Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Horror Genre

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Horror Genre

Typically the Horror or more specifically Vampire genre will have the

theme good vs. evil where the hero represents good and the villain

represents evil. This is consistent in Buffy the Vampire Slayer as

Buffy is the hero and the evil vampires she slays (in this episode

Glory/Ben) represent evil. There is also a cliché within this genre

where good is always triumphant over evil. Buffy in this episode

conforms to this cliché but with a twist; which is also typical of the

Genre, good triumphs over evil in the end but not without a sacrifice.

Although Buffy contains many of the conventions that are typical of

the horror genre it also contains many conventions which are

associated with other genres making it multi generic. From this

episode we can see that it contains references to the Kung-Fu genre

from the fight scenes and also the Teen Genre as there are romances

between characters and typical teen language is used 'smart chicks are

so hot'.

Obviously as the hero Buffy is the main character in this programme.

However, a superhero is normally a man in his mid 20s-30s who tries to

save the victim the victim who is stereotypically a teenage girl. This

is Ironic as Buffy is that innocent looking Blonde teenage girl. In

this episode Buffy tries to save her sister Dawn for Glory/Ben who

wants to bleed her to death in order to open the portal between our

world and the evil dimension.

There is also a romance within this episode of the Horror genre.

Typically a romance takes place between the hero and the victim but in

this case the hero rescues her sister and the main romance occurs

b...

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symbols of fear and of the horror genre. The purple tinted lighting

and purple coloured portal are typical of the horror genre as purple

is strongly associated with Vampires and it also gives the viewer

further connotations of horror.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer subverts the horror Genre by being

multi-generic. This means it adopts the conventions of various other

genres i.e. Kung-fu and horror. It is aimed at a young adult/teen

audience and it appeals to this audience by being multi-generic (and

more interesting) as people of this age need to have their mind

stretched to keep them engaged within it. It also has slightly

different appeals to each of the sexes; it appeals to teenage boys

especially as Buffy is an attractive woman and it may appeal to girls

as they may aspire to be like her 'an independent woman'.

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