In 1997, creator Joss Whedon revisited a screenplay that had previously been adapted into a relatively forgotten horror-comedy film: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Dissatisfied with how the film turned out, Whedon developed his own version of the story as an allegory for the "horrors" of growing up. For seven years, Buffy and her friends (the Scoobies) battled demons, both of the metaphorical and literal kind and, along the way, took part in a series that defines the term "cult classic."