By Mary O’KEEFE

In case you haven’t read a newspaper, watched television or spoken to a teenager in the past few weeks you may not have heard the second in the “Twilight” vampire series has been released.

“New Moon” was released on Nov. 20. Since then it has brought in $230.7 million. Ah, the power of teenage girls and their moms. Yes, their moms. Over Thanksgiving holiday my friend and I went to “New Moon” with our daughters. The first thing I noticed was how many moms were there. This is a unique phenomenon. Usually when you bring your teenage daughter to the movies, you pull up in front, she and her friends jump out giggling and looking to see who else is there. Moms are an after thought. But not this time.

I seem to be the only one who has not read the “Twilight” series so maybe that is why I don’t really understand the draw of these films. The two troubled teens, one a vampire and the other a human, longingly (and I stress long-ing-ly) look at each other or in some cases at the side of each other throughout the entire movie. I get that this is a difficult relationship. The vampire, Edward, loves Bella so much he would leave her to spare her from being hurt.  Bella loves Edward so much she cannot physically function without him. This part bothered me a little. I was uncomfortable watching a young girl so involved with a boyfriend that she has nightmares and puts herself in dangerous situations.

“No, that’s not it! You don’t understand this is her true love.”

That statement was not made by my daughter but my editor Robin. Yes, she is a Twilighter. Since Robin has four boys there was not a lot of Twilight interest in her household. She and my daughter have bonded over this vampire love story.

This new film has an added twist with a love triangle between Edward, Bella and Jacob, who is a werewolf. Now I missed most of the opening dialogue between Jacob and Bella because my daughter and her friend were screaming and applauding. At one point this very healthy boy took off his shirt; my ears are still ringing from the screams.

Beyond his biceps and eight-pack abs, Taylor Lautner who portrayed Jacob is a really good actor. He brought humor and life to the film. I actually started enjoying the movie when he was on screen.

“And he was so hot,” said Amanda Hayn, a teenager and the target audience for the film. “I really liked this film more than the first one. I think it was closer to the book.”

This is a girl’s movie but that doesn’t mean that guys don’t want to see what all the screaming is about. My daughter went to “New Moon” a second time as “the girl.” Three of her friends who were boys wanted to see it but didn’t want to walk in to a “chick flick” by themselves.

“Yeah, we wanted to have a girl with us,” said Demitra Campos. “I read the books and they were good, not just chick books.”

He agreed with Hayn that this second film followed the books more closely than the first.

“The movie was good. Some of the special effects were a little cheesy but I would still give it a seven out of 10,” he said.

To be honest I liked this film better than the first one partly because of Lautner bringing some energy onto the screen. Dakota Fanning also had a small but memorable role.

I sat through the first ”Twilight” film and swore I would not go to the second one but now I am looking at the series differently. Moms get to sit with their daughters in a movie theater and for a couple of hours they are all teenager girls again.

Who knew a vampire would build a bridge between the generation gap?