Torrance tour includes lair of vampire slayer
Fans of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" can go inside the Sunnydale heroine's stand-in home during this weekend's Historical Society event.
By Ian Hanigan
DAILY BREEZE
Gene Hassan has seen blood-thirsty vampires wreak havoc in her front yard.
She's seen zombies crash through her bathroom window.
And a door-to-door salesman once dissolved into a mass of wriggling worms -- right in her dining room.
Pretty scary stuff. But it comes with the territory when you own the house where the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" television series was filmed for six-plus years.
Plus, ghouls in your foyer are a bit more tolerable when lunch and dinner are catered.
"I was amazed at how good the food was," said Hassan, 77.
For the first time, Hassan will open up her Cota Avenue home to fans of the cult series this weekend as an added attraction of the Torrance Historical Society's Original Fall Tour of Historic Homes.
For $35 a head, Buffy-philes will get to hear docents talk about who was killed where and with what sharp weapon. And, of course, there will be food.
Hassan will be there, too, sharing some of her Buffy memories.
Like the time a zombie cat -- actually a mechanical feline -- crawled out of a grave in her backyard. That happened in season three.
Or the time Buffy's vampire boyfriend was thrown out of the large front window. Crews, she said, had to remove the real glass and temporarily replace it with a pane of safe candy glass, which exploded into a million benign shards at around 4 a.m.
For those unfamiliar with the show, "Buffy" starred Sarah Michelle Gellar as a stake-wielding teenager with superhuman strength who, with the help of her high school pals, grappled with vampires and other demonic forces. The series, which took place in the fictitious town of Sunnydale, aired from 1997 to 2003.
