How Much Buffy the Vampire Slayer Show Cost to Kill a Vampire

Fact: To kill a vampire on the set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series, it cost $5,000 to kill a vampire. With the CGI the show worked with in 1997, it cost production $5,000 each time they killed a vampire.

Interestingly enough, due to the high costs of CGI back in the late 1990s, the majority of the vampires killed on the show were killed just off-screen, with the disintegration sound-effect playing. By the time the budget for the show grew enough, vampires had long ceased to be the main threat on the show. You can see this type of theme-work occurring in various other elements of the show. For one, most of the vamp face alterations would occur off screen.

They used a “jump cut” between pre-makeup and post-makeup; once Season 2 came around, the “game face” effect becomes more gradual.