Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 2, Episode 18: Killed by Death
Written by Rob Des Hotel & Dean Batali; Directed by Deran Sarafian(a.k.a. In Which Buffy Learns... Absolutely Nothing)
So Sunnydale has a general hospital too? I would have thought they would dispense with Accident & Emergency and just stick with a morgue.
This is one of the earliest episodes I remember seeing, when I happened to catch it on Sky One a few years before I properly got into the show in 2003. It's not a great episode, and a lot of that is due to the fact that it's a big rip-off of A Nightmare on Elm Street, right down to the Freddy Krueger-styled demon and snatches of the music score. (Jeez, one of the kids he kills is even called Tina!) Quite apart from that, the backstory involving Buffy and her cousin, whose death she witnessed at a young age, was clearly dreamed up for the purposes of this episode only and, to the best of my knowledge, is never referred to again. (Plus, if Buffy hates hospitals so much, why doesn't it bother her more when she spends so much time in one during Season 5?) It is, however, shot in a very atmospheric way, and it has an atmosphere unlike any other Buffy episode I can think of. This was the only episode directed by Deran Sarafian (who, incidentally, is the nephew of Robert Altman), and I wish he'd done more, for whatever it lacks in terms of plot and originality, it makes up for with style.
Overall rating: 6/10.
Next time: I Only Have Eyes For You, an episode that I considered to be pretty overrated when I first saw it. Maybe I'll look on it more favourably now?
Well, that's me made my way through four episodes in one day. Maybe I'll do the same tomorrow, and then I'll be done with Season 2. Right now, I'm off out to dinner avec ma familie for my birthday (which isn't actually for another four days, but my dad will be away in France by that time).
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home