Buffy The Vampire Slayer

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" has always had a problem with stuff staying dead.

The TV series, whose last episode aired in May 2003, is still drawing crowds to the big screen. No, not for the campy 1992 movie version, but for the critically lauded television show — specifically, the musical episode entitled ’Once more … with feeling.’

The Buffy Musical Big Screen Extravaganza – which screens the episode in movie theaters — is expanding the Buffyverse with a national tour, and will hit L.A. as part of the Los Angeles Film Festival on Wednesday.

The screenings started in Boston in 2004, then became the resident sing-a-long at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin. It has been projected on a movie screen in New York for the past few years at the IFC Center, which, incidentally, is where "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" originated.

Like that cult hit, the screenings incorporate props, crowd interaction and, whenever possible, a live cast — The Uncool Kids – acting out scenes. The show’s program creator and booker, Clinton McClung, was a theater manager and fan who saw a need, and struck.

"I decided to screen the episode instead of the original Buffy movie in our midnight series because I loved it so much … I thought maybe a few Buffy fans would come out and it would be like a little party or something, but to our surprise 600 rabid fans showed up to that first show."

The screenings grew in popularity, prompting the creation of a MySpace page. Whedonites (fans of show creator Joss Whedon) flocked to the page wondering if/when the show would ever play in their town, and the seeds were planted for a touring Buffypalooza.

"I am hoping the tour will prove successful enough in certain cities that the show can come back on a regular basis and people can form their own casts," McClung says.

None of the TV series’ real cast has officially come by to view the screenings, according to McClung, but they’re aware of it. MTV captured a screening and some of the cast’s reactions to the phenomena earlier this year. Whedon’s trademark sarcasm could not hide his pride.

"I’ve come down against it. I think it’s wrong. Ummm, what can I think? I think it’s the best thing ever!"

Amber Benson, who played Tara on the show, recalled that it was an exciting time when the musical was unearthed.

"Doing the musical was way more intense than doing a typical episode of ’Buffy.’ We did so many second-unit days to complete the episode, it was insane."

Benson, whom Whedon has said was one of the best singers on the set, also recalled that her brand of grace made filming the episode a "hard-core celebration!"

"I danced into a pole. That was ... interesting.," she said. "And then they used the take in the episode. That was ... embarrassing."

The show’s L.A. Film Festival screening has sold out, proof that it remains popular long after it had been staked. Sometimes the dead continue to entertain us.