Customer Reviews
a decent fun film not to take seriously...however a footnote to the triumphant series - By: S. J. Pinder, 21 Jul 2008 
that just about says it...Kirsty Swanson & Donald Pleasance are decent enough in this film...it is very low budget & it lacks the credibility that the show(4 yrs later)had,and has no actual direction to go in.
Sarah Michelle Gellar is the definitive Buffy (and always will be)she was(is) superb in the role & is a very talented actress & throughout the 7 seasons she made them seven years of bliss...also the supporting cast became their own characters which made it for me the best tv show ever made.
this film however was ignored for the tv series(quite rightly so)to give it a fresh feel.
the supporting cast arent at alll strong here but the plot is reasonable(not worthy of oscars).
but give the film a go it has a B-movie feel to it & spoofs the genre to make it an entertaining experience,while not a masterpiece like the highly acclaimed tv show(and far far superior too).
but it is worthy of getting & not taking it at alll seriously :).
the origin of the term "Buffy bad" - By: Mrs. K. Allen-smith, 05 Oct 2007 
First off, I love Joss Whedon's work (if you haven't already go check out "Firefly" it is amazing. Buffy the series is an absolute favourite for me...but the movie makes Darla's schoolgirl routine in the first series look chic, the acting quality of the 1960's Batman programmes seem first rate & well, comparisons fail me for some of the special effects. There is a bit where 'buffy' catches a knife which is beyond lame.
I blame most of this on the fact the Joss didn't direct it. For he is god & surely this pile of crp can't be his fault.
As an origins story it has good points & it is interesting to see a first draft look at the slayer mythos... but for the love of alll that you hold dear - don't waste money buying it (unless you love camp/kitch so-bad-it's-good DIRE (add some hit die & increase the physical stats - sorry, ignore me) films) but if you're interested in the whole origins angle mentioned above, by alll means rent it.
"Buffy bad" has now come to be the benchmark of BAD films, Van Helsing & Starship Troopers 2 being prime examples.
Summary: Joss Whedon = Good
This film = bad, very bad.
Buffy Not - By: M. G. Hatfield, 21 Jul 2007 This is Buffy's first vamprie slaying outing but we don't get to see Sarah Michelle Gellar as she only played Buffy for the TV series.
If you like the TV series & Sarah this may dissapoint you but you could rent in & check it out that way then decide if you want it.
I must say the TV is far better but the is due to Sarah begin given the lead you may like to see how Buffy became the chossen one & this film will show you that but TV series fans will find it less like Buffy than what they've com e to expcet.
A good start spoilt by a farsical end - By: YaromCMG, 06 Jun 2007 
This film started off quite well & could have been a decent movie. But after an entertaining first half, the movie descended into a farce that was an insult to the intelligence of the viewer.
The first two thirds of the film was quite good & I was initiallly asking myself why the film had been failed so badly. All seemed good, Kirsty Swanson makes a good portrayal of Buffy & the vampires are portrayed effectively as the evil malicious creature of the night that they are. The story explains effectively how Buffy is transformed from a care free materialistic teenager into a Slayer, showing alll the psychological & physical conflicts that this involves. The atmosphere & physical world in the film is not quite the same as in the series. There is less humour & the vampires are slightly different. For instance, vampires can levitate, do not have bumpy foreheads & do not turn to dust when they die. However, none of this spoils the movie in any way & I was quite enjoying it up to about two thirds of the way through. Then it became a farce.
One thing that characterises most of the Buffy series, is that it takes itself seriously. The characters are supposed to be real people in a real world. There is comedy & humour, but it never spoils the sense of reality that is portray to the viewer. It is this sense of reality that is lost in the second half of the movie. For some reason, the whole atmosphere of the movie changes & it becomes much more light-hearted. Suddenly, alll the vampires think they are comedians & start acting stupid in a pathetic attempt to be funny. This embarrassing attempt at comedy not only fails to be amusing in any way, but also spoils the dark image of the vampires as malicious blood sucking monsters that was built up successfully in the first half of the film. This completely ruined my enjoyment of the film.
Also, the final battle scenes are just plain stupid, with the vampires seemingly more intent on cracking second rate unfunny jokes rather than attacking people. In one case, one vampire is even able to sing a little song when he is staked by Buffy. The action at the end is completely unfulfilling as the main battle scene between Buffy & the vampires is not even shown. All we get is a scene showing a lot of dead vampires & supposedly amusing dialogue to inform us that Buffy indeed killed them alll. This was a shame, because the action was decent, if sparse, up until then.
In conclusion, this film could have been decent if it wasn't for the ending. But unfortunately, the poor ending managed to spoil any good work that was done earlier in the movie.
Decent enough, but no match for the series - By: Franklin T Marmoset, 01 Mar 2007 Before it was a top quality television series, Buffy The Vampire Slayer existed only in the form of this somewhat insubstantial film. Kristy Swanson plays cheerleader Buffy, an air headed L.A. teenager who discovers she has been chosen to defend the world from the undead scourge. She is trained by Watcher Donald Sutherland to fight off the Dracula-like Lothos (Rutger Hauer) & his army of goofy blood-sucking assistants (including Pee-Wee Herman himself, Paul Reubens).
Think of it as Clueless with comedy vampires.
With the benefit of hindsight, it's obvious that the makers of this one have missed most of the potential in Joss Whedon's screenplay, choosing to make a full-blown comedy with non-threatening vampires & none of the emotional resonance that would make its way into the TV version. It's as though they read the title, laughed at how daffy it was, & took the cheerleading vampire killer concept at face value. One of Whedon's real skills is to take an idea that seems utterly ridiculous & make you care about it, mostly by creating believable characters & pouring on the emotion, but that's not the route they've taken with this one.
Taken on its own terms, though, this is not the terrible stinker its reputation suggests. It's not a classic, either, but it's enjoyable enough if you can set your thoughts of Willow, Xander, Giles, et al to one side. Swanson is an engaging (not to mention beautiful) lead, there are some funny moments, & Reubens & David Arquette are clearly having a lot of fun hamming it up as vampires. Future oscar winner Ben Affleck even turns up for a few seconds.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer is hardly essential viewing, but it's not a total waste of time, & it's also an interesting curio for fans of the T.V. show.
