Buffy, the Vampire Slayer

FROM THE ARCHIVES (Buffy book reviews)

Buffy, the Vampire Slayer

By Richie Tankersley Cusick, based on screenplay by Joss Whedon (1992)

RATING: 3/5 Stakes

SETTING: Prior to first season, movie continuity.

CAST APPEARANCES: Buffy, Merrick (watcher), Pike (boyfriend), Lothos (vampire master), Jennifer, Nicole, Kimberly (friends), Benny (Pike’s friend), Amilyn (Lothos’ servant), Joyce (Buffy’s mom), Buffy’s Dad

BACK OF THE BOOK SUMMARY “The fourth teenage girl in L.A. has disappeared in less than two months! But Buffy’s oblivious. She’s brainstorming a theme for the senior dance. One nightmare later, she meets a stranger named Merrick who tells her she bears the mark of the order: only she—the Pom-Pom Princess of California cheerleaders—can stop the vampires before they engulf L.A. They’re everywhere . . . she can’t even trust her best friends! Merrick has brought her knowledge, physical and mental powers beyond her wildest dreams, and a terrifying enemy: Lothos, King of the Vampires, who is determined to have Buffy for himself! All she has are a stake, a cross and a mission: destroy the evil—even if it takes her own life!”

REVIEW

The tie-in novel to the 1992 Buffy, the Vampire Slayer (yes, there is a comma in the title) movie is interesting in two aspects. First, it’s based more on Joss Whedon’s original movie script than the final film version, and the differences are significant and striking. Second, the novel has several aspects that would later be revived in the first few episodes of the Buffy television series.

The overall plot will be familiar to anyone who has seen the movie. Buffy is introduced to us as a vapid, valley girl cheerleader attending Hemery High School in Los Angeles. She is accosted by Merrick, a Watcher, who eventually manages to convince her that she is this generation’s Slayer. Along the way, Buffy befriends Pike, a fellow high school student, and battles Lothos, an evil vampire-king.

More of Joss Whedon’s dry wit shows through in the novel than in the movie, and there are some interesting differences. Perhaps the most dramatic difference is that Merrick ends up committing suicide rather than let Lothos turn him into a vampire. Some other scenes are changed, such as a funny one where Buffy and Merrick play video games, and the very end scene, which has Pike and Buffy standing before an ancient castle instead of taking off on a motorbike as in the movie.

Many moments in the novel are seen again in the television series. For example, Buffy kills Lothos’ vampire servant by pulling the same trick she did against Luke in The Harvest (tricking him into believing it’s daylight and then staking him). Lothos is often referred to by other vampires as “The Master” and rises out of a pool of blood in his lair. Principle Murray in the novel has almost exactly the same “I want to be your friend” personality as Principle Flutie. Finally, drug-crazed gangs are blamed for vampire killings at the high school.

We can also see some of Joss’ ideas that he later discarded. In the novel and movie, vampires faces don’t change and they don’t disintegrate when staked, and the Slayer always has a birthmark on her shoulder and suffers cramps when vampires are nearby.Overall, the novel tie-in is probably more entertaining than the movie. Neither is spectacularly interesting but each has some value in its own way. In the end, the novel is probably worth picking up as it does contain Buffy’s origin story in its original formulation.