Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Yes, the Buffy TV series is better; much, much better. It’s funnier, takes the horror element more seriously and can break your heart if you are inclined to let it. The 1992 film is best seen as a prototype, although it has more going for it than you may care to remember.

The story takes place before events in Sunnydale. Buffy is still an airhead, yet to learn what she is capable of. Happiest when cheerleading or hanging out with her vacant friends, Buffy has little interest in anything beyond her privileged little world. Naturally she is perturbed when an old man accosts her in a mall. Buffy is even more concerned when he turns up in her High School gymnasium and throws a knife at her head.

Buffy is 'The Chosen One,' the latest in a long line of vampire slayers. The old man is Merrick, her Watcher, who identifies Slayers then trains them. Interestingly, this Watcher is practically immortal, having been reborn many times, as the same person and to perform the exact same function. It doesn't make sense and is thankfully not carried on to the TV series. What if a Slayer dies when Merrick is still a toddler? Does the world have to wait for him to grow up? Or is he born a fully grown man? Yeeeww, as Buffy might say.

The biggest stumbling block for many viewers will be seeing Kristy Swanson playing Buffy. Unless you’re old enough to remember the film when it first came out, the idea of anybody else in Sarah Michelle-Gellar’s signature role will seem strange, like watching Jeffrey Hunter at the helm of the Starship Enterprise, or seeing Barry Nelson playing ‘Jimmy Bond’ in the 1956 TV version of Casino Royale.

While Gellar is a dainty little figure, Swanson looks physically strong. You suspect she could throw a decent punch even if she wasn’t a vampire slayer. While her Buffy starts out irritating, she gets more likeable as the importance of her destiny becomes clearer to her. Swanson also has a nice rapport with her co-star Donald Sutherland and the scenes between these two are amongst the best in the movie. Sutherland brings a world-weary air to Merrick, who has met and trained countless slayers over the years only to watch them die.

Trouble arrives in the shape of Rutger Hauer, and if trouble really could take form, it would probably look like Rutger Hauer. The vampire lord Lothos has arisen and wants to paint the town red, with blood, preferably Buffy’s. Hauer is as compelling as ever, but is given very little to work with. It’s as if the producers don’t want him to be too likeable, in case he steals the movie. You get the feeling the producers never trusted Whedon’s material. They get the joke; a blonde cheerleader fighting evil is funny, or at least it was back in 92’ long before Heroes gave us the indestructible Claire Bennet, but there is a jokey tone undercutting the darker elements of Whedon’s screenplay.

Still there’s enough of Whedon’s trademark wit left to make this version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer entertaining. A special mention must go to Stephen Root’s performance as a baby-boomer Headmaster trying to be cool with the kids by telling them about his experiences at Woodstock, then handing out detention slips to vampires when they invade his school.

Kevin S