" that would have traumatized audiences all over the world had it been left in the final cut of the film. Still, there's fun stuff in the Twilight movies! I swear!

The Twilight Saga explores the love-struck journey of a teenager and a weird old guy (vampire)

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Summit Entertainment

In the first film and book, "Twilight," audiences follow Bella Swan as she moves from sunny Phoenix, Arizona, to the markedly rainy town of Forks in Washington State, preparing to spend time living with her father, Charlie Swan (Billy Burke), as her mother, Renée Swan (Sarah Clarke), explores the possibility of getting married again. Though Bella immediately makes friends at her new high school, she's fascinated by Edward and his "siblings" Alice (Ashley Greene), Alice's partner Jasper Hale (Jackson Rathbone), his "sister" Rosalie (Nikki Reed), and Rosalie's chosen mate Emmett (Kellan Lutz). and eventually, she meets his parents Carlisle and Esmé, portrayed by Peter Facinelli and Elizabeth Reaser. Because Carlisle works as a doctor to try and atone for sins he committed as a younger vampire, the Cullen-Hale clan live as "vegetarian" vampires, which just means they drink animal blood.

Though Edward isn't wild about the idea of dating a human at first, he's undeniably drawn to Bella — partly because her blood smells particularly delicious to vampires and partly because he's telepathic but can't hear her_ thoughts, which he finds refreshing. "New Moon" throws an obstacle into Bella and Edward's path — Edward leaves Forks with his family after Bella is injured at their house, driving her into the arms of local werewolf Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) and neatly creating a love triangle — but by the time we get to "Eclipse," the two get engaged. Throughout both parts of "Breaking Dawn," Bella and Edward get married, find out they're expecting, welcome a half-human, half-vampire baby that almost kills Bella, and then prepare to wage war against the ancient vampire council known as the Volturi over their daughter's very existence.

Honestly, the Twilight movies are fun if you don't think too much

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Summit Entertainment

Honestly? The Twilight Saga films are fun_, especially when there's not a pretentious nerd in your ear complaining about how much these movies suck. For a long time, I had a pretty bad attitude about Twilight as a whole, and I've sort of come around on the whole thing. Truthfully, these movies are sort of a blast, and the "Twilight" phenomenon was stupid lightning in a stupid bottle. The first one, helmed by Catherine Hardwicke and her sharp directing sensibilities, still takes time out of its main narrative to set a truly stupid superpowered vampire baseball game to "Supermassive Black Hole" by Muse for some godforsaken (and awesome) reason. "New Moon," for all its absurdity, employs a pretty realistic moment of movie "magic" to show Bella's depression in the wake of Edward's abandonment, simply skipping through three months of the protagonist's life. "Eclipse" steers directly into the love triangle skid, and "Breaking Dawn" features, across two films, an emergency vampire C-section (which you have to see to believe, honestly) and a massive battle that's actually just a dream and never actually happens.

Life is hard. Times are tough. The world is more divided than ever. That's why you should just enjoy your silly vampire movies. The Twilight Saga isn't great cinema — although, again, it did give Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson launch pads to become two of the most lauded actors of their generation in the decades that followed — but cinema doesn't always have to be great. Sometimes, it can just be sparkly and fun. The Twilight films are on Hulu now.