Buffy the Vampire Slayer (movie)

 

 

 

 

 

 RELEASE DATE: July 31, 1992

STARS: Kristy Swanson, Luke Perry, Donald Sutherland, Rutger Hauer, Paul Reubens 

STUDIO: 20th Century Fox

WATCH FORMAT: Library rental 

PLOT: Buffy Summers is your typical high school cheerleader. That is until a strange man named Merrick arrives in town and admits that she is the "chosen one" destined to slay all vampires. Of course, Buffy believes that Merrick is a crazy person, until she sees the vampires for herself. Now she must train to fight, especially for the impending arrival of Lothos, the most evil vampire of all time. 

MY OPINION: It surprised me that this movie is what inspired the epic show that would come out years later. I remember watching the show a long time ago (actually I only watched the first two seasons, and only then I watched it because I had a huge crush on Sarah Michelle Gellar) and this movie is way different than the show. For one thing, it's a comedy. I don't remember that many funny moments from the show. but this movie had quite a few. One moment that I found funny was when Buffy stakes the Paul Reubens vampire and he spends the whole time whining and taking forever to die. There's  even a post-credit scene where he's still going at it. Also, any of the moments with the principal, played by Stephen Root, were funny, like when after the final battle is over and done with, he's going over all of the dead vampires and placing detention slips on their bodies. 

One thing I wasn't really fond of in this movie were the side characters, like Buffy's friends and her boyfriend. They were all jerks. During the school dance, the boyfriend reveals that he's breaking up with Buffy and that he left a break-up message for her on her answering machine. Ouch. Also, the friends are not that supportive. After Merrick is killed during a fight with Lothos, Buffy is graving and she tries to tell her friends what happened, but they get the wrong message and think that Merrick is Buffy's new boyfriend even though she was still seeing the a-hole boyfriend who would dump her later on and they chew Buffy out for "cheating" on him. Also, some of them were not too bright. During one big basketball game, one of the players was now a vampire, and they could not see it, even though the guy had fangs and pointy ears. Are they blind?

To my surprise, Joss Weadon, who would go on to create the show, was actually the writer of this movie, which like I said, was nothing like his show. He probably wanted a more gritty take when he made his show. 

Also, during the big game mentioned before, you can see a very young Ben Affleck as one of the players. You can tell right away that it's him. So it was pretty great to see the future Batman in one of his first roles.

In conclusion, this was an okay film, although not as grand as the epic show it would become. The side characters are not that likeable, but it did have a few well deserved funny moments, especially with the principal. Seriously, Stephen Root can never do wrong. 

I give this movie three staked Pee Wee Hermans out of five.