Buffy the Vampire Slayermay have ended in 2003, but its popularity remains eternal. The show lives on in the hearts of fans because it grew beyond themonster-of-the-week format, giving us lovable characters with complex relationships, family drama, and the very human problems that come with growing up.
Related:Meta-Stakes: Buffy’s Take On The Time Loop
Having said that, the monsters are pretty cool, too. There are some terrifying episodes ofBuffy, with skin-crawling demons strong enough to push the Slayer to the brink. The following 8 episodes are spread across the whole show, ranging from nightmarish clowns, grinning skeletal demons, and terrifying encounters with the dead. Grab a cushion to cower behind, sit back, and enjoy some of the scariest episodes inBuffy’shistory.
8Fear, Itself: Season 4, Episode 4
If viewers are looking for a classic spooky episode,Fear, Itselfis a good place to start. Buffy and the gang can’t decide what to do for Halloween, and after some negotiations, end up going to a frat party (much to Buffy’s reluctance). Unfortunately for them, the frat boys in charge decided to paint a creepy-looking symbol on the floor that they happened to find in an old book. A bad idea in general, but a terrible idea in Sunnydale.
Over the course of the evening, things start to go wrong, as they often do: Oz starts hiswerewolf transformation, despite the lack of a full moon, attacking Willow. Willow conjures a goddess, only to find her spell spirals out of control. Xander becomes invisible, unable to get the attention of his friends. It becomes apparent that the house is manifesting the inhabitant’s deepest fears. Not just standard ‘scary spider’ fears, either: these are deeper, subtler, more personal terrors. It’s a creepy episode with a satisfying ending, and each character comes away with a better understanding of themselves. Plus, it has Giles in a sombrero, which is an obvious bonus.
7Nightmares: Season 1, Episode 10
Earlier episodes ofBuffyare really starting to show their age at this point, butNightmaresremains creepy to this day. Similar to the plot ofFear, Itself,Nightmaressees the students of Sunnydale High in the throes of panic as their bad dreams come to life. This leads to some pretty comical (and relatable) moments, as well as some classic fears: Xander’s murderous clown is pretty terrifying all these years later.
Related:Best Modern Games Set In The ’90s
But the scariest part ofNightmares, as is often the case, is the human element of the story. Buffy finds a comatose boy in the hospital, dreaming of a terrifying man. The boy, named Billy, has a sad story to tell when he wakes (although the acting, it has to be said, is pretty ropey). We also get to see Buffy’s dad in this episode and learn more about her complex relationship with him. Overall, it’s a good spooky episode, despite some weak points, and it’s a nice nostalgia for ’90s kids.
6Killed By Death: Season 2, Episode 18
Going back to an earlier episode,Killed By Deathis one of the scariest episodes of Season 2. Buffy is taken to the hospital with the flu. In a feverish state, she sees a boy in the doorway of her room, along with a strange man, seemingly stalking him. Eventually, she discovers a monster is attacking the children in their hospital beds. The problem is, the monster is invisible to adults.
In a complicated plan involving the experimental drugs of a doctor, Buffy purposefully puts herself in a fever, defeating the monster just in time. It’s a scary episode for a few reasons; mostly because Buffy can’t see the monster, and the viewers feel her powerlessness in the face of an acute threat. This episode also deals with Buffy’s grief over the loss of her cousin as she gets to grips with a shocking revelation.
5Listening To Fear: Season 5, Episode 9
Joyce’s illness starts to dominate season 5, as Buffy balances taking care of her mother alongside saving the world. This is a ‘monster of the day’ episode: ahorrifying creature(the Queller demon) stalks the streets, killing an escaped hospital patient before targeting Joyce, who begins to act strangely. Her daughters believe this is Joyce’s response to the pressure of her brain tumor.
Unfortunately for poor Joyce, she can see something the girls can’t: the demon on the ceiling above her bed. Buffy and Spike fight the demon off, but the event leaves everyone shaken.Listening To Fearhas a particularly heartbreaking moment where Buffy tries to deal with her stress and terror in the wake of her mother’s illness, and it’s a sad foreshadowing of events to come.
4Helpless: Season 3, Episode 12
The monsters, ghouls, and demons viewers encounter are counterbalanced by Buffy’s immense power: ultimately, she’s often able to defeat even thestrongest vampires, and everything goes back to normal. But what happens if she loses her powers? In this episode, Buffy prepares to celebrate her 18th birthday, only to find herself engaged in a rite of passage that will threaten the lives of both herself and her loved ones.
Related:Underappreciated 90s Horror Movies
Buffy’s humanity in this episode feels unsettling, and she takes several brutal beatings. While ultimately she overcomes Kralik, the demon of the day, it’s a struggle for her, and it beautifully expresses Buffy’s acute fear of not being able to protect the people she loves. It also marks an interesting turning point in the relationship between Buffy and Giles.
3Forever: Season 5, Episode 17
Season 5 Episode 16,The Body, is a tough act to follow. The Body is a masterpiece of an episode, and the image of a lifeless Joyce on the couch is burned into the memories of Buffy fans across the globe. The stark reality of death portrayed inThe Bodyis, of course, terrifying in itself. But the following episode,Forever, is an incredibly chilling, easily overlooked episode.
Shell-shocked by Joyce’s death, Buffy has to make some tough decisions in this episode, leaving Dawn in the care of the others. Unbeknownst to them, Dawn is planning to perform a spell to bring her mother back to life. The climax of this episode is breathtakingly scary, and Buffy’s breakdown at the end is one of the most heartbreaking moments of the series.
2Hush: Season 4, Episode 10
We can’t talk about scary episodes of Buffy without bringing upHush. A fan favorite,Hushintroduces one of themost iconic creaturesof the whole show: the eerie, skeletal, floating Gentlemen. InHush, the gang wakes one morning only to find they have lost their voices, a phenomenon that the local news describes as a town-wide case of laryngitis. While chaos erupts around them, the Gentlemen arrive, gliding serenely through the town, terrorizing everyone they meet.
The Gentlemen are truly horrific, not just in looks: they murder innocents by cutting out their hearts. It’s a terrifying episode, peppered with some laugh-out-loud moments. Plus, we get to meet the lovely Tara for the first time.
Conversations With Dead Peopleis a strange episode, and it’s a highlight of the last season. A date and time stamp (July 29, 2025, 8:01 PM) opens the show. This is unusual for Buffy, giving viewers who happened to be watching at the time the feeling that the events of this episode were unfolding at that very moment. Things only get more unsettling from there. Andrew, Buffy, Willow, and Dawn all have encounters with dead people in this episode, each with their own frightening consequences. Willow’s supposed communication with Tara is particularly heartbreaking to witness, and Buffy has an interesting talk with an old (now vampiric) classmate.
But the scariest moments in this episode revolve around Dawn and her attempts to communicate with her mother. Poor Joyce—who can’t seem to rest in peace since her death in Season 5—appears to Dawn as she enjoys an evening at home alone, and what unfolds is a classic horror story that the teenage Dawn must fight alone. The moment when Joyce appears on the couch without Dawn noticing? Utterly terrifying.
More:Many Buffy Fans Never Watch An Essential Episode (Because It’s Part Of Another Show)
