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In the steel-trap screen memories of sci-fi and horror fans, Sarah Michelle Gellar will forever be synonymous with Buffy Summers, the titular fang-quaking hero of TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Running for seven seasons and overshadowing the 1992 movie that inspired it, Gellar and costars Charisma Carpenter, Alyson Hannigan, David Boreanaz, Michelle Trachtenberg, and more created a turn-of-the-millennium pop culture bubble that, to this day, has never really burst.
So significant was the success of Buffy on TV that the series rarely gets described as a genre cult classic, with today’s critics and fans alike finding near-consensus agreement that the Joss Whedon-created supernatural juggernaut remains, quite simply, an actual classic. The same can’t quite be said for its same-named movie predecessor (also written by Whedon, and streaming on Peacock here) — a fact, when you think about it, that’s kind of insane. After all, in hindsight, just a single glance at Buffy the movie’s casting sheet reads like a come-together vampire party of contemporary and future megastars.
A 1990s dream scream team: The Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie cast
Kristy Swanson anchored Buffy the movie as the original Valley-girl force who stands between demonic bloodsuckers and their hapless human prey. But Swanson is only the top-billed star crowning an incredibly long list of celebrity names who turn up in the film — some with sizable roles (like Luke Perry’s Oliver Pike); and others (like an uncredited Ben Affleck, hooping it up in the background as a high school basketball jock) you easily might’ve forgotten about… if, that is, you ever knew they were there in the first place.
Think we’re exaggerating here? Take a deep breath and check out more of the movie’s deep casting bench: There’s Hilary Swank as Buffy’s cheerleading pal Kimberly; David Arquette as early vampire victim Benny; Thomas Jane as local car-repair shop owner Zeph; Stephen Root as high school principal Gary Murray; and Seth Green as a barely-there unnamed vamp who Buffy dispatches with haste.
Heck, even 1990s talk-show icon Ricki Lake turns up in this movie, playing the brief role of a restaurant server who waits on Benny and Pike. And what’s truly wild, if you’ve been keeping score so far, is that we’ve only mentioned the Buffy film actors who are still living — which brings us to the sizable roll call of stars who have, sadly, since passed away.
Dearly Departed: Remembering the rest of the Buffy film cast
Though many early-1990s actors across the wider entertainment-verse are no longer with us today, Buffy the Vampire Slayer features a disproportionately large number of them all in one place. More than three decades on from the 1992 movie’s release, it’s of course an inevitable outcome of the slow march of time… yet the movie is uniquely dense with celebrity names whose terrific careers are now finished.
The Buffy actors who have since passed on also happen to be key players in the movie itself: The late, great Perry (1966-2019) held things down as Buffy’s unlikely high school crush Pike, while the iconic Donald Sutherland (1935-2024) played the enigmatic Merrick, Buffy’s supernatural “watcher” and guiding vampire-slaying hand. Blade Runner great Rutger Hauer (1944-2019) starred as vampire king Lothos, while Paul Reubens of Pee-wee Herman fame (1952-2023) skulked about sewing chaos as Amilyn, Lothos’ loyal undead sidekick.
For fans of Buffy the TV series, going back to the film that started it all can feel almost like a pop-culture pilgrimage. The movie occupies a distinctly different place in the sci-fi horror landscape than its more successful small-screen offspring, yet it recognizably sets the offbeat genre tone for every crazy thing that would eventually follow in Sunnydale.
It’s also a fascinating peek into the emerging early-1990s craze for all things campy and creepy — and, if we’re being shamelessly honest, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is also just a whole lot of fun. Best of all, it’s available to scream — wait, we meant stream! — right now on Peacock here.
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