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Date Posted: 06:28:04 03/19/07 Mon
Author: Majin Gojira
Subject: Buffy and the Horror Film - The Essay

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of those rare programs that combine multiple genres. Buffy draws on elements of comedy, drama (to the point of soap opera) and super-heroics. Above all these, however, is the horror genre. Buffy is rooted in the concepts, clichés and conventions of horror. Of these multiple variations of horror, the horror film genre, specifically the resurgence in horror that began with John Carpenter’s Halloween hold the most influence over it. Beyond the conceptual basis, the influence of the horror film is felt in the direction, the music, the clichés, and the special effects. Outside this the technical aspects, use of the monsters and demons in the show is often symbolic and reflective of society’s fears. These things are all indicative of Buffy’s horror roots.

The character of Buffy was created largely as a response to the “Slasher” genre of horror that Halloween began. In a normal horror film, without her powers, Buffy herself fits into a clichéd victim of the typical horror monster or villain—a young girl who is both popular and blonde. By empowering her, Joss turned the cliché around, but the horror surroundings remained. They even inverted their own standings on the cliché with the episode “Helpless” where Buffy does indeed lose her powers, and finds herself fleeing for her life from a vampire as a typical horror victim she originally grew from. After escaping the normally lethal encounter, Buffy takes on the role of another horror film cliché—that of the Final Girl: towards the end of every horror film, and doubly so at the end of a Slasher film, one character is left to fight the monster—almost always a girl—with their wits alone. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in Halloween is the first known example of the final girl: using her wits and resourcefulness to survive against a seemingly unstoppable foe. Buffy, forced in a similar situation, manages to do the same, though in terms of personality, a final girl usually has more in common with Willow than Buffy, being only moderately (if at all) popular, often bookish and overall ‘responsible’. As the motto of most horror films is that the unobservant are the ones who are killed. This usually corresponds to sex, drugs and rock and roll: characters who have sex (usually, the final girl is virginal, and there are multiple instances of kills performed against two people in the midst of copulation), do drugs (including legal drugs such as tobacco and alcohol—anything that leads to an inebriated state leaves them open as a target) or listen to very loud music (usually blocking the sound of the killer sneaking up on them) are often the first to be killed off. This trend lead to slasher films being accused of having a conservative bias.

Several other clichés survive from the horror film largely intact: these are the “Dark Alley” Run and the incompetent or evil authority figures. The incompetent or evil authority figures pervade all horror films. In them, an authority figure cannot be turned to for aid against the horror, leaving the characters on their own, or worse, are in league with the villains. This change only occurred since Halloween. Films before that had the characters simply cut off from authority figures—so they could save the day like the cavalry in old westerns. This biases can be clearly seen in the monster movies of the 1950s such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Tarantula where, in the former, the movie ends with one character yelling “Call the FBI!” and that, magically, will resolve everything. In Buffy, authority figures are evil (the Mayor’s office), incompetent (Principle Snyder) or both (the Initiative and the Sunnydale Police Department who are only effective when it is not in the best interests of the main characters). The reason for this is to serve as a betrayal of social norms, and to take away the perceived safety of ones surroundings.

The Dark Alley Run occurs where a victim or potential victim runs down a dark alley, usually to be cornered and/or threatened. The enclosed space adds to the claustrophobic nature of horror and allows for other camera tricks to be used.

As a television show, Buffy is shot on a limited budget—one of the first money-saving tactics taken was to use low-grade film stock (as revealed in the commentary of the first few seasons, and visually confirmed in the quality of the film stock of the early seasons)—but the use of techniques tried and true to the horror genre persist. These techniques largely involve two things: limiting the field of view of the camera, and showing things that the audience can see that the characters cannot. Both of these techniques create an atmosphere of claustrophobia. Buffy uses the first scenario far more often than the second. Instances of limited field of view occur in almost all scenes involving heavy use of darkness as in “Helpless”; simple tightness of the shot is also used with great frequency, even from the first episode when Buffy tracks the ‘80s vampire Thomas from the Bronze after he lures Willow out, the camera focuses almost solely on Buffy, the same is done when Buffy goes to confront the Master in “Prophecy Girl” an doing the same with water as the obscuring agent in “Go Fish”; using this tight camera also allows for cheap ‘pop-out’ scares to be used as well. Direct homages to other horror films exist in the camera direction as well: when Angel follows Buffy in the first episode of the series, the stalking sequence mirrors that of the daylight stalking Michael Myers does in Halloween; and in the episode “Nightmares”, a swinging ceiling light is used as the “Ugly Man” attacks a girl in the basement—a clear echo to the climactic moment in Psycho which revealed the fate of Norman’s Mother, arguably, the prototype of the Slasher film.

The film Psycho is best noted for the use of violins in its music, as many horror films have used since then. Buffy is no exception, one of the most common instruments used to emphasize the horror of the situation is the violin. The violins, being a versatile instrument, are often slow and low or sharp and distinct to add tension to the situation. In the ‘silent’ episode “Hush” the use of violins becomes even more evident. The lack of voices also makes calling for outside help or authority impossible, further isolating the characters.

Sound was also used, or rather, the absence of sound was used, in the critically acclaimed episode “The Body” the lack of a soundtrack was used to emphasis how ‘real’ the situation was, and thus, the horror of it.

The monsters, demons and other creatures that populate Buffy’s world are another source of horror. By being outwardly ugly, they represent an ‘other’ and an ‘unnatural’. The design of these creatures ranges, but several themes, tied to primal human fears, are present: reptiles (being linked to our ancient predators) and insects (adversaries by being parasites) are the most common. Another method giving the creatures a horrific look is to remove a body part: the telepaths in “Earshot” had no mouths, and the Hellions in “Bargaining” had no noses. These deformities aid in the treatment of these creatures as an “other” to be feared, another part of humans primal instincts.

One design aesthetic, as well as a universal aesthetic, came from the Cthulhu Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. H.P. Lovecraft created an entire mystical horror universe where man was but an insect in the wheels of time, and primordial beings slept in hidden pockets of the world waiting to reclaim it. Among his writing troupes were the Great Old Ones (the aforementioned primordial beings), ancient mystical tomes (introducing the word “Necronomicon” to popular literature), the idea that mankind would be driven mad by confronting the ‘true’ nature of the universe, and setting a foundation for supernatural horror that influences everything from Steven King to Ghostbusters. The Hellmouth Spawn (the big, multi-headed, tentacle-monster from inside the Hellmouth seen in “Prophecy Girl” and “The Zeppo”) being the most obvious design example. The creatures of the mythos were often best described as tentacles horrors (as Lovecraft was unnerved by cephalopods and had an allergy to seafood). A similar, more humanoid, demon appeared in the opening of “The Wish” and many large, tentacles creatures appeared in the sister series “Angel”.

The ties to the Mythos almost invariably mean that some of those encountering the horrors of the universe will be driven mad, and there are several clearly insane characters in Buffy. When people encounter beings in the H.P. Lovecraft stories, there is a good chance that a few of them, if not all, will go insane from the horror of the creatures. That has happened to several of the characters on Buffy. From the first season’s “Teachers Pet” where a researcher is talked about having gone mad researching the episode’s virgin-eating praying mantis. But it is not just minor characters that are affected by this madness. Main and minor characters are not immune from the madness: Riley in “Goodbye Iowa” begins suffering various psychoses from drug withdrawal; Drusilla was tortured to madness by Angelus before becoming a loony vampire; the hellgod Glory kept her sanity by draining it from others; even Buffy herself went catatonic from guilt in “Spiral” and spent the majority of season 6 suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder induced by being brought back to life, not to mention in “Normal Again” where she believes herself to be nothing more than a mental patient.

The monsters are well designed and can bring madness to those who witness them, but the only way for a monster to be truly memorable is if it has resonance with the society that made them. Monsters have always served best when they are a metaphor for something in the society, and Buffy prided itself for using metaphor to describe the perils of growing up. As such, one of the most common creature-themes was the abuse of adults of the sports-education system. From the third episode “The Witch”, where the writers demonize the concept of a parent living vicariously through the achievements of their children by literally having the parent take over the child’s life to relive their former glory. This theme of parental/coach abuse was re-used in “Nightmares” where a coach beat a child for failing at sports and “Go Fish” tackled steroid abuse with Fish Monsters. Another metaphoric horror, or at least more blatantly metaphoric monster was the Jekyll/Hyde rage monster serving as a nearly a ‘very special’ episode on abuse. The monsters also tend to hold their original metaphors when used: the werewolf remains ‘the beast within’, a metaphor for the savage human; the vampire remains equal parts sex and death and so on.

The two most reflective of the society, however, are Angelus and the episode “Earshot.” Angelus served as the ultimate late-90s horror villain targeted at a female audience. At his core, Angelus is a deranged stalker. Publication and coverage of such behavior reached unprecedented heights during the mid 90s and Angelus’ various behaviors towards Buffy and her family, such as separating (IE: attacking and even killing) those she cared about, leaving drawing as ‘gifts’ and other things easily classify him as a stalker. Unlike most stalkers, however, Angelus is fully aware of the negative emotional impact of his actions—and revels in it. The other, more socially conscious event, which Buffy foreshadowed only just, was the Columbine Shooting. Similar shootings had happened before, but mostly in urban areas. Setting precedence for the events of the episode “Earshot” where they deal with the average mentality of a high school shooter, and even comment on the commonality of it. The school shooting became the archetypal late-90s horror-incident. Films such as The Faculty among others preyed upon the fears, or inverted them. Buffy addressed the fears and events directly. The entire show originally being a metaphor for the ‘hell’ of high school did not hurt in conveying their message. In a sad irony, the episode “Earshot” was to air less than a week from the Columbine shooting, and was thus pulled, despite the message it hoped to convey about the situation faced by high school students feeling rejected enough to act out in spectacular manners.

Horror films have always been reflective of society’s fears. The lumbering menaces of the cold war are no longer threatening. Today it is the ‘fast’ zombie—reminiscent of terrorist strikes (fast, under our noses and capable of ‘converting’ people to their cause) that strikes fear in us. Buffy is a horror series if only in the act of mirroring society’s fears about growing up, a traumatic process in the minds of many Americans. The cinematic, musical and make-up effects only add to the core reflection on the anxieties of change, as typified by the high-school experience and the transitions from it to adulthood.

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