Edward Cullen shared a dark part of his past with his soon-to-be-wife Bella Swan in Breaking Dawn - Part 1, but when exactly did those events happen? Vampires are some of the most popular creatures in pop culture, and in 2005, the world met a new type of vampires in Stephenie Meyer’s novel Twilight, the first entry in what would become a series of four novels. The core of the story was the often problematic relationship between mortal Bella Swan and vampire Edward Cullen, who had to overcome a couple of obstacles, such as a pack of werewolves and a group of vampires called “the Volturi”.
Twilight saw the beginning of Edward and Bella’s relationship, mostly focusing on Bella getting to know Edward and his family, and adapting to the fact that vampires are real, though not like the legends said. Through her, readers and later viewers learned everything there was to know about these sparkly vampires, such as their physical characteristics, their different lifestyles, their hierarchies, and more. Bella and Edward’s relationship reached its highest point in Breaking Dawn, which for The Twilight Saga was divided into two parts, and where they finally got married. As a relationship must be all about trusting your partner, before their wedding in Breaking Dawn - Part 1, Edward had a confession to make, which took viewers many years back to take a look at Edward’s past.
Edward and the rest of the Cullens are what they call “vegetarians”, as they don’t feed on human blood, instead drinking it from animals. Of course, not all vampires choose such a life, and it takes a lot of work and patience for a vampire to be able to fully control themselves in front of humans and the presence of blood. With that in mind, in Breaking Dawn - Part 1, the night before their wedding, Edward decided to share with Bella a bit of what his life was like before he joined the Cullen family and changed his lifestyle, and for that, the movie took viewers back a few decades – and while there’s no title card indicating when exactly the scene is set, the movie Edward was watching in the cinema gives a good hint.
Edward explained to Bella that a few years after Carlisle “created him”, he rebelled and went his own way as he wanted to know what it felt like to hunt and taste human blood. The movie then took viewers to a cinema, many, many decades ago, where a man was stalking a young woman, but Edward was quicker, and he killed the man, feeding on him. Edward continued explaining that all the men he killed were monsters, but so was he. The movie playing at the theater was Bride of Frankenstein, released in 1935, and the decoration and clothing of Edward and the rest fit with the decade. Now, Edward was turned into a vampire in 1918, when he was dying of Spanish influenza, so he was still a pretty young vampire when he decided to leave Carlisle and hunt on his own.
Luckily for him (and the humans around him, too), Edward realized that wasn’t a fair way to live, and to stop feeling like a monster, he returned with Carlisle and fully transformed into a “vegetarian” vampire, and while he managed to control himself quite well around human blood, he never reached Carlisle’s mastery. The flashback in Breaking Dawn - Part 1 is an interesting look at what Edward did as a young vampire and what his intentions truly were, as he only killed men he considered “monsters”, though that also made him feel like one.