“I wanted people to internalize it, and make up fantasies where they were in the story, to take it home with them, for it to exist beyond the TV show.” (Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

It wasn’t a very good movie — that was about the only thing the critics could agree on. Buffy the Vampire Slayer opened in 1992 to big hype but lackluster performance. The reviews where lukewarm, labeling it a “new, high-concept bottle for the old wine of vacuous valley-girl jokes.” Rolling Stone called it “rampant silliness” and not “heinous, just disposable.” The movie quickly faded from public memory, turning into late night cable fodder.

So how did a television version of a flop win the cultish devotion of millions of fans, land a place on TV Guide’s “Greatest Television Shows of All Time” and become into one of the most critically acclaimed series of the past decade?

It’s the writing, stupid. Plus, getting rid of that screechy Kirsten Swanson and replacing her with the luminescent Sarah Michelle Geller (Buffy) helped. Ditto rounding out the cast with the study Anthony Steward Head (Giles) and simply excellent Alyson Hannigan (Willow), among others.

Freed from the limits of making a single movie, writer/director Joss Whedon’s vision of a high school populated with demons and monsters blossomed. While the idea might be particularly novel, anyone who had to deal with a locker room knows there is something evil lurking there, the show took it a step further, transforming the seemingly life-and-death struggles of adolescence into actual life and life struggles. In short, make the problems look as big as they feel. No matter how well another show portrays those fumbling years, they can only replicate it. Using funhouse mirror of fantasy and metaphor, Buffy not only replicates, but expands and elevates life into an epic mythology worthy of Homer or Spenser.

It helps that the show is funny. Balancing acts of light humor, dark drama, horror, and action that make Buffy appeal to many people at once. Want to laugh, hear the snarky quips. Want some action? Wait for the amazingly choreographed fight scenes. Want that high minded stuff I was talking about? Just watch a few episodes and see how the impeccable continuity and gold-caliber acting tie it all together.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer proved the near impossible. That show featuring a blonde girl, fight scenes, vampires and demons, could also be one of the most consistently clever, insightful, and entertaining shows on TV. Spawning two spin-offs, a successful comic book series, and an animated series slated for the fall of 2002, Buffy is on a roll.

And it all came from a goofy, lightweight Valley Girl movie. Fer Sure.