Monstrum/Mysterium Tremendum in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Re-mythologising the Divine

Abstract

For those to whom Buffy the Vampire Slayer seems a quaint pop-cultural parenthesis andtherefore have never taken the time to watch an episode, Buffy, a rather unassuming girlwho displays a knack for repartee and is possessed of natural beauty, is a Vampire Slayer.Slayer,the: one chosen in every generation to do battle against the forces of evil.Uncannily enough, she is in love with a vampire: Angel. Angel is a broody creature ofthe night that has been cursed by gypsies and is thereby in possession of a soul. MayorWilkins, despite being responsible for the ‘hellmouth’ at Sunnydale and planning anapocalypse in which his ascension transforms him into a demonic serpent, is obsessedwith hygiene and Middle American virtues. Glorificus, the ruler of a hell-dimension whohas been locked-out of her demesne, is beguiling the time in Sunnydale as an über-con -sumer who goes on shopping sprees. Are there any religious elements discernible amidstthe show’s almost paradoxical mayhem? How does divine import creep into the subtext ofBuffy the Vampire Slayer?