BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: Vampire Hip, Part 1 - Intro
September 6th 2009 05:45
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Joss Whedon and his vamp buddies
Joss Whedon, the creator of the Buffy franchise, repeatedly affirmed that one of his main aims was to undercut viewer expectations in every conceivable way, in plot, cinematography, character structure, etc., and again the fantasy genre facilitates this procedure. Buffy succeeds on many levels in its mission of disturbing normative rules; its often provoking themes contain some of the subversive connotations and defiant attitudes of the original subcultural sources. Subcultures have the power of provocation and subversion towards the dominant order of things. The relationship between the mainstream and the marginal can be seen as a dialogue (which can sometimes turn into a heated discussion): the dominant discourse tends to use and varnish subcultural meanings, absorbing and diffusing them, but marginal discourses use mainstream texts and subvert and appropriate their meanings as well, creating a new language, a code of “secret” meanings in an attempt to resist that order. This continuous tension creates a space of friction, a possibility of a creative clash and a mutual infusion of a chaotic mix of ideas.
The untypical mainstream text that is Buffy has a rather specialized, cult appeal. Buffyverse takes us into the demon underworld, its sinister presence hidden under the sunny California surface of a teenage high school soap opera. The look of that underworld and their most spectacular representatives, the vampires, contributes to the show’s undeniable appeal. A subculture is recognizable and defined by its distinctive shape and structure, the fact that it is focused around certain activities and values common to a given group, and that it is bound with the parent culture, being based on it structurally and with the mission to transform its values. The conceptions of masculinity, family and power are reproduced and re-evaluated. The resultant distinctive way of being-in-the-world results in the imprinting of style on objects significant in the group through the process of stylization. The shaping of marginal identities involves specific group dynamics and inter-relations, which depend on situational context and experiences, which are subsequently reflected in the styles of interaction and distinctive look of the members of a given subculture.
Vampires are the ultimate subculture. As Angel tells us, “Vampires are a paradox: demons in a human body” (4.60, “Who are you”). We regard them with an ambivalent mixture of revulsion and rapture. After all, a vampire is an eternally young and beautiful, potently sexual being freed from human limitations such as time, social and economic constraints and, of course, physical deterioration, sickness and death. Vampires also qualify as a deviant and criminal subculture in terms of their direct link with the human parent culture, on which they depend for sustenance, but tend to treat it with contempt, as something beneath them. They are unabashedly narcissistic and elitist as their transgressive nature allows them to break human taboos. In other words, they are our (anti)ideal. Like any subculture, they arouse fear and fascination, except more so, because they are actually different in constitution, unaffected by human weakness, and as such they are the perfect fantasy object to live through vicariously. The use of subcultural imagery to portray vampires in the media seems like the most natural thing in the world.
Buffy with Angel, her vampire lover
It is often noted that our knowledge of the “creatures of the night” comes mostly from popular culture, especially the cinema. The stereotypical vampire is traditionally a charismatic and mysterious stranger, who can be read as possessing all the qualities we would want in an ideal lover; his seductive gaze symbolizes transgression of every kind and has the power to fool us into believing he is everything we want him to be. Buffy’s world subverts that classic image in many ways. The series is an aesthetic mixture of various genres and draws on themes not associated with vampires, reconstructing and playing with their image.
Located on the Hellmouth, Sunnydale is densely populated by countless demons, the vampires forming just one distinct subcultural group amongst them. In Buffyverse they possess the classic vampire shared perspective and lifestyle based on bloodlust, however their most notable aesthetic feature in the series is the fact that they “morph”, their faces become monstrous when they are aroused or enraged, and they are not only strong, but immediately after being turned into a vampire and awakening they lose all inhibitions and seem to know martial arts, or at least the American television version of them.
Buffy temporarily held hostage by her nemeses, demonstrating typical vampfaces
Among the various categories of vampires the most common are the “vamps”, usually confined to Sunnydale’s many cemeteries for Buffy to kill on her patrols. They are almost always in a morphed state, wearing their vampfaces, which are too silly to be taken seriously, and not very scary with their campy comic book make-up. Aesthetically these creatures are inspired rather by the B-movie trash tradition and Hammer studio horror movies than the classic Hollywood Dracula films. The series creators stress in interviews that they try to diversify them visually, thus there are 80s style Van Halen lookalikes, fat vampires and singing vampires, of all races, genders, ages and persuasions. They are mostly played for humour and lack much individualization. Prone to rituals and mysticism, vamps tend to form nests or secret underground societies around stronger members, by whom they are easily controlled and manipulated.
The hip vampire clan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The more complex vampire villains and heroes of the series are allowed to develop their individualized styles. The “Fearesome Foursome”: Angel (David Boreanaz), Spike (James Marsters), Darla (Julie Benz) and Drusilla (Juliet Landau) are the tongue-in-cheek vampire family of Buffyverse. Apart from being dreamboat style icons, the relationships between these characters consist of a constant frenzy of goading and challenging the power positions in their clan.
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: Vampire Hip Part 2 – Angel
Article by Patricia Bieszk
© Copyright P. Bieszk 2009
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