Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Killed by Death

“If he asks you to play chess, don’t do it.”

The title is promising; it’s the name of my favourite Motörhead track. And this is a nice little monster-of-the week episode to start off a run of basically arc-light episodes until we reach the two-part season finale.

For once the monster owes more to 1980s horror cinema than to folklore, with Der Kindestod looking uncannily like Freddie from Nightmare on Elm Street. The unusual and creepy monster, with its hotline to all of our buried childhood nightmares, is placed in the creepiest setting imaginable: a hospital. And this hospital, with its dark corridors, is a creepy place. I only with the direction had been a little more creative, though, perhaps showing the hospital through camera movements mimicking Buffy’s delirium, to push the scariness even further. After all, this episode is not really about the fairly blah-blah plot. It’s about setting, atmosphere and delirium, a heady mix, and it doesn’t quite manage all that it wants to achieve. Still, there’s no lack of creepiness. Those sucking things from the monster’s eyes are truly nightmarish.

There’s a bit of character stuff, too. Cordelia continues to be brilliantly tactless. Interestingly, Joyce is by now no longer wondering why a school librarian should be doing things like visiting Buffy in hospital. She’s definitely going to find out soon. Oh, and is bringing grapes to someone you’re visiting in hospital generally thought of as just a British thing in America? I never knew that.

The appearances by Angel are awkwardly perfunctory, and there’s a distinct whiff of contractual obligation. Still, a good episode, even if there’s not a great deal to say about it and this is my shortest review to date. It’s just a shame that a more creative directorial approach wasn’t let loose on this script.