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Unmissable
Excellent
Good
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FILM DETAILS

Certificate 15

Cast Kristy Swanson Donald Sutherland Rutger Hauer Luke Perry.

Directors Fran Rubel Kuzui.

Screenwriters Joss Whedon.

Running Time 94 minutes

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Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Vampire spoof written by Joss Whedon prior to producing a hit TV series based on the same premise.

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Plot
A bubble-headed valley girl discovers she has inherited the mantle of Slayer, destined to hold back the legions of undead threatening the world, well, California at least.

Review
Now superseded (and bettered) by the television series it inspired, this spoof vampire flick's sole joke is that the heroine (Kristy Swanson) is a blonde, L.A. airhead rather than a beefed-up stake-toter, mentored by Donald Sutherland's deadpan Watcher.

Cluttered with B-list names: Luke Perry (in need of a slap), David Arquette (as Perry's vampirised pal), Rutger Hauer (lisping his lines through a gobful of fangs) and Swanson (good at kickboxing, but a bland heroine), it's full of dated pop music, silly wisecracking vampires and slapstick horror with one-note characters and senseless plotting, but Whedon's distinctive ear for teen-speak is already in evidence. ("Why do I have to learn about El Salvador? Like I'm ever going to Spain.")

Writer Joss Whedon has since claimed that his original, darker script was fluffed up by the studio for the teen crowd, but the basic premise is still sound. Watch out for future A-listers like Hilary Swank (Buffy's airhead pal), and an uncredited Ben Affleck (who gets snarled at by a vampire on the basketball court).

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Released: 06 May 2002 Three trailers and short 1992 featurette.

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Average user rating for Buffy The Vampire Slayer

I stand by this film! I've always thought it hilarious, very original, and not so much a footnote to the series as an excellent prologue to it. Very funny, and a great introduction to the World O' Whedon! ... More

Posted by Shaunette_ofthe_Dead at 10:54, 13 June 2006 | Report This Post

Oops

One word: Oops. ... More

Posted by Jessica_ca_ca_ca at 08:54, 09 May 2006 | Report This Post

RE: a big mess

After watching the film again, it's not that bad. The script has a few Whedonesque one-liners but it's hindered by a director with precious little feel for comedy or horror. Fans of the series would be better off doing a Google search for the original script or reading the graphic novel "The Origin".   At the time of the movie's release, I remember Barry Norman saying "Norman Tebbit looks like a vampire, the snooker player Ray Reardon looks like a vampire, but unfortunately Rutger Haue... More

Posted by Angelus at 10:07, 08 May 2006 | Report This Post

RE: a big mess

I watched it YEARS ago when I was a nipper who was once fascinated by vampires (weird, I know...) and I remember just being baffled. It was really fluffy pseudo-dark-thriller/teen flick. Not quite Teen Wolf, but it gave us the series, didn't it? I actually even avoided the series until I was forced to watch it around a girlfriends house and found myself digging it. ... More

Posted by Monkey Wrench at 16:39, 07 May 2006 | Report This Post

a big mess

not very good what so ever, the vampires are terrible, the series is miles better, and everything stinks of stero-typical. ... More

Posted by Zaphod121 at 15:12, 07 May 2006 | Report This Post

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