‎Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

1992 Directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui

She knows a sucker when she sees one.

Blonde, bouncy Buffy is your typical high school cheerleader: her goal is to "marry Christian Slater and die," and nothing gets in her way when it's time to shop! But all that changes when a strange man informs her she's been chosen by fate to kill vampires. With the help of a romantic rebel, Buffy is soon spending school nights protecting L.A. from Lothos the Vampire King, his sidekick, Lefty, and their determined gang of bloodsuckers. It's everything you'd expect from a teen queen in the Valley.

Kristy Swanson Donald Sutherland Paul Reubens Rutger Hauer Luke Perry Hilary Swank Michele Abrams David Arquette Natasha Gregson Wagner Thomas Jane Ricki Lake Ben Affleck Stephen Root Sasha Jenson Candy Clark Alexis Arquette

86 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by whatever ★★½ 57

i think i would like this more if
a. joss whedon hadnt written it
b. joss whedon hadnt written like half the male characters calling buffy a bitch or d*ke every ten seconds
c. joss whedon wasnt a gross bad writer
d. there wasnt romance
e. most of the jokes hadnt fallen flat
f. buffy and her crew weren't written as stupid mean girls
g. really my big thing is that i didn't like the way this was written at all fuk u joss whedon u suk

this is some stuff i liked tho:
a. paul reubens and david arquette are good vampires though
b. david arquette is one of my favorite 90s doofuses tbh
c. that's it really
Review by robyn ★★★★★

deeply suspicious of anyone who doesnt love this film.
Review by Arielrocks5 ★★★★ 11

(Part 3 of "Arielrocks5’s List of films to do for Todd Gaines’ Challenge! (George Lucas Special Edition Gen X Director’s Cut)"

Challenge: "A movie listed on my Gen X horror list" )

From humble begins, a man by the name of Joss Whedon had an script that played on the classic horror movie trope of "Girl walks into alley way and gets killed", by making the girl the one who walks out alive.

Sadly, due to conflict with the studio wanting something more in line with a teen horror/comedy tone (gee, doesn't that sound familiar?) and ended up turning a lot of his original script into a massive mess.

Thankfully Whedon got to make his vision come to life better…
Review by Keegs 🌈 ★ 1

There's an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Xander gets seduced by his teacher who ends up being a giant sexy Praying Mantis and it gave me a boner when I was little and also was the reason I'm gay at the same time.

This movie did not give me a boner when I was little nor did it make me gay.
Review by Gabriel Jewett ★★★★★ 4

"Hey we paid good money to see this!"
"Dude, no we didn't"
"Oh yeah"

I love everything Buffy: the video games, books, comics, the TV show, and of course this movie.
I was even thinking about my dedicating an entire section of my room to Buffy, called "the Buffy corner"... I know I know.
You would think since the series is my favorite television show of all time that I would hate this movie, but I don't at all because Buffy the Vampire Slayer is honestly in my top 10 of all time. (Movies in general)
Kristy Swanson is one of my favorite actresses I really wish she got more recognition!

Fun fact: this features a young David Arquette in…
Review by QDB ★★½

"I've got something none of the other girls had."
"And what's that?"
"My keen fashion sense."
"Oh, vampires of the world, beware."
"Merrick — you made a joke! Are you okay? I mean, do you wanna lie down? I know it hurts the first time."
Buffy and Merrick

Once upon a time in 1992, Joss Whedon wrote a script for a movie called "Buffy The Vampire Slayer". The original script, which was intended the be a film with a strong stance on empowerment of women with some light comedy, was turned into an outright comedy by the director Fran Rubel Kuzui. That being said, there is a lot to like mostly due to the Whedon's superb writing which injects comedy…

Recent reviews

Review by Harvey Winter ★½

As a ginormous Buffy fan I found this incredibly hard to watch. It’s just has nothing of what made the show so special.
Review by Kendall ★★★

Campy and dorky. Amilyn’s death scene was the funniest part of the whole movie, right after the “Oh yeah? Clap!” joke. I’m a big fan of the show, which is definitely better, but I actually liked this!

Also—bisexual Pike, am I right
Review by Isa ★★★★

I was a bit confused when she is completely against being trained but literally half a second later she is training intensely.

Also, we now know that I have a crush on 1992' Kristy Swanson.

Extra half a star because I enjoyed this and I wish I would have seen it sooner.
Review by nuria ★★

Scavenger Hunt 45 | Task 3

Watch a film mentioned in the novel The Miseducation of Cameron Post or watch its film adaptation.

This only got slightly better once Buffy accepted she was a slayer and started kicking butts :/
Review by Jon ★★

Haven't seen the series yet, but this version doesn't seem THAT bad. I didn't hate it. Buffy and the vampires I actually liked. A lot of it still felt really schlocky
Review by Tom Bown ★★★

Kuzui barely knows how to point a camera and the costumes are either amazing or terrible but you can still see peeks of good in the script
Review by Lucius Blackwood ★★★★

Okay that was way better than I was expecting. I expected a silly dumbed down version of Buffy and this sort of is that but it also had a lot of heart, a bit of nostalgia and a whole lot of fun. This film really captures the end of the 80’s and beginning of the 90’s. Kristy Swanson was great and brought some depth to this slightly airheady version of the character. The whole cast was great. Some of the humor is offensive but that was par for the course at that time and you can see how much the world has changed between this film and the tv series just 5 years later. This is definitely worth checking out if you haven’t seen it. Fun film!
Review by apeeves ★★★

Hilarious. Plot is empty and love interest is boring but Buffy is excellent.
Review by Karma ★★★½

Paul Reubens stole this whole movie and his death is one of my favorite movie deaths ever 👻