Pascal actually connected the two projects in an interview with Vulture in 2015, saying, “A movie like ‘Bloodsucking Bastards’ can exist because of a show like ‘Buffy.’ The humor is a lot more broad, but it still is a genre-mixing story, which ‘Buffy’ really ushered into pop culture.” The actor isn’t the only one to make this comparison; in a review of the movie at the time, Paste’s Andy Crump wrote that the vampire flick “almost feels designed to appeal to the Whedonite crowd.” Aside from the casting of “Cabin in the Woods” and “Dollhouse” star Kranz, Crump notes that “its sense of humor blends self-awareness and self-deprecation in equal measure, it’s in love with monsters and mythology, and it folds a handful of genres into one messy, stilted blueprint.”
“I love mixing horror with comedy,” Pascal told Vulture, noting that the movie is also often compared to “Shaun of the Dead.” He’s not wrong about “Buffy,” though; while “Bloodsucking Bastards” includes a meaner edge than the classic vamp coming-of-age show, it follows the much-used “Buffy” formula, in which one character notices that monsters are taking over everyday life while the rest seemingly remain clueless. “It’s kind of ‘Fright Night’ as well, because you have the main character aware of something very suspicious going on, and then my character coming in and taking over this poor guy’s world,” Pascal notes.