Spooky Movie Month Day #8 – Buffy The Vampire Slayer

October 8th 

Today I was feeling nostalgic and wanted to come back to my roots, so I introduced the kids to a movie that started a decades-long love of all things Sunnydale;

Buffy The Vampire Slayer 

Released in 1992, directed by Fran Ruben Kuzui and written by Joss Whedon, this move is packed full of stars who take me right back to Jr high; Kristy Swanson, Donald Southerland, Paul Reubens, Rutger Hauer, Luke Perry, Hilary Swank, David Arauette, Stephen Root and even a cameo by Ben Affleck! (Not his voice, though)

This clever story shows how a shallow teenage girl more interested in her clothes than another’s well being, finds herself confronted by an impossible destiny; to be the Chosen One, the scourge of all vampire kind. With the help of a mentor, she goes from clueless to kick ass in order to defeat Lothos, the vampire lord who is trying to gain power over Los Angeles.

So what did my Gen-Alphas have to say about this early 90’s classic? There were so many moments where I had to pause the movie and explain what was happening. For example; 

The “valley girl” language made NO sense to them. Lion asked if there was a translator available and I said yes, it’s me. I’m the translator. 

Being homeschooled AND Alphas caused a lot of the school and relationship drama to either go completely over their heads or just seem so absurd, they didn’t understand why it was even being talked about. They loved the “b-film feeling” and thought it was super fun how they “made it seem like a one of those low budget bad movies but it’s really not”.

Dragon thought it was funny and fun, they were glad it wasn’t actually scary but said there were a few parts that were upsetting, like when her friends turned their backs on her. They got pretty overwhelmed by the fact that Benny became a vampire and tried to attack his friend. They left the room after that, but stayed in a spot where they could watch the movie from a safe distance.

Lion thought Buffy was a badass and loved how she moved beyond her attitude of acting so dumb all the time. They would have liked to see more, though. More of a transition between her airhead self and her “savior” self, but thought it was super fun to watch and loved that PeeWee was in it. They rolled their eyes in disapproval at the scene where Buffy climbs over the car to kiss her boyfriend. The phrase “utterly appalled” that Buffy is behaving that way and is only supposed to be 15 years old wouldn’t be overstating. I let them now the show might be more their speed, but only for the first 2 seasons before things get really dark and weird.

All in all, in spite of the bits they weren’t fond of, Buffy gets 2 thumbs up from both. Lion said they’d watch it again, but Dragon said probably not. While it was fun, it was also upsetting.

That’s it for today! Still so much time left to go – Any suggestions on what we should do next? See you tomorrow on The Mothership!