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 between two women; Tyra and Willow. However, Tyra is also a victim atone stage as Glory made her brain-dead, Willow acts as a hero by helping her regain normality and this is typical of one of the main conventions of the horror genre.
There is something unusual about the villain in this episode of Buffy in so much as she has taken on the body of an innocent teenage boy called Ben meaning Buffy faces a moral dilemma (moral dilemmas are typical of this genre) when trying to eradicate Glory’s threat. Buffy decides she cannot
take a human life (Ben) even if it ensures the safety of the world proving her to be a hero that holds a strong grip on her morals. However, another group member ; Giles who from his appearance looks clever takes a different course of action to the problem; he decides the only way is to kill Glory/Ben and with this he slowly suffocates the severely injured Ben . This provides the audience with a tear jerking moment.
Typical stock characters of a horror film include Vampires, Goblins, Zombies and innocent Victims. In this episode of Buffy we see only one of these stock characters: Goblins. The Goblins are typically ugly looking creatures who have hunchbacks and green skin as in this episode of Buffy. They are loyal to their mistress and help her to fight Buffy and her friends.
Stereotypically the horror genre will contain a twist at the end. Buffy conforms to this in her tragic death, she saves Dawn but not without a sacrifice. As Buffy slowly realises what she has to do ‘I figured it out’ there is an air of sadness all around, she has realised that ‘her gift is death’ and that is what she must give.
As the audience realise that Buffy is dead we are shown the icon of Buffy’s gravestone. As the camera flies in to a close up shot we see the words ‘here lies Buffy Anne Summers’ ‘She saved the world a lot’. This is overly sentimental and it brings tears to the audience’s eyes. Although not usually portrayed in this way gravestones are a common icon of the horror genre, normally they are used to show the residence of the vampires but in this case they are ironically used to show the final resting place of the slayer.
Another Icon in this episode of Buffy is the rickety old tower. This tower is a symbol of fear and adds atmosphere to the scene.
In the opening title sequence extremely short and sharp shots show us typical teen and horror images. This reveals to us two of the main themes of Buffy. As the main characters are planning how to save Dawn and the world we see longer close up shots on them revealing the social tension and their facial expressions. During the fight scene shots come from a range of angles but are generally quite fast, this helps to build pace and tension and makes the fight scenes more dramatic and interesting to watch. As Buffy and Glory battle it out on the tower there are often high shots. This makes the scene more dramatic as we can see just how high up they are on the tower. As Glory’s evil colleague cuts Dawn we begin to see close ups of his face and her bloody feet, this gives great dramatic effects.
During the opening titles music with a fast heavy beat plays, it is reasonably cheerful and was probably chosen to suit the target audience. As Buffy, Giles, Willow, Tyra and spike prepare to fight Glory music you would typically associate with this genre plays. As the music builds up to the climax of the fight it becomes faster building tension, (also typical of the genre) it becomes sad and slow again as Dawn is lead to the tower which makes the scene more emotive. After the fight scenes have finished and as Buffy realises what she has to do and as she leaves Dawn the music changes from piano music to the oboe and as she runs and falls in slow-motion to Strings. As she dives through the portal there is beautiful imagery as she says ‘I will always love you’ and the music becomes softer provoking emotion within the audience.
In the opening sequences we see a wide range of images, most of them are scary and typical of the horror genre but some of them are typical of the teen genre which further proves that Buffy is Multi-generic. We see Bats and Dragons fly out of the portal which are also typical 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’.
