Sunnydale

Sunnydale, California is the fictional suburban setting for the popular television drama Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Series creator, Joss Whedon, conceived the town as a representation of the typical, anonymous, generic suburban city, as well as a narrative parody of the all-too-serene towns typical in traditional horror movies.

Sunnydale is designed largely for comic effect and narrative convenience; it has one high school but nineteen gothic cemeteries, and despite having only one modest main street, it also sports a large university, a nearby beach, desert, and forest, and many dark alleyways, abandoned mansions and factories. Sunnydale possesses many common horror movie characteristics, most notably the divide between its demon fighting, supernaturally aware teens and sinister or clueless, perpetually-in-denial adults.

Sunnydale is "located" ambiguously between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. The fictional high school which was originally the centerpiece of the series is located on a "Hellmouth," a portal between our world and the darker demon dimensions, which serves as a nexus and attracting point for all manner of evil creatures and happenings. The hellmouth serves both as a narrative conceit and one of the central metaphors of the show, which specializes in drawing supernatural elements as analogies for the difficulties of adolesence.