Peter Murphy to Cameo in Teen Vampire Movie Sequel

MTV reports former Bauhaus lead singer Peter Murphy will appear in a cameo role in the sequel to teen-angst-vampire movie Twilight entitled Eclipse. Murphy will apparently play an older predecessor to the fighting vampire factions in the Twilight movie series, which has become one of the top teen entertainment franchises in the history of American entertainment. One of the movie’s stars, Billy Burke, told reporters he was a big fan of Murphy’s work.

Was there an ulterior motive to bringing in the former Bauhaus frontman? Considering that the band is considered the most recognizable Darkwave band from the late 70s and early 80s, producers might be trying to attract an older crowd to come in and spend some money on watching Eclipse. Coming from a marketing and branding standpoint, it will probably have little effect beyond the initial buzz at the box office. Rabid fans, however, may wind up purchasing or renting the DVD when it comes out simply to see Murphy in action. If that was the prevailing thought, then it might be interesting to see how much more the cameo might mean to overall revenues.

If the producers are trying to gain “credibility” with an older generation, then the plan will likely be a failure. The vampire fad is strictly a teenage phenomenon and may have waned by the time Eclipse goes to DVD although the movie series is likely to remain popular amongst that demo for as long as they can make movies.

I did not see Twilight and have no interest in seeing Eclipse despite Murphy’s appearance. Darkwave music of the 80s may have been a pre-cursor to the “depressed teen” music of the 1990s that saw commercial success, but fans of that era may consider themselves too purist to see an overly-commercialized box-office blockbuster to go out of their way to see Eclipse just for a few moments of Murphy.