Buffy the Vampire Slayer is perfect viewing to get yourself in the Halloween spirit, thanks to every episode being guaranteed to feature either vampires or demons of all shapes and sizes. And yet it’s a curious fact about the immortal series that, while it oscillated between being hilarious, dramatic, dark, profound, and silly with balletic grace, it actually wasn’t often that scary.
Maybe that’s because of Buffy Summers and the Scoobies’ penchant for poking fun at their enemies, or perhaps the slightly limited budget used to create its monsters, but as great as Buffy is it doesn’t necessarily leave us quaking in our stylish yet affordable boots all that much. HOWEVER, there are a handful of episodes that are the exception to this rule and seriously slay it with the scare factor.
Next time you’re on Hulu, make sure to give the following episodes a revisit, to remind yourself of the scariest corners of Sunnydale…
“Passion” (season 2, episode 17)
No, no, we’re not talking about that Passions (sorry, Spike). We’re referring to the episode in season 2 when Angelus officially passes the point of no return by snapping Jenny Calendar’s neck by the half-moon window of Sunnydale High’s second story, an image that remains one of the show’s most iconic. Mere moments before Ms. Calendar could pass on the Ritual of Restoration to Giles and return Angel his soul, she’s ambushed in her dark classroom and chased through the halls of Sunnydale High. If this episode doesn’t get your blood pumping, well, you might want to check for a heartbeat.
“Killed By Death” (season 2, episode 18)
Buffy’s the Slayer, killing things that kill is kind of her whole deal, so most of the show’s monsters-of-the-week don’t necessarily hold much of a threat. But that’s not the case with Der Kinderstod (German for “The Child Death”), an invisible, intangible demon who stalks hospitals preying on the life force of sick children, the only ones who can see him. The plot of “Killed By Death” is basically the best Blumhouse horror movie never made, then — Der Kinderstod even looks a bit like Ethan Hawke in The Black Phone. With his personal connection to Buffy’s own childhood and nightmarish conceit, he certainly stands head and shoulders above most of Sunnydale’s one-and-done demonic wonders.
“Helpless” (season 3, episode 12)
There’s nothing scarier than a bad birthday present. After Giles, under the instruction of the Watcher’s Council, injects Buffy with a serum that strips her of her powers, she’s attacked by a criminally insane uber-powerful vamp that she must defeat sans powers as a rite of passage known as Tento di Cruciamentum. As Giles says, it’s an “archaic exercise in cruelty” and you’ll be forgiven for feeling as helpless and claustrophobic as Buffy while watching it.
“Beer Bad” (season 4, episode 5)
Yes, I’m talking about the infamous Cave Buffy episode. No, “Beer Bad” might not be terrifying in the conventional sense but it is terrifying how a show like Buffy, which usually has finesse coming out of its bottom, can turn in such an awful episode of TV. This show’s supernatural metaphors are typically nuanced, but cursed beer turning college kids into cavemen has all the subtlety of an axe to the brain. The episode was actually made in a bid to gain funding from The Office of National Drug Control Policy, which offered grants to shows promoting anti-drug messages. Ironically, the board rejected the episode anyway for its supernatural themes, so the show got no money and the viewers got stuck with a stinker. “Beer Bad” is only recommended to Buffy fans with the boldest of hearts.
“Hush” (season 4, episode 10)
For an episode in which all of Sunnydale is robbed of its voices, it’s only fitting that I sum up the terror of “Hush” in as few words as possible. So here goes: The Gentlemen. That is all.
“Listening to Fear” (season 5, episode 9)
Anything that crawls on ceilings is a no-go, sorry, especially when it has red eyes and multiple mouths of sharp teeth. In “Listening to Fear”, an extraterrestrial Queller demon crash lands on Earth with a craving for crazy people, and since Sunnydale is piling up with people whose brains were eaten by Glory, the town is practically a buffet. Unfortunately, Joyce is gearing up for brain surgery to remove her tumor so she fits the bill at the moment, which means the Summers household gets unexpectedly infiltrated and we get front-row seats to the creepiest of crawlies.
“Forever” (season 5, episode 17)
Grief does strange things to people, and when you live in a world filled with monsters, magic, and mayhem, it can feel like anything is possible, even reviving people from the dead. In “Forever”, Joyce’s death has clouded Dawn’s better judgment. Despite Willow, Tara, and Buffy’s attempts to convince her people can sometimes come back “wrong,” Dawn seeks a spell to revive her mother. The spell works. We see Joyce’s corpse dragging its feet home from the graveyard, but just as Buffy is about to open the door and potentially reveal a zombie version of Joyce, Dawn rips up the photo she used to cast the spell. The episode is equal parts chilling as it is thrilling. Plus, the thought of a zombie Joyce is enough to give any Buffy stan nightmares.
“Normal Again” (season 6, episode 17)
“Normal Again” is uniquely scary for Buffy as its creepiness is psychological in nature. When Buffy is infected with the hallucinogenic blood of a demon, she begins to believe she’s really locked away in an asylum suffering from delusions about being a Slayer. The episode’s end is particularly chilling, when our heroine becomes a horror movie villain herself as the disturbed Buffy becomes convinced she needs to kill her friends so she can end her delusions. The final scene, in which it’s hinted that the asylum Buffy is the real one, after all, is a particularly chilling finishing touch, making us question the existence of the entire show.
“Same Time, Same Place” (season 7, episode 3)
In some ways “Same Time, Same Place” is what you might call a “housekeeping” episode as it’s the one that brings Willow back to the Scoobies’ side after her turn to the Dark Side in season 6. In ticking that off season 7’s checklist, though, the episode does a terrific job exploring Willow’s isolation and guilt as she’s rendered invisible from her friends. The real fear factor, however, comes from Gnarl, the Gollum-like creature who eats the flesh from your body while your alive and paralyzed. Shout-out to Buffy monster actor extraordinaire Camden Toy (who previously played one of the Gentlemen) for his creepy performance.
“Conversations With Dead People” (season 7, episode 7)
The final season of Buffy had its ups and downs, but when the show got it right, it got it right. “Conversations With Dead People” is not only one of the strongest episodes in the seventh season but also the series as a whole. The First Evil is back and it has its sights set on the Scoobies, starting with Willow and Dawn, the former of whom is visited by the ghost of Joyce and the latter a message from Tara. Buffy, meanwhile, has a quasi-therapy session with a familiar friend-turned-vampire in the graveyard while Spike meanders on home with a woman from the bar only to bite her despite the chip in his head. On the outskirts of Sunnydale, Jonathan and Andrew return to town in search of an ancient artifact hidden near the entrance of the Hellmouth while the ghost of Warren aka The First pushes Andrew over the edge.
A lot happens, and while you might not jump at pouncing demons, cringe at blood-thirty monsters, or question your sanity, you’ll be left with a general sense of melancholy and hopelessness. The episode is a haunting exploration of grief and a foreboding tease of Buffy‘s biggest showdown yet.