"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Welcome to the Hellmouth (1997)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Charles Martin Smith

Writers:

Joss Whedon (creator)
Joss Whedon (written by)

TV Series:

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997)

Original Air Date:

10 March 1997 (Season 1, Episode 1)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Fantasy

Plot:

Buffy Summers has just moved to Sunnydale with her mother. She wants nothing more than to make the right friends, and fit in with the right group. There is only one thing standing in her way. Her destiny.

Plot Keywords:

Female Protagonist | Heroine | Famous Opening Theme | Library | Demon

Cast

Sarah Michelle Gellar	...	Buffy Summers
Nicholas Brendon	...	Xander Harris
Alyson Hannigan	...	Willow Rosenberg
Charisma Carpenter	...	Cordelia Chase
Anthony Head	...	Rupert Giles (as Anthony Stewart Head)
Mark Metcalf	...	The Master
Brian Thompson	...	Luke
David Boreanaz	...	Angel
Ken Lerner	...	Principal Bob Flutie
Kristine Sutherland	...	Joyce Summers
Julie Benz	...	Darla
J. Patrick Lawlor	...	Thomas
Eric Balfour	...	Jesse
Natalie Strauss	...	Teacher
Carmine Giovinazzo	...	Boy (as Carmine D. Giovinazzo)

Runtime:

43 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:TV-PG | UK:12

Company:

Mutant Enemy

Trivia:

Joss Whedon has said that the idea for Buffy came from all the horror movies he had seen featuring a helpless young blonde who would almost always be the first to die. He felt she needed a better image.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the first classroom scene when Buffy doesn't have her own textbook, she shares Cordelia's. The teacher asks them open to page 63, but Cordelia opens the book almost at the beginning.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Darla: Are you sure this is a good idea?
Darla's Victim: It's a great idea. Now come on.

Movie Connections:

References The Wild Bunch (1969)

Soundtrack:

Saturated

"Into every generation, a Slayer is born..."

It comes as a surprise of sorts to find out the entire first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was completed before the pilot had even aired, partly because series creator Joss Whedon wasn't that big a name at the time to secure that kind of deal (he was best known for being one of the Oscar-nominated writers of Toy Story), partly because the disappointing film version from 1992 - an embarrassing horror/action/comedy hybrid - didn't exactly make people crave more Buffy stories. Then again, it's very possible that the WB execs realized the show had the potential to live up to Whedon's original, untouched vision, which it did almost from the very beginning.

Picking up where the original film script ended, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) moves to a small town called Sunnydale with her mother Joyce (Kristine Sutherland) after being expelled from school in Los Angeles (she torched the gym). As soon as she begins her new life, she finds herself torn between the popular girls, led by the self-centered Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter), who is a lot like Buffy used to be, and the normal guys (in other words, the "losers"), ideally represented by Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) and her best friend Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon).

What really bugs her, though, is the school librarian Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), a member of the Watchers' Council, reminding her of her true nature: she is the Slayer, the latest in a long lineage of women - generally one per generation - chosen to fight and kill all kinds of demons that infest our world, especially vampires. And since Sunnydale is located on a Hellmouth (a place that attracts demons), and an age-old vamp called the Master (Mark Metcalf) and his minions, Darla (Julie Benz) and Luke (Brian Thompson, aka the Alien Bounty Hunter from The X-Files) are preparing a bona fide massacre, it looks like a Slayer could be needed. Of course, some additional help, say in the form of a brooding stranger (David Boreanaz), is always welcome as well.

The thing that grabs attention about the pilot episode is how it plays with genres, something that went on to become the show's trademark: on the one hand, we have the classic epic storyline involving a fight between good and evil, with the twist of the chosen one being a girl (Whedon has explicitly said he created Buffy as a counterbalance to the typical horror movie girl who just runs and screams all the time); the there's the sharp, occasionally cruel coming-of-age story mixed with clever high school comedy. Besides, the two archetypes are beautifully combined via the narrative gimmick, already present in genre gems like Carrie and The Exorcist, of the protagonist's new abilities simply being a metaphor for growing up (another tradition of the series).

And what about said protagonist? Well, Gellar nails the sweet/bad-ass balance at once, while everyone else plays their respective roles to perfection: Hannigan and Brendon the lovable sidekicks, Head the occasionally pompous British mentor, Carpenter the annoying girl who gets in the way and Metcalf, Benz and Thompson the charismatic villains who are every bit as fun to watch as the heroes. Few shows like this have an ensemble that good.

So, vampires, teenagers, epic, horror, high school, growing pains, action, great dialogue, terrific cast: the ingredients that make Buffy the Vampire Slayer one of the most intelligent and rewarding shows of the '90s, despite the potentially dorky title. The legend begins now.