Here’s the thing about the guy who’s making the hearts of teenage girls skip a beat: He hasn’t got one, himself.

FAn actual heartbeat, that is, but ask any one of his fans and they’ll gush a hundred compliments about him.

Heartless isn’t even a possibility.

“He’s so perfect. You fall in love with him,” said Jennafyr Geiuffrida, who was referring to Edward, the teenage vampire at the center of Stephanie Meyer’s “Twilight” book series.

A movie adaptation of the first novel opens today, and it’s expected to be a blockbuster. A teenage vampire as the new heartthrob? You betcha, though understanding the obsession with Edward and the love story between him and Bella, the series’ female protagonist, may be a little difficult for anyone too old to have a school locker combination.

Pandomonium is the only word that comes to mind to describe the reaction “Twilight” fans across the country are having to their anticipation of the movie opening.

Robert Pattinson, who was plucked from relative unknown status to play Edward in the film, has been greeted by legions of screaming, crying and, at times, hysterical girls at premieres and events.

Midnight showings were scheduled and the books, which top out at 1,000 pages, started flying off store shelves to newly recruited fans. The series’ popularity has been compared to the enthusiasm that surrounded the Harry Potter books and movies

So what's with the all fuss? How can a vampire - a far cry from the traditional sort, he has a warm soul and doesn't bite humans - be the guy every girl is dreaming of?

"He's intimidating," said Chelsea Bolierio, a high school junior. "But that's because he has every quality you could want in a guy. It's exciting and scary at the same time."

Ah, the male ideal. But, a vampire?

Edward isn't the first drop-undead gorgeous guy to inspire a romance fantasy.

The popularity of the late '90s TV show, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, was due in no small part to her tormented relationship with Angel, a cursed, do-gooder vampire.

Then there's HBO's True Blood, a series adaptation of "The Southern Vampire Mysteries," a book series by Charlaine Harris, which centers on the romance between Sookie, a mortal, and Bill, a very good looking vampire who has gone "mainstream" and admonished his killer ways. Do girls secretly want to date vampires?

No, says Leora Lev, a professor of foreign languages and womens and gender studies at Bridgewater State College. What they do want, she said, is the manifestation of an unattainable male partner.

"There's a starvation, in our hyper-sexualized environment of high school, for a concept of attachment and love," Lev said. "The vampire in this book is sort of a rock star idol. It speaks to a culture of desires, fears, fantasy and wish fulfillment."

The fulfillment is Edward, or Angel, or Bill, she said, and the wish is for "a boyfriend who is both hugely masculine and at the same time also loving and constant and absolutely devoted."

Edward's fans fully admit that's what draws them to the series, and that this romance with Bella is what keeps them reading.

"It's the kind of life and love you want," Bolierio said. "You just love the book because it's good. But you fall in love with the characters."

As with Buffy, the characters are high school students, so that makes them undoubtedly relatable for teenage fans. Geiuffrida said the way Meyers uses words, feelings and problems teenagers everywhere face is a definite plus.

"All the emotions are so true," she said. "Meyers really stays true to how a teenage acts, talks and feels."

Nicole Dionne, a senior, agreed.

"You can relate to the romance because Bella's a teenager and it's just like any other love-struck relationship," Dionne said. "But it's stronger because they're soul mates."

Lev said there may be a problem with that.

She said that while the characters and their relationships are interesting because they reveal what kinds of missing desires teenage girls are facing, the fact that they may be missing that kind of connection in their own relationships is startling.

She also worries that portraying Bella as someone who needs to be rescued is dangerous.

"It's almost prescribing a return to the extremely traditional and pre-feminist movement, with a woman in a weaker and more passive role," said Lev, who has read the first book in the series. "Bella does nothing but moon about this vampire. Of course, teenage girls do moon."

Moon they do, and plan to do today at the movies and probably over and over again through the books and eventual DVD.

Geiuffrida, Dioone and Bolierio all said they were excited to see the movie. Dionne has one issue with it, however.

"I don't like (Pattinson) at all," she said. "Edward is described as drop-dread gorgeous, and I think (Pattinson) is not that good looking at all."