Not Much Rhymes Like Buffy
Joel Clark
Film Critic, Delano Eagle Newspaper
The movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer was made in 1992 by 20th Century-Fox. It was directed by Fran Rubel Kusui. The cast included Kristy Swanson as Buffy and that cool dude from 90210 Luke Perry as Buffy’s rebellious crush that she can only own up to when she’s a big shot vampire slayer with a leather jacket and prom dress to wear. The movie is rated PG-13 for desperate old vampires creeping on young women action.
The story goes that that a chosen women is destined to fight vampires through each period in history and bares a slayer’s birthmark. The movie captured the popular youth culture of the early 90s with the help of Luke Perry and his bum friend to mix it up with a bunch of hipsters on the scene. The movie follows Buffy and her cronies through cheerleading practice and to mall sabbaticals. The movie follows as a mix between Clueless and low grade action television. Thats not to say that Buffy didn’t have impressive jump kicks and high end gymnastic tumbles. The movie delivered on the tradition of training montage were the protagonist gets real focused for a while then inevitably comes down to hit bottom when the sweet old guy that follows Buffy to cheer practice dies while trying to protect her. The standard scenes have refreshing twists of humor where Buffy slays the right hand man of Dracula and he’s perfectly intent on dying but needs to go through the steps to describe it out loud for attention as he dies in the corner while everyone else is none shoulant. The cons would lay on the over used formulas and relation to build an uneventful climax fight scene between to head vampire and Buffy. I myself not being a avid fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer T.V. series I still enjoy the characters and interactions and splashes of vampire attack scenes. Comments towards Buffy the Vampire Slayer as film and theory I focus on its draw and allure to set the hook on audiences. This draw is weighted on the character and their allure. With this in mind I think of the psychoanalytic film theory which focus on the film’s elicitation of unconscious sources of pleasure. Fetishizing the body is can be noted in scenes were Buffy has bogus over the top outfits such as bright pink leotard tights as her training attire. While this may seem low brow to some it sells and has with stained a long running T.V. show and others like it on these ideals. I find these method is affective but there is a time and a place to apply these methods tastefully. My overall review for this movie is thumbs up on the grounds for some cheap kicks.
