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Grab Mr. Pointy and Celebrate Because “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Turns 20 Today!

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Buffy 20th Anniversary

Once upon a time, an unknown screenwriter named Joss Whedon wrote a screenplay for a horror comedy film called Buffy the Vampire Slayer. His screenplay focused on a Valley Girl named Buffy Summers who discovers that she is next in a line of slayers and that it is her destiny to fight and kill vampires. In 1991, he sold the script to Dolly Parton’s(!) production company Sandollar, where it was eventually filmed and distributed by 20th Century Fox. Filmed on a production budget of $7 million, the film ended its run with a domestic gross of $16.6 million. While not exactly a flop, it didn’t make nearly as much money as Fox was hoping for. The final product was also significantly different than Whedon’s original script (he envisioned it as a horror movie about an empowered woman as opposed to the straightforward comedy that the movie turned out to be), so he decided to turn it into a TV series, which premiered 20 years ago today on The WB. That series, also named Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is widely considered one of the greatest television series of all time.

The origins of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a television series started when Sandollar President and CEO Gail Berman approached Whedon about turning Buffy the Vampire Slayer into a series. She would go on to be an executive at Fox, and be one of the show’s biggest supporters. After writing and partially funding a 25-minute pilot, he shopped it around and eventually sold it to The WB Network. Taking the idea of high school as a horror movie, Whedon crafted a timely, relevant and important series that is still being taught in college courses today.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered on March 10, 1997 (do you feel old yet?). Whedon’s original idea that spawned the character of Buffy Summers was to take the stereotypical blonde bimbo that always died quickly in horror movies and have her become the hero. Ironically, Sarah Michelle Gellar would go on to be that very girl in horror films like I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scream 2 and The Grudge films. In BTVS though, she was Buffy Summers, a smart, resourceful teenage girl that just so happened to be in charge of saving the world all the time.

As many of you may already know (and if you don’t, stop reading and go start watching the series on Netflix right now), every season of BTVS revolved around a “Big Bad.” Be it The Master, Angelus, The Mayor, Adam (blech), Glory, The Trio, Dark Willow or The First, every season was defined by its villain, and the theme of the season was usually correlated with the villain as well. The heart and soul of the series belonged, of course, to its quartet of main characters: Buffy (Gellar), Xander (Nicholas Brendon), Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and Giles (Anthony Stewart Head). Together, those four characters formed a bond with viewers that is still felt to this day. When you’re watching BTVS, you feel like these characters are your friends. Sometimes I still that way.

The storytelling was always one of the strongest aspects of the series, with all of the credit going to the writers. There were many writers, but the most well-known ones today would be Jane Espenson, Marti Noxon, David Fury, Steven S. DeKnight and Drew Goddard. These writers were able to make even the most outlandish plot work. I mean, this is a series that introduced a sibling to the main character in its fifth season as if she had been there all along (it makes sense, I promise). You don’t just do that unless you’ve got some bomb-ass writers on your team. It’s a shame that Buffy the Vampire Slayer never got the awards attention it deserved. The series was frequently written off because of it’s silly name and premise, but anyone who actually watches it knows how good it is and that it is able to connect with viewers on an emotional level more so than many other shows have been able to.

Speaking of people not taking the show seriously, I always have trouble getting people into Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Has anyone else had this problem? It’s a little easier to convince people to watch it now because of Netflix. It’s more accessible now than it was 10 years ago so more people are finding it by happenstance, but it used to take all my willpower to get people into the series. Not helping matters is that the first season and a half of BTVS hasn’t exactly aged well. It’s not that it’s bad television (and the first season finale, “Prophecy Girl”, is one of the show’s stronger episodes), but it doesn’t quite have the same hook that the show has in the fourteenth episode of the second season, once Angel becomes Angelus. I always tell people to stick with it until that moment, because that moment is the show’s hook (and if that doesn’t get you, then “Passion”, the seventeenth episode of season two, certainly will).

Buffy the Vampire Slayer helped establish The WB as a major player in the network battle. While it was never able to compete with the shows on ABC, CBS or NBC, it was always in the Top 5 rated shows on the network. Unfortunately it also cost a lot of money to produce, so at the end of its fifth season BTVS was moved away from the WB. Like its heroine who (SPOILER ALERT) died in the fifth series finale, the series was resurrected on rival network UPN. Unfortunately it never recaptured the ratings glory it had in its third season, its highest rated season. By the time the series ended on May 20, 2003 (again, feel old yet?), it had earned the second lowest ratings out of any of the seven seasons, ahead only of its first. Still, thanks to DVD sales and Netflix, the story of Buffy the Vampire Slayer has continued in the form of comic books. It’s unlikely we’ll ever get a true revival of the series, but at least we can be thankful for what we have.

So help us celebrate the 20th anniversary of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, one of the greatest television shows ever made. What are some of your favorite episodes? Which moments made you cry the most? Let us know in the comments below!

P.S. Anya Christina Emmanuella Jenkins Harris is the best character to ever grace a television screen. That is a fact and therefore not open to debate.

Buffy 20th Anniversary

A journalist for Bloody Disgusting since 2015, Trace writes film reviews and editorials, as well as co-hosts Bloody Disgusting's Horror Queers podcast, which looks at horror films through a queer lens. He has since become dedicated to amplifying queer voices in the horror community, while also injecting his own personal flair into film discourse. Trace lives in Austin, TX with his husband and their two dogs. Find him on Twitter @TracedThurman

Editorials

‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel

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leprechaun returns

The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.

The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.

Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.

LEPRECHAUN

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).

It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.

The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.

LEPRECHAUN RETURNS sequel

Pictured: Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, and Sai Bennett as Lila, Katie and Rose in Leprechaun Returns.

The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.

Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.

Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.


Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.

The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.

Leprechaun Returns movie

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

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