Review of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) by Michael V — 18 Jul 2011

This is the Ur-Buffy, the unlikely origin of what was to become one of the best dramatic television series ever created. In fact, the many faults in the 1992 movie probably made it all the more difficult, and more remarkable, that the mid-year replacement Buffy series became as successful as it did. (In my case, the movie deterred me from engaging with the TV series for a number of years, to my loss and regret).

Whedon's essential premise of an upside-down mad slasher arc, namely the female victim becoming the hunter, shines through the movie, as does the occasional Whedon bon mot that became a trademark of the later series. The problem is that the very element that made the TV series so watchable, namely character development, was left out of the 1992 movie. The vamps (Pee Wee in particular) are fun to watch, and it's interesting to see the early Hillary Swank. But there is no there there - when the Donald Sutherland character calls Buffy vacuous, he's right, she's just an early-90s Valley Girl, and hence the low grade. (Another example is to contrast the one-dimensional character of Buffy's mom in the film with the far more complex, and sympathetic Joyce Summers in the series). Even Whedon conceded at the '05 Paleyfest reunion that the '92 movie was a misfire.

For Buffy aficionados (of which I am one), the movie is at best a curious historical artifact. Snatches of it bubble up in the arc of the later series (Buffy was kicked out of her L.A. high school for burning down the gym, etc.) but there really isn't much else of a meaningful cross-over, as there was with Whedon's later Firefly series and well-executed Serenity movie. The contrast between movie and series is also why many Buffy fans - myself included - view Hollywood plans to remake the '92 movie (without Whedon!) as a bad idea.