Buffy the Vampire Slayer film Directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui

 Buffy the Vampire Slayer film 

 Directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui

So what if there was a movie that had Luke Perry, Seth Green, Ben Affleck, Hillary Swank, Paul Rubens, and Donald Sutherland all together with dialogue written by Joss Whedon? (I mean, knowing what we know now about Joss?  Or not? {I’ll get to him in his own time, wait for it}) What if I told you this movie was produced by a company owned by Dolly Parton? (She is precious, and gets to live when the revolution comes.{I will note that the editors opinions are the not opinion of the review series}) Welcome to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Filmed in 5 weeks with a budget of 7 million dollars, you wouldn't think this film was the advance warning of a 7 season pop culture juggernaut that would launch multiple careers and create a multimedia franchise that would affect our views on vampires, werewolves, various other monsters and those who hunt them? Yet, here we are over 20 years later and I know people who aren't nerds who make Buffy Summers jokes. A quick google search shows articles being written about the show in 2021 when the show ended in 2003. Hell, there are still people writing fanfiction of this show! So let's dive in. 

Fran Rubel Kuzui is an American-born film director and producer. She received her master's degree at New York University and worked as a script supervisor for a decade before her first film. That film was 1988's Tokyo Pop which she not only directed but co-wrote. It was released in the Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim. It was there that she discovered the script to Buffy the Vampire Slayer written by the then little-known Joss Whedon (don't worry we'll get to him). She helped expand the character of Buffy and with her husband Kaz Kuzui, pulled together the deal to produce the film. She would later be a producer for the television show and its spin-off Angel. 

The making of the film was rocky, Mr. Whedon walked off the set upset at the changes they made to the story and the tone. As well as the fact that they basically let Donald Sutherland rewrite his dialogue on a whim (And it was glorious.). I think part of that might be the 5-week filming limit, imposed by the need to get Luke Perry back to his show Beverly Hills 90210 (So THAT’S where he got famous. Always wondered here he came from.  Kinda thought he was a thirst trap in this movie when I was younger…). I mean when you’ve got 5 weeks and your biggest star and veteran performer decides his lines are better, there's a lot of pressure to just let him have his way and get to the next scene I think. Originally written to be a fairly dark and fairly disturbing comedy (we'll go more into the changes in the next review folks) the studio pushed for a lighter tone and the removal of the more objectionable and darker events of the storyline. To the point that Mr. Whedon has announced the film non-canon to the main Buffy universe (Which, given he created it is, is his right. Even if he is scum. {I bloody well said wait for it!} That doesn’t mean we can’t make our own folks.  Death of the author and all that.). 

The film is about Buffy, a cheerleader and utterly neglected only child of a wealthy family (Funny thing, after a certain point, wealth actually starts to decrease life expectancy and happiness.  The sweet spot is about 80-100k per year, adjusted for the cost of living.  Funnily enough, this is about what tenured scientists make.  We study our own graphs, you see.  I make about half that though, because of civil service.). At the start of the film, Buffy is a very superficial and frankly air-headed high school senior whose biggest concern is making sure the senior dance goes well and staying in the good graces of her equally superficial friends. She is forced to grow up and realize that there's more going on in the world around her when she gets pulled into a war. Because she's been born as the Slayer, a girl with superpowers meant to hunt down and kill vampires and various creatures of the night. She's informed of all this by Merrick, a watcher, a person whose duty it is to track down Slayers, train them, and set them loose on said monsters. 

That said, the Slayers in the film aren't very impressive. They seem to be a long line of chosen girls who kill a number of newbie vampires and then get killed by the head vampire, Lothos, played by Rutger Hauer and his right hand Amilyn. A bit of a fun fact, Amilyn was originally written to be played by a woman but the actress was unable to take part so they hired... Paul Reubens, who's mainly known for playing Pee-Wee Herman (I didn’t even recognize him.  Good makeup work.). Now, I'm usually against type casing and I honestly believe we should let actors try different roles and things instead of straight jacketing them but Reubens is about as threatening as a bowl of lukewarm oatmeal here. He just isn't ‘creature of the night material (He was good comic-relief though. {He’s supposed to be the hatchetman of the main villain! We’re supposed to view him as a threat not as a giggle!}). 

 Honestly, Hauer isn't much better as his main role seems to be to walk into the scene, look at the slayer, tell them to come over here, and bite them without the ladies in question offering much resistance. Often flouncing about in clothes that make him look like a renfaire cosplayer having a mid-life crisis (Don’t judge them.{The cosplayers?  No judgment but I demand my vampires look more threatening than that!}). Which makes you wonder how the Slayers got their reputation in the first place and honestly leaves me questioning if the Watchers are actually training vampire slayers or if they're just feeding athletic girls to Lothos to keep him distracted (Maybe it’s a “Lothos gets to them before they get good” kinda thing. {for over 7 generations}). That said Reubens and Hauer do have some fun scenes together. 

The lack of menace, however, undercuts the film, even as characters are killed. Part of the problem is how indifferent everyone besides Buffy and Pike (Luke Perry's character) are to people they know turning up brutally murdered. I know this is meant to underscore how callous and superficial the characters are but combined with the comedic tone of the movie, the overall feeling is... Eh? Beyond that the acting is alright but I feel bad decisions were made in the casting beyond just non-threatening vampires. There's a lack of chemistry between Luke Perry and Kristy Swanson for example. This is maybe why the character of Pike just completely disappears from the story in the television show. Overall the movie isn't bad, I laughed at most of the jokes (although Reuben's death scene went on too long to be funny) and the dialogue isn't bad. The action is mostly okay but nothing special.

All that said, there is a good idea at the core of this movie, and Buffy even in the film is more interesting than the monsters she's killing. This is rare for a vampire hunter, I mean even Van Helsing, who is a very interesting character, takes a back seat to Dracula. I suppose to be fair, who doesn't take a backseat to motherfucking Dracula himself? Buffy, however, is mainly fighting off amped-up undead teenagers and vampires in the shape of middle-aged men, which isn't that deeply buried a metaphor. That said as a movie, I gotta give Buffy the Vampire Slayer a C-. As an adaptation, it scores much the same, as Whedon would later release his original script in a comic book form. Which we are gonna look at right now.