Female vampires once ruled the world. Now they are overlooked for glittering guys with big hair. It's time to point out why the female of the species should be the center of attention.
The Sexy Female Vamps of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
So I've avoided doing this long enough and I figured I'd have to address it soon enough. Buffy the Vampire Slayer has been a Juggernaut of vampire fiction for the past 3 decades despite the fact that the TV show which caused the "teen vampire love triangle" craze has been off the air since 2003.
So why avoid it you ask? Well first which should be the most important, on a site dedicated to female vampires there just weren't that many. You would think with a feature film a spinoff and seven seasons of TV you'd have more than just a hand full of female vampire characters but it just wasn't in the cards (at least important ones that weren't just stake fodder).
Secondly, they weren't hot. While they were pretty normal in the movie the TV translation pretty much turned vampires into Klingons.
There might be some guys that were into that but I just was never one of them. Some of them definitely had sex appeal before they turned all wrinkled and demon like but all bets were off after.
So I'll do my best to be objective here. First we'll start with the 1992 film that started it all.
So the storyline follows a stuck up California Valley Girl who is suddenly forced to change her priorities when it's revealed to her that she is the next in a long line of vampire hunters. Buffy in this version is played by the super hot Kristy Swanson. The thing every version of the mythology shares is that the vampires pretty much just play the part of your random movie henchman. Just bodies to be thrown around and killed so you have to pay attention for the most part for some good female fang action as most of the main vampire characters in the film (by most meaning 99% of them) are male.
This film was far from a box office success but what it is known for is the number of young actors who would go on to have pretty decent careers who had parts in it. Names like Ben Affleck, Hillary Swank and David Arquette had supporting roles to go with the marquee stars in the film. In fact the first person to be turned in the movie would go on to play several more vampire roles throughout her career and that's third generation actress Natasha Gregson Wagner (below in yellow jacket).
In the end though the main things it would be know for is relaunching Paul "Pee Wee Herman" Rubins career after an embarassing run in with the law and being the namesake to one of the most successful and popular television shows of all time.
which leads us to....
The series which aired for 7 seasons from 1997 to 2003 on the WB and UPN television networks in the US was said to be writer/executive producer Joss Whedon's original vision of what the movie was supposed to be IE darker and more serious as compared to the somewhat comedic film.
In the series Buffy (now played by Sarah Michelle Gellar) and her family have moved to the fictional town of Sunnydale, California after the events of the film (which took place in L.A.). She hopes to try to be a regular teen but low and behold her new high school is situated on top of a dimensional portal where every week a new supernatural creature will just show up and she'll have to deal with. As the years go on her friends find out about what she does and gets in on the fun, some develop supernatural abilities of their own and every once in awhile she'll screw a few vampires instead of killing them (Angel and Spike). In this case you do get a few female vampire standout characters who as I mentioned before are pretty hot until they get hungry.
Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers) - Season 1, episode 10 "Nightmares"
So in the 10nth episode of the first season Buffy and her friends begin experiencing their worst fears. In Buffy's case it's becoming a Klingo...er vampire.
Mercedes McNabb (Harmony Kindall)
Harmony is the mean girl turned mean vampire of Sunnydale. Once the rich snob in high school who looks down on everyone she is eventually turned into a vampire and finds herself unable to find her way dealing with her same high school issues in her now adult vampire life. One of the most memorable Harmony episodes comes in the second season of the spinoff series "Angel" titled "Disharmony" when she follows her childhood frienamy Cordelia to Los Angeles to confide in her and Cordelia misreads her odd behavior as her being a horny lesbian and not a blood thirsty vampire. McNabb also plays a vamp on an episode of the series Supernatural.
Julie Benz (Darla)
The run on hot blondes playing vampires on the series continues with the character of Darla aka the hot school girl in the Britney Spears outfit from episode 1 who pops up from time to time. The most memorable thing she does in the series is that she is the vampire responsible for creating Angel.
Juliet Landau (Drusilla)
A psychic during her human life her family was eventually murdered by Angel and she was driven insane. Though she makes Spike you would think it would be the other way around considering she is very child like in personality due to her delicate mental state. In other words she's adorable for a sexy bloodthirsty killer.
Alysson Hannigan (Evil Willow)
The awkward teen turned akward young adult lesbian witch has an evil vampire doppleganger in two episodes. The first in Season 3, episode 9 titled "The Wish" where she exists in an alternate universe and the other in the 16nth episode of the same season titled "Dopplegangland" where she's brought into the main Buffy universe. Evil Willow is the opposite of your standard awkward Willow as she wears leather, is very confident. aggressive and had lesbian tenancies way earlier. Very sexy especially the "Dopplegangland" episode when she licks a female victim and seduces Xander.
more Buffy coming soon?
Sometime in 2009 Warner Brothers had greenlit a reboot of the franchise back in feature film format. All info regarding the potential reboot described it as completely separate from the Joss Whedon Buffy universe and Whedon would have no connection to the project. The latest on the film is that it is on hold as Warner Brothers was not happy with the screen play presented to them and they are in search of a new screen writer.
Nice site. Kristy Swanson looks great with fangs in this Buffy promo shoot: https://goo.gl/7BRBnJ. She also bites a band member in the neck in the "Keep It Comin'" music video that came out with the movie.
Whoa whoa whoa, hold up now, the movie may not have had a lot of female vamps but they were still a few notable one. For example, the girl in that yellow jacket there was actually featured earlier, she's the student who get kidnapped in the parking lot and given to the master later on, total drastic makeover. There's that vampire girl in the graveyard that attacks Buffy and some that attack her outside the prom (shown on the picture there). Sure they don't get any on screen bites, but the vamp cutie were there.
And really I like the movie, it's cheesy but still fun and I like that this was before the whole "bump face/blood sharing/demon takes over your body" myth the TV show went with (I really prefer the turning just comes from being drained and the corruption when the victim turns, takes me out of it when you claim their "soulless") and the vamps were the classic pale face and fangs ensemble, especially love the bat like ears too.
Yes the movie is not the TV series, but so what? It is its own thing and I appreciate it for what it is. Really I just think of it as the rough draft of what came later. Hell if it wasn't for the movie I wouldn't have checked out Buffy on day one when it aired, so kudos for that. Honestly I even prefer the movie over that comic origin they tried to make for the TV series. Least that had some female vampires, the comic was devoid of them and the vampires looked more like lizards then anything. So point to the movie there.
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Nice site. Kristy Swanson looks great with fangs in this Buffy promo shoot: https://goo.gl/7BRBnJ. She also bites a band member in the neck in the "Keep It Comin'" music video that came out with the movie.
ReplyDeleteWhoa whoa whoa, hold up now, the movie may not have had a lot of female vamps but they were still a few notable one. For example, the girl in that yellow jacket there was actually featured earlier, she's the student who get kidnapped in the parking lot and given to the master later on, total drastic makeover. There's that vampire girl in the graveyard that attacks Buffy and some that attack her outside the prom (shown on the picture there). Sure they don't get any on screen bites, but the vamp cutie were there.
ReplyDeleteAnd really I like the movie, it's cheesy but still fun and I like that this was before the whole "bump face/blood sharing/demon takes over your body" myth the TV show went with (I really prefer the turning just comes from being drained and the corruption when the victim turns, takes me out of it when you claim their "soulless") and the vamps were the classic pale face and fangs ensemble, especially love the bat like ears too.
Yes the movie is not the TV series, but so what? It is its own thing and I appreciate it for what it is. Really I just think of it as the rough draft of what came later. Hell if it wasn't for the movie I wouldn't have checked out Buffy on day one when it aired, so kudos for that. Honestly I even prefer the movie over that comic origin they tried to make for the TV series. Least that had some female vampires, the comic was devoid of them and the vampires looked more like lizards then anything. So point to the movie there.