STEPHENIE Meyer's best-selling Twilight novels, a series of teen fantasies in which vampires and mortals live side by side, have become one of the biggest publishing phenomena since Harry Potter.

Catherine Hardwicke's film, adapted for the screen by Melissa Rosenberg, was always going to be a licence to print money, so it comes as a pleasant surprise that despite many flaws, including a stilted dialogue and a generous grating of cheesiness, Twilight is an entertaining and sprightly romantic yarn.

Special effects are convincing without ever being dazzling and handsome leads Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson stare at one another with such intensity, it's hard not to be swept up in their characters' ill fated romance, as teenage misfit Bella Swan falls like a ton of bricks for alluring man-of-mystery Edward Cullen.

Her inamorata does his best to convince her their love is doomed – but when bloodthirsty predators begin to feed on the unsuspecting locals, the Cullens close ranks to protect Bella until a fast-paced finale, during which the fangs are finally bared.