Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film)/YMMV

• Acceptable Targets:
  • Vampires: naturally
  • White Anglo-Saxon Protestants: Buffy's parents being the Reagan/Bush era variation on the old theme.
  • Jocks: In this instance, basketball players.
  • British people: Buffy calls Merrick a "scone-head."
• Accidental Innuendo: "I was just saving your butt!....Well, there was an exchange of butts...."
• Adaptation Displacement: Some fans of the series probably weren't even aware that a movie was made.
  • Few have seen the movie. Whedon considers his script — not the film that was actually made — to be canon.
• Big Lipped Alligator Moment: In the school counselor's office, Buffy kills a fly by spitting a dart at it - apparently for no other reason than because she's bored.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Amilyn.
• Fair for Its Day / Reactionary Fantasy: Okay, let's level here: before this movie came along, there really weren't that many examples of strong females in popular culture that weren't either Stripperific, One of the Boys, or novelty characters who were just used for a quick laugh. For breaking through each of these stereotypes, this movie certainly deserves a great deal of credit. And, yes, the character of Buffy herself is to be lauded for overcoming a Primal Fear that would have left most humans - including most men - gibbering wrecks. All that said, it's worth pointing out that Buffy needs a man to intervene on her behalf in each of her three battles with Lothos: Merrick at the parade float yard, when he sacrifices his own life to save hers; Pike while she's confronting Lothos in the school's boiler room, when he electrocutes a vampire in the ballroom, thus causing the school's sound system to short out and put an end to a heavy metal song that Lothos is apparently using to mesmerize Buffy; and Pike again during the final fight on the ballroom floor, when he leaps onto Lothos's back to distract him so that Buffy can strike a killing blow.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Donald Sutherland plays Merrick, a man who lives to kill vampires. His son was previously in a similar movie... as a vampire.
• Ho Yay: The scene where Amilyn watches over Lothos as he sleeps and kisses his hand makes you wonder...
• Iron Woobie: Buffy, due to the Bittersweet Ending.
• Large Ham: All the vampires. All of them. (Though Amilyn takes the cake with his prolonged death scene.)
• Memetic Mutation: Amilyn's death scene is basically what most people remember from the film: "Ooooh, aaaaah, ooooh, aaaaah!"
• Only the Creator Does It Right: The planned Whedon-less reboot film is getting this reaction from a lot of people.
• Retroactive Recognition: Hilary Swank as Kimberley, one of Buffy's Girl Posse. Ben Affleck and Ricki Lake in bit parts, as a baseball player and a waitress respectively. Though his scene got left on the cutting room floor, Seth Green (Oz from the series) does appear on the tape, and DVD covers.
• Seinfeld Is Unfunny: This movie bombed in its theatrical release but proved to be a cult favorite on videotape. It was this cult status that ultimately inspired the TV series, which ironically now tends to make the movie look bad by comparison.
• Tear Jerker: Merrick dying in Buffy's arms.
• Vindicated by Cable: Where it continues to air practically every week.