Tag Line : Sometimes it takes more than just good looks to kill.

In case you didn't already know, long before becoming a cult TV show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer actually started life back in the early 90's as a feature film. However, for those fans of the TV series who have yet to see the original film, you may be in for a bit of a disappointment.

Buffy (originally played here by Kristy Swanson), appears to be your average high school girl. That is until she has a bizarre encounter with a man named Merrick Jameson-Smyth (Donald Sutherland) who informs her that there is more to her life than just cheerleading for the schools basketball team, and going out shopping with her friends.

Yes, it turns out that Buffy is none other than "the chosen one". A vampire slayer of the highest order who's destiny it is to, well...., slay vampires of course. Obviously, Buffy doesn't believe him at first, but after bumping into the chief vampire Lothos (played by none other than Rutger Hauer), and his cohorts, she realises that there's more to Merrick, and indeed herself, than meets the eye.

Luke Perry turns up as a young mechanic who gets embroiled in Buffy's vampire hunting antics after she rescues him from several of Lothos's bloodsuckers, and David Arquette puts in an amusing performance as one Buffy's goofy friends (type casting again). On the whole, this isn't a BAD film, but it's not a particularly good one either. The fight scenes are too few and far between, the acting by the films major stars, Sutherland and Hauer, is terrible (indeed this has been referred to as Rutger Hauer's worst film), and the entire film seems far too campy on the whole.

I rather got the impression that the director was trying to play the film for laughs but it didn't quite work, which is probably why so many critics panned it (although a lot of that may be down to the colossal mucking around with the original script). But it's not a total loss though, and there are some genuinely amusing scenes, but it's not a patch on the later TV show.

Overall Marks : 5/10.

Other Information.

• Buffy's last name was never mentioned in the movie. It wasn't until the TV show came out in the late 90's that she was referred to as "Buffy Summers".

• Joss Whedon's original version of the script was apparently more like the later TV show, but it was made a mess of by constant script changes by the director Fran Kuzui, and actor Donald Sutherland, who wanted his part re-written.

• Chat show host Ricki Lake appears in the role of Charlotte.

• In the original version of the script, Merrick committed suicide to escape being turned into a vampire by Lothos, who wanted to know the Slayer's identity so he could dispense with her.

• Ben Affleck, who was still relatively unknown at the time, has a brief role as one of the basketball players.

• Paul Rubens, who plays the idiotic vampire Amilyn, is actually a well known Children's TV show host in the US, better known as Pee Wee Herman.

• This was the first feature film "Hilary Swank" appeared in, who was then a relative unknown, long before shooting to fame in "Million Dollar Baby".

• Candy Clark, who plays Buffy's mum, has also appeared in "Cherry Falls", the 1988 remake of "The Blob", Steven King's "Cat's Eye", "Amityville 3" and "Q - The Winged Serpent".

Cast & Crew

Buy the UK DVD.

Buy UK episodes from the TV series

Buy the US DVD.

Buy US episodes from the TV series.

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