# Saw 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' (movie) for the first time **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 26, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-movie-for-the-first-time/483058 "2009-01-26T15:29:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-movie-for-the-first-time/483058/1 "2009-01-26T15:29:52Z")
In preparation for watching the TV series for the first time, I subjected myself to the Kristy Swanson film. It wasn’t all bad. “Kill him a lot” is probably going to go into my bag of phrases I’ll constantly be on the lookout for a chance to use. And Kristy Swanson herself, from the neck down anyway, was pretty easy on the eyes. Did Hauer contract bell’s palsy during filming, or was that … acting? ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-movie-for-the-first-time/483058/2 "2009-01-26T15:45:12Z")
I did that too, watched the movie before watching the series for the first time. The movie’s painful, but it serves one noble purpose: it makes the series that much more awesome. From the first episode, you have a deep appreciation for folks who can actually act. 😃 Paul Reuben wasn’t even taking the movie as seriously as he might have, even though it’s not even all that serious. Still, he’s probably the most amusing thing about it. I will say one thing. Kristy Swanson looks a _hell_ of a lot more like an airhead Buffy than Sarah Michelle Gellar does. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-movie-for-the-first-time/483058/3 "2009-01-26T16:40:07Z")
Oh, wow. You really don’t need to see that movie to see the show. They dropped the whole cramps vampires sense she has in the movie. Oh, and she’s a sophomore in the show when it starts instead of a senior, which I think she was in the movie. And the show is funny. And smart. And well acted. Well, at least you will get a few S1 references(about her life in L.A.). ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-movie-for-the-first-time/483058/4 "2009-01-26T16:51:17Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > You really don’t need to see that movie to see the show. So I had heard. Still, I wanted the full experience. It’s the same reason I watch _Star Trek V_ when I go through the _Star Trek_ movies. Take the bad with the good; the bitter makes the sweet all the better. ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-movie-for-the-first-time/483058/5 "2009-01-26T17:02:56Z")
As said, the show’s continuity doesn’t match up with the movie’s. However, if you’re ever interested you _can_ check out the later comic book adaptation of the movie, which brings it in line with TV show continuity. There’s also a comic storyline that takes place after the movie but before the TV show that features Buffy and Pike going to Vegas. I want to say that there’s a novel I read that involves Pike coming to Sunnydale, but I’m foggy on specfiics after reading so many crappy Buffy novels over the years. All that said, I love the movie. Anybody going into it expecting anything remotely like the TV show will, of course, be disappointed, but I think the movie is tons of fun and it sits right alongside my DVDs of the TV show. There are tons of great lines. “What’s the biggest threat to the environment today?” … “Bugs?” “Oh, yeah, bugs, totally.” ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-movie-for-the-first-time/483058/6 "2009-01-26T17:08:15Z")
I like the movie for what it almost was, but I don’t connect it to the TV show in my mind. The movie was a campy over the top take on teen horror/action movies and vampire movies in general. The show is a whole lot less shallow. If you haven’t watched Buffy before **KneedtoKnow** , then you are in for a treat. Angel is good also and they are kinda fun to watch side by side (starting Angel at the appropriate time in continuity of course.) ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-movie-for-the-first-time/483058/7 "2009-01-26T17:11:43Z")
**Trivia bit** - One actor, and one actor only appeared in both the movie version and television version of “Buffy” - Nicholas Brandon. But Brandon is merely an extra in a large gym crowd scene, so he’s very missable. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-movie-for-the-first-time/483058/8 "2009-01-26T17:14:28Z")
> [@NAF1138](#): > > If you haven’t watched Buffy before **KneedtoKnow** , then you are in for a treat. Angel is good also and they are kinda fun to watch side by side (starting Angel at the appropriate time in continuity of course.) My girlfriend and I are helping each other fill in gaps in our geek literature, and we’re actually going to run three “monster-of-the-week” prone shows side by side: _X-Files_, _Buffy_, and _Angel_. _X-Files_ has about four seasons before _Buffy_ starts, but once _Buffy_ starts, we’ll probably watch whole seasons of _X-Files_ then the same year’s whole season of _Buffy_. Once _Angel_ starts, we’ll probably go to watching the _Buffy_ and _Angel_ episodes interlaced, since I’m led to believe storylines often interweave. And somehow in all of that, I have to force-feed her 6 seasons of _24_ before Memorial Day. EDIT: **KneedtoKnow**? Ow. Makes me sound like a wrestler. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-movie-for-the-first-time/483058/9 "2009-01-26T17:19:29Z")
Oh, hell, _Buffy_ and _Angel_ interweave? I was under the impression Angel went off to do his own thing that had nothing to do with the _Buffy_ plot, hence the spin-off. Damn. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-movie-for-the-first-time/483058/10 "2009-01-26T17:22:20Z")
> [@The New and Improved Superman](#): > > **Trivia bit** - One actor, and one actor only appeared in both the movie version and television version of “Buffy” - Nicholas Brandon. But Brandon is merely an extra in a large gym crowd scene, so he’s very missable. I have never heard of Nick Brendon being in the movie, but have long heard Seth Green was in it, only to be ultimately cut from the film. IMDb mentions Green, but not Brendon. > [@Bosstone](#): > > Oh, hell, _Buffy_ and _Angel_ interweave? I was under the impression Angel went off to do his own thing that had nothing to do with the _Buffy_ plot, hence the spin-off. Damn. Only marginally. You don’t have to watch Buffy to understand and follow Angel, but it does help. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-movie-for-the-first-time/483058/11 "2009-01-26T17:29:30Z")
The bit in the Dean’s office where she pegs a fly to the wall by spitting a pushpin at it remains one of my favorite sight gags of all time. The idea of “you really have no idea who you’re talking to, do you?” ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-movie-for-the-first-time/483058/12 "2009-01-26T17:42:09Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > EDIT: **KneedtoKnow**? Ow. Makes me sound like a wrestler. :smack: That’s what I get for typing your name out instead of copy/pasting like I normally do. You should have a lot of fun watching those side by side. The storylines of Angel/Buffy do intersect though not as much as you might have been lead to believe. There is an episode where you see Angel having a phone conversation will Willow and I think that you see Willow’s side of the conversation in the Buffy episode. But I am not 100% sure about that (I didn’t watch them side by side, I tired to but I would get caught up in what was going to happen in one series and wouldn’t want to wait and before I knew it I was a whole season ahead.) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-movie-for-the-first-time/483058/13 "2009-01-26T17:54:39Z")
There are only a couple of _Buffy/Angel_ episodes that demand to be watched back to back. “Fool For Love” needs to be paired with “Darla.” Likewise, the Angel episode “Redefinition” needs to be followed by the Buffy episode “Crush.” Other than that, they free-float.