Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Horror Genre

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Horror Genre Typically the Horror or more specifically Vampire genre will have the theme good vs. evil where the hero represents good and the villain represents evil. This is consistent in Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Buffy is the hero and the evil vampires she slays (in this episode Glory/Ben) represent evil. There is also a cliché within this genre where good is always triumphant over evil. Buffy in this episode conforms to this cliché but with a twist; which is also typical of the Genre, good triumphs over evil in the end but not without a sacrifice. Although Buffy contains many of the conventions that are typical of the horror genre it also contains many conventions which are associated with other genres making it multi generic. From this episode we can see that it contains references to the Kung-Fu genre from the fight scenes and also the Teen Genre as there are romances between characters and typical teen language is used 'smart chicks are so hot'. Obviously as the hero Buffy is the main character in this programme. However, a superhero is normally a man in his mid 20s-30s who tries to save the victim the victim who is stereotypically a teenage girl. This is Ironic as Buffy is that innocent looking Blonde teenage girl. In this episode Buffy tries to save her sister Dawn for Glory/Ben who wants to bleed her to death in order to open the portal between our world and the evil dimension. 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 b... ... middle of paper ... ...cal 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'.

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