Fans of the soldout midnight showing in McMinnville of the new “Twilight” series movie, “New Moon,” show their spirit on a car windshield.

Hannah Hoffman / News-Register

At the Thursday premiere of "New Moon," the second edition in the "Twilight" movie series, something became glaringly apparent right away:

People like competition. They like a fight and they like someone to win that fight.

And so "Team Edward" and "Team Jacob" have materialized. It seems both Edward, a vampire, and Jacob, a werewolf, have fallen in love with series heroine Bella.

"Twilight" originated as a series of four books, destined to become five movies.

"New Moon" is the second. The third, "Eclipse," is due for release June 30.

They tell the story of Bella and her vampire suitor, who spends most of his time trying not to bite her.

The story has sparked a passion across the countrty in teenage girls, and sometimes older women. And nothing has fueled that passion more than the males in the movies.

Sheridan High School students Chelsea Hall and Lisa Ekstrom, both 17, summed it up with their homemade T-shirts. "Team Edward," the black tees said, "except when Jacob is shirtless."

Apparently Jacob, played by Taylor Lautner, has considerably more physical appeal than Edward, played by Robert Pattinson. But Edward's emotional and romantic prowess win out for Bella in the end.

The attractiveness of the movie's leading men helped draw the girls to the premiere, they said. But Hall said the ability of the series to tell an authentic, romantic and action-packed story was the real attraction.

Theater manager Leah Jennings said the movie's followers started showing up at 1:30 p.m., hours before the 9 p.m. showing of the first "Twilight" movie. The "New Moon" premiere followed at 12:01 a.m.

Jennings said the number of older women attending the double feature surprised her. Teenagers aren't Twilight's only fan base, evidently.

Men were scarce, though a few did attend.

Most of the attendees were teenage girls, some in pajamas, many with coffee and several with school books, as they had classes the next morning.

Dressing like the characters, as people do for "Star Trek" and "Harry Potter," did not seem in vogue with the "Twilight" crowd. No one came as a vampire, a werewolf or even as Bella.

Jennings said that could be a local quirk. "McMinnville just isn't into the dressing up," she observed.

Perhaps the absence of costumes reflects the fact that the fans don't love the books for the escapism into a supernatural world. Rather, they love them because they can relate to them and see themselves in the characters.

The characters are very true to real teenagers, Hall said. In comparing the hallways of Sheridan High School with the hallways of the movie's high school, Ekstrom said, "We act how they act."