10 Great Movies Starring The Cast Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer

10. Southland Tales

Following up a beloved project is tough for anyone, but Dwayne Johnson couldn’t rest on his Scorpion King laurels forever. Beyond that, Southland Tales was Richard Kelly’s follow-up to Donnie Darko, and one of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s first post-Buffy projects; one in which she’d be playing a porn star.

The pressure was on for all involved, but especially for Kelly. Donnie Darko was a sleeper hit that turned into one of the most talked about movies of its time, and expectations for its young director were sky high. He responded to those expectations by making an utterly insane, wildly overambitious follow-up that was met with almost gleeful derision on its release.

Those critics evidently don’t enjoy fun, because Southland Tales, while not entirely successful, is a total blast. It’s a searing (not really) satire of reality TV and the then-rumbling war on terror, with Johnson as an action star, a strangely serious Seann William Scott as two army brothers, and Gellar as a former adult movie performer turned influencer.

Gellar particularly is right at home in this daft film - her comedy chops are underrated and she delivers Kelly’s nonsense dialogue exactly right. It’s not, one imagines, the film the auteur wanted to make, but for fans of amazingly entertaining bonkers action, it’s a must-see.