Review of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) by Edith N — 15 Aug 2010

Buffy Opens Her Eyes and Opens Her Eyes Again.

The thing is, I don't like the TV show. Never have. It's just never done anything for me. I don't hold it against the fans of the show, as I do with certain other vampires, but I do wish they'd stop assuming that I'm a fan just because they are. In certain circles, you're just going to have to come to terms with things like that, though. Apparently, I am now expected to care about [i]Glee[/i], and I really don't see that happening any time soon, either. We've got this pin at faire about Buffy's staking Edward, and another one stating that the wearer is Team Buffy, and all I can think is, "You know, or maybe Mina." Or the original, not-Hugh Jackman Van Helsing; he was pretty cool, too. Shoot, I'd settle for Team Michael. Don't any of my friends prefer [i]The Lost Boys[/i] to all this?

Buffy (Kristy Swanson) is the quintessential Valley Girl, that dread specimen from the next valley over from my childhood home. She is a total ditz, concerned with cheerleading, shopping, her shallow friends (Michele Abrams, Paris Vaughan, and actually Hilary Swank), and her obnoxious boyfriend (Randall Batinkoff). And one day, Merrick (Donald Sutherland) comes to town and tells Buffy (who has no last name in the movie) that she is the Chosen One, destined to fight the vampires who have begun appearing in her hometown. She is annoyed by this, because he expects her to miss cheerleading practice so she can take vampire-killing lessons. When she finally decides that she really does need to acknowledge who she is, she is joined by Pike (Luke Perry), whom she had previously scorned as a total loser.

There is a long tradition of people getting a call to glory they don't expect and can't handle. Buffy may have the whole destiny thing, but at the same time, she isn't quite sure how to deal with who she is now. Perhaps the best scene in the movie is when she's walking with her friends and realizing that what they say, what she would have said herself just a few days earlier. She didn't realize she was changed that much, and now that she has, she isn't sure how she was ever that person in the first place. Was she really that shallow, that vapid, that ignorant? Why, yes. Yes, she was. I don't recall how the show dealt with the fact that there's no going back, but the stuff I do remember suggests that she has to learn that particular lesson a lot. I'm not saying there's no such thing as having your change be temporary, but there are some kinds which just aren't.

I tell you, though, I really want to slap that costume designer. Yes, one of Buffy's friends is wearing a jacket I've seen in [i]Heathers[/i], and a lot of the other costumes are similar. There's very little which would have been unfamiliar to me in that time and place, though it would have been stuff that Those People wore. We wouldn't have. Luke Perry's clothes? Yeah, okay. But the thing is, Carrie White would have found that prom dress hopelessly out-of-date. And even if you wanted something more traditional, something with a long, full skirt to be torn, that doesn't mean that the bodice is something humans in the '90s would wear. I'm not sure she'd even be able to find it in stores. And the vampires take the silly leather gear of [i]The Lost Boys[/i] to the next step.

I wonder, sometimes, what it would be like if the show hadn't been so popular. Any qualities the movie may or may not have were lost when the show hit. I know Joss Whedon doesn't like the movie, and I do understand that. The show was closer to his vision. Indeed, when the time came for him to reveal Buffy's origin, show-Buffy, he went with what was in the original script. The movie, he says, is basically in an alternate universe which does not have anything in common with the TV show, the comics, or any other Buffy-centric products Whedon cares to produce in any form. Which, okay. Fine. As the creator, he has an absolute right to that, and I'm certainly not going to tell him he doesn't. However, I still like it, and I'm actually kind of curious--all things considered, how did they make it into a show in the first place?