Buffy the Vampire Slayer (movie 1992, TV series first aired 1997)

 

Channel 4’s “100 Scariest Moments” list, #25:

 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

(movie 1992, TV series first aired 1997)

 

“If the apocalypse comes, beep me.”

-        Buffy explaining to Rupert that she needs a night off from saving the world

 

TV series based on films generally don’t work out, but then long-extended film franchises based on what were supposed to be stand-alone movies generally don’t work out either. But every once in a while, there’s a film, attractive because of its conceit, but unable to squeeze all its ideas into 1 ½ to 2 hours, and that begs the expansiveness of serial TV drama. Two examples of success are “M*A*S*H” (theatrical feature in 1970, followed by a long-running TV series with multiple spin-offs) and “Alien Nation” (theatrical feature in 1988, followed by a single-season TV series, then string of TV movies). Our subject here is an even more unlikely success than those two, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

 

The basic concept was that the world is secretly at war, between Vampires and Vampire Hunters, both hiding in the shadows, neither side wanting the other to become more powerful or too visible. The Vampire Hunters rely on various “Chosen Ones,” generally teenage girls, who are suddenly empowered with Superhuman strength and reflexes because they are unfortunate enough to be living near the nexus of the next great battle. A “Watcher” is dispatched to train and guide the Chosen One, also called the “Slayer,” but when it comes down to the main event, the girl mostly stands alone against the Forces of Darkness.

 

The original film was ok, but only that. It displayed some fine Writing by Josh Weldon but poorly Directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui. The Cast was mostly appealing, but based on their other work, most were not really putting their all in here.

 

The wonderful Rutger Hauer was the main Vampire, and not very good; he would not play a Vampire again until the “Salem’s Lot” remake (2004), and again, he wasn’t very good. No one should ever let Hauer play a Vampire.  

 

Kristy Swanson more was impressive as the title character Buffy Summers, but somehow never got half the career most expected of her.

 

The film didn’t bomb, but wasn’t exactly a hit either. But Weldon, just past 30-years but already having enormous TV Writing experience, was confident that there was more to the idea than film delivered, and convinced the fledgling WB network to back a series. It proved so successful that few “Buffy …” fans remember there ever a “Buffy …” movie in the first place.

 

Decades ago, I tried to explain the appeal of “Buffy …” to a non-Horror fan. I described it as a High-School-based Comedy of Manners that upped-the-stakes with Monsters. Dearest Buffy was obsessed with everything High School girls were supposed to be obsessed with, like picking the right dress for the prom, but her normal fretting was constantly interrupted by weekly assault by Supernatural threats.

 

Wrote Eve Barlow. “She's the small screen's answer to Sigourney Weaver's Ripley (Alien [1979]) and Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor (Terminator [1984]), except shamelessly girlish.”

 

The above conversation was sometime early in the run, and I had to admit to the person I was talking to that the series was way more comfortable with the Manners than the Monsters, but as the series progressed, the writing, acting, and basically everything, became more self-assured, and by the fourth season (1999, which was also a great year in Horror cinema, I wonder if there was a connection?) it was just as scary as it was funny.

 

Oddly, the ratings started slipping in the fourth season, just when the show was hitting its creative stride. Still, it remained hugely popular, and in season six it was moved to a new network, UPN as an anchor for the new network (both WB and UPN were owned by the same company, Warner Brothers). It was also an early triumph in the DVD market, and perhaps prophesized that new viewing technologies were creating new viewing options that would eventually threaten the foundations of the older network TV business model.

 

In the series, Actress Swanson was replaced by Sarah Michelle Gellar, and even now, this remains Ms. Gellar’s defining role. Gellar described the show as, "the ultimate metaphor: horrors of adolescence manifesting through these actual monsters. It's the hardest time of life."

 

There’s no direct correlation with Hauer’s character, but the Watcher, who was played in the film by Donald Southerland, was replaced with Anthony Head as Rupert Giles, and he was utterly charming in the part. One key to the series popularity was its ensemble Cast, which was largish in season one, and underwent repeated expansions and replacements across the show’s seven seasons. Among the most popular were:

 

Angel, played by David Boreanaz, a Vampire trying to go-good, and a love-interest of Buffy’s.

 

Spike, a very bad Vampire played by James Marsters, who eventually decides (or was forced) to go-good, and also becomes another love-interest of Buffy’s.

 

Willow Rosenberg, played by Alyson Hannigan, one of Buffy’s friends who eventually develops her own supernatural powers and became the center of some groundbreaking TV treatment of LGBT issues.  

 

Cordelia Chase, played by Charisma Carpenter, a vain Mean Girl who incrementally displays she’s smarter, and more compassionate, than she first appears.

 

Xander Harris, played by Nicholas Brendon, another friend of Buffy’s, torn by is unrequited love for her, then having problematic relationships with Willow and Cordelia, before finally settling into a long-term relationship with a Supernatural Demon named Anya, played by Emma Caulfield. Apparently, Xander was the character Wheldon based on himself.

 

Buffy’s allies start calling themselves the Scooby Squad, a reference to the animated TV series “Scooby Doo” (first aired 1969). The perceived connection between the essentially unrelated live-action series and the cartoon was strong enough that when “Scooby Doo” became a series of live-action films (first film 2002) Gellar was given a lead role.

 

One of the key pleasures of the series was the deft gymnastics of the writing. This was first evident in the satire of High School Manners, but later in the incremental expansion of the Mythology surrounding the Chosen One and her purpose. Repeatedly faced with the Apocalypse, the Writers managed to up-the-ante with some skill each time. Also, they pulled off a few things that they should’ve bombed on, like Buffy waking up one morning in the fifth season and having to deal with a little sister that she never had before, Dawn, played by Michelle Trachtenberg. (This trope is called a Retroactive Continuity, or Retcon, and it is almost never done well.)

 

The series also delt with relationships with legitimate complexity, and one that I found especially notable concerned Riley Finn, played by Marc Blucas, and how the absurdity of the premise was successfully integrated and reflected real (or real-enough) emotion.

 

Buffy’s Mythology starts with the fact that her High School and later College sat on a Hell Mouth, which is exactly what it sounds like. In the fourth season, while she attending College, she became aware of the Covert Organization financed by the US Government that had a similar interest in Vampires and other Monsters as the Watchers. Riley was one of those Covert Ops, and after some initial hesitation, he and Buffy start dating. Now Buffy clearly has a thing for Vampires, so she clearly has a thing for Bad Boys, but Riley, in addition to being a brave Marine-type, was actually a really good guy (the increasingly jealous Spike often referred to him as “Captain Cardboard”).

 

From the beginning, the Writers make it clear that Buffy and Riley don’t belong to together, but Riley was still the nicest guy Buffy ever had, so they both keep trying to make it work in the midst of all the Monster-killing stuff, which was something they were both were really good at.

 

This brings me to the season four episode “Hush,” of which there is a general consensus that it was one of the series’ finest moments. When the episode begins, Riley and Buffy already know each other, but know nothing of each other’s secret lives. This episode was both Written and Directed Wheldon, who feared he was slipping into a creative slump and inspired by Critical responses that praised the shows quick-and-funny dialogue but showed less enthusiasm for many other aspects. He took this as a challenge, writing a script where the bulk of the story was dialogue-less (27 out of a total of 44 minutes).

 

The Monsters in “Hush” were the Gentlemen, Ghouls who steal the voices of everyone in town so that no one can hear their victims scream as the Gentlemen cut the innocents’ hearts out. As the Scooby Squad struggle to solve the mystery of these Monsters and save the town, they’re required to find other forms of communication, and some found that non-verbal communication is often deeper.

 

The Gentlemen are, without doubt, the series’ scariest Monsters, and were largely designed by Wheldon himself, based in-part on a childhood nightmare, but also combining elements of the Vampire from “Nosferatu” (1922), Pinhead from “Hellraiser” (1987), and the comical Villain Mr. Burns from “The Simpsons” (animated TV series that first appearing as a string of short-subjects 1987). They were elegantly dressed and constantly displaying polite gestures just before a kill, Wheldon legitimately asserted that their graceful movements were especially unsettling. One of the Gentlemen was played by Doug Jones, trained as a Mime, now most famous for his strong roles and toleration a grueling make-up jobs in the much-honored films of Writer/Director Guillermo Del Toro.

 

Even upping the creepiness, the comedy didn’t disappear, but some the humor was surprisingly melancholy. This is the episode where Buffy and Riley discover each other’s secret lives. Previously, Buffy and Riley were unable to act upon their mutual attraction because they couldn’t stop babbling (teenagers embarrassingly babbling is one of the series repeated, and most effective, dialogue tropes). In the midst of the increasing chaos and violence, they prove perfectly in simpatico; after a series of eyebrow movements and simply mouthed, silent, questions, they share their first kiss, and then fight back the Monsters in flawless co-operation.

 

But when the battle is over, and everyone’s speech is restored, Buffy and Riley suddenly realize they don’t know what to say to each other.

 

“Buffy …” is notorious for being snubbed by the Emmys. True, it garnered ten nominations, two of which led to wins, but the snubs still remain undeniable.

 

It’s two wins were for Outstanding Music Composition (Christophe Beck) and Outstanding Makeup (Mark Shostrom), both from the second season. But far superior work in both categories would be represented later in the run and unrecognized (for example, the makeup for the Gentleman).

 

The above described “Hush” was nominated for Outstanding Writing, but that was the only Writing Nomination it ever got despite being among the best written series of its era. The same episode earned a nomination for Outstanding Cinematography (Michael Gershman), but again, it was the only episode thus nominated.

 

Worst of all, the ensemble Cast was outstanding, yet there wasn’t a single nomination for Acting during the seven-year-run.

 

Gellar was solid in season one and dug deeper into Buffy over-time. She really hit her stride in season five, the weird move of suddenly giving Buffy a little sister was intended to deepen Gellar’s performance, and the weird tactic paid-off in spades. There is exceptionally strong fan resentment that Gellar wasn’t nominated for her work the same season when Buffy if forced to cope with grief, and radically increased (but more mundane) responsibilities, after her mother, Joyce, played by Kristine Sutherland, dies of natural causes (probably the only person to die of natural causes during the show’s run).

 

Hannigan, as Willow, was even better than Gellar in the first season, and just kept getting stronger as time went on. A wallflower hiding exuberance, each of her relationships were deeply left, and she peaked in season six, when she’s twisted by grief and rage after the murder of her girlfriend, Tara Maclay, played by Amber Benson, and later traumatized by realization what her rage and powers could do.

 

Each-and-every leading character, including the repeat Monsters, were exceptionally well-drawn and preformed, and most developed strong, individual, fan-bases. Weldon explored spin-offs for several, including Rupert, Willow, and Riley. One spin-off was realized, involving Angel, and Spike and Cordelia (titled “Angel” and first aired 1999 and saw Kuzui’s return to the franchise, and Executive Producer). Nearly two decades after cancelation, new spin-offs are still under consideration. Even without a TV spin-off, there’s a steady stream of novels, comics, and other merchandise.

 

The series fused Comedy and Drama in a manner that was rare before, but much imitated later. It worked with long story-arcs at time when they were a hit-and-niss proposition on prime-time TV. It also was early in the trend of building a show around stronger female leads, and now TV has a notable lack of the male leads that had been the norm during “Buffy’s …” time. It also played with its own format repeatedly, even having a much-imitated Musical episode: “Once More, with Feeling,” season six, which received an Emmy Nomination for Best Musical Direction, but shockingly not for Original Musical Composition, Makeup, Cinematography, or Writing, all of which were well-deserved.

 

Among the lead Writers was Marti Noxon, she joined the staff in the second season, was Co-Producer by the third season, and Executive Producer by the six. She also Directed two season five episodes. Her input to an already Feminist-leaning show seemed to focus on reimagining the role of the male characters in the context of stronger-and-stronger females. She has been quoted as saying that even though “Buffy …” was ground-breaking regarding sex-roles, "I think that there definitely still is sort of a TV double standard working, which is that girls have to be skinny and cute."

 

Noxon has convincingly made the case that the male characterization in the show broke more ground that the female, or as Allie Gottlieb, summarizing her interview with Noxon, put it, “the male characters take on what are typically considered feminine traits--loving, nurturing, pining, irrationality, being physically weak but having strong emotions -- and yet they are still attractive.” This was most notable in Xander who, increasingly intimidated because he was the only member of the Scooby Squad without Magical Powers or Military training, still manages to save the world in season six through an act of purest compassion. Then there’s Spike, who had to surrender much of his power and impulsiveness in seasons five and six in order to have a fighting chance at eventually becoming decent.

 

This was clearly, exactly, what Wheldon wanted; from an interview, “And while I spend my entire career trying to subvert our notions of masculinity and femininity, I also have to have some grounding in the fact that some of them are based in reality — but some of them are also based in sociology, and those are the ones that have to be done away with, because they are nonsense. There is so much misogyny that is just unspoken or even unknown, among the most civilized.”

 

Even with diminishing ratings, the show remained a hit, with a fan base as obsessed as those who earned “Star Trek” (first aired in 1966) a third season after it was officially canceled. In the end, what killed the show wasn’t ratings, but that Gellar wouldn’t sign on for season eight; she was getting more movie offers and fearful of typecasting. (She was sure right about typecasting, if she’s remembered for anything other than this show, it’s her other Horror-related stuff, not her several Rom-Coms, or her pre-Buffy Emmy.)

 

There were also reports that Wheldon, already stepping back from the show, wanted to move onto other things -- these would include the “Firefly” franchise (starting as a TV series in 2002) and both film and TV work adapting the comics of both DC and Marvel.

 

More recently, Wheldon has run into public troubles, likely trigged by the spectacular fall of Hollywood Uber-Producer Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein’s sexually abusive behavior was an open secret for decades, publicly exposed in 2017, was convicted of multiple sexual felonies in 2018, and still facing further trials for additional sexual felonies as I write this.

 

Though Wheldon is not accused of anything on Weinstein’s scale, many members of the cast and crew of “Buffy …” and several of his other projects have come forward accusing him of abusive behavior. Despite the shows Feminist themes, and the elevation of female characters and behind-the-camera staff, he’s been labeling his behavior as, "gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable" (so very un-Xander-like). Though the bulk had to do with how he treated women, the first accusation made public came from a male Actor, Ray Fisher, who in 2020 publicly decried Wheldon’s conduct during the production of the movie “Justice League” (released 2017). This was followed by “Buffy …” actresses Carpenter and Trachtenberg coming forward with their own allegations in 2021 which were more serious that Fisher’s. Soon, Writers and Cast members of numerous Wheldon projects came forward, mostly not claiming to have been personally harassed, but speaking out in support of Fisher, Carpenter, Trachtenberg, and others, attesting to how he created a toxic work environment.

 

There has been an impact on Wheldon’s career. In 2020 he was helming “The Nevers” TV series, but he exited from before it aired in 2021 and his name was removed from the credits.

 

Trailer for film:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer | #TBT Trailer | 20th Century FOX - YouTube

 

Trailer for TV show:

BUFFY: Season One TRAILER - YouTube