Sorry, Jonas Brothers. It's vampires who really make the girls scream.

At Mall of America on Friday afternoon, a crowd of 1,200 "Twi-hards" -- all but a handful of them teenage girls -- raised the roof during an appearance by three actors from the vampire-love film "Twilight," premiering at midnight Thursday. The decibel level was "the loudest I've ever heard for any event here," said mall spokesman Dan Jasper.

Never mind that Taylor Lautner, Rachelle Lefevre and Edi Gathegi were not the film's stars but peripheral characters. The impetus for this unholy din is a book series by Stephenie Meyer  that has rocketed from niche lit to best-selling craze. The four-book "Twilight" series follows a vampire boy in love with a human girl, and it has spawned an unusually intense obsession. Meyer's vampires don't have fangs (just venom-coated teeth), and the good ones ("vegetarians") only attack animals, not people.

The series is often compared to the Harry Potter phenomenon because of its age-spanning appeal -- moms like it as much as their daughters -- and magical intrigue. While only 17 million "Twilight" books have been sold compared with 40 million for the Potter series, the hysteria factor seems several notches higher. Crowds became unruly at mall appearances in San Francisco and Chicago by the film's headline heartthrob, Robert Pattinson (who played Potter pal Cedric Diggory in the wizard flicks). Security was tight and vigilant at the MOA event. The crowd was orderly, except for the premature squealing and chants of "Taylor! Taylor!"

Were the fangirls packed in a row closest to the stage disappointed that the Twin Cities didn't rate a visit from Pattinson, who plays conflicted vampire Edward?

"I love Edward, but I'll take anyone we can get," said breathless 13-year-old Elena Montanye, of Eau Claire, Wis., who got up at 4 a.m. to make the trek to the MOA. She said she loves the "Twilight" series because "it just feels so really real. It really does."

In an interview earlier in the day, actor Gathegi addressed why this vampire story, amid thousands of stories that seem similar, has caught on.

"Meyer has turned vampire mythology on its head," Gathegi said. "She gives logical explanations for questions like, 'Do vampires exist?' that makes the story really believable."

Meyer's fan Melissa Herzog, 33, of Blaine was initially resistant to the vampire angle of the "Twilight" books. "I'm not into vampires, but I'm into this," she said. "Edward has the maturity of a 100-year-old man in a 17-year-old's body, he's devastatingly beautiful, he's very expressive and protective -- the ideal boyfriend, except for the tiny detail that he's a vampire."

The appeal may be growing fastest among adult women (see the website twilightmoms.com), many of whom haven't been interested in paranormal books before. La Donna Norenberg got hooked after checking out what her daughter Hope, 10, was reading to see whether it was appropriate.

"I read the first four books in eight days," she said.

With this much interest, there has to be a tie-in merchandising racket. And there was: If you bought a $30 Twilight T-shirt from the Hot Topic store, you got one of 750 wristbands for the privilege of standing in line to get autographs after the Q & A. They quickly sold out.

Korajane Merchak's grandmother just had triple bypass surgery, but the 14-year-old from Hudson, Wis., and her mother, Leaha, were not about to miss the "Twilight" cast appearance just because "they moved the surgery up by two weeks."

"It was really important to [Korajane]," said mom, adding that they were on their way back to the hospital.

Larry Roberts of Eden Prairie was the odd man out, standing zenlike at the front of the security ropes, camera poised. He was helping out his daughter, Shelby, farther back in the crowd. "This is normal," he said. "It's teenage girls. What more can I say?"

When 16-year-old Lautner -- the crowd favorite -- and his cohorts finally took the stage, they might as well have been speaking Swahili. Few in the crowd could hear a word they were saying, but Pavlovian screaming ensued every time their lips moved.

After the axis of intense adoration left the stage, the crowd seemed to deflate more than disperse. Reinah Thom, 15, leaned over a railing, her face registering a mixture of bliss, exhaustion, shock. She and four friends from Jordan High School had ditched school to get here. After hours of standing packed like sardines, had it been worth it?

"YES," they chorused with renewed energy. "Taylor is so hot, way cooler than the JoBros," etc.

Despite all the buzz on the film, sequels based on the rest of the books are not a sure deal. It will have to gross $150 million for its small studio, Summit Entertainment, to greenlight shooting the next book in the series, "New Moon." For that, it will have to appeal to men and boys as well as girls and women.

Kristin Tillotson • 612-673-7046