Between fights with her teachers, her mom, her friends, and her boyfriends, Buffy the Vampire Slayer follows the titular character as she fights to survive against a myriad of evil demons.
The series revolutionized the "monsters of the week" format. These monsters were not only set up so that the Scooby Gang had something creepy to fight, but they also progressed the overall story and let the heroes develop. From bloodsuckers and child-eaters to skin-peelers and heart-stealers, there is a monster to match every existing phobia.
This article contains spoilers for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Angelus
Angel (David Boreanaz) may have been the crush of every teenage girl in the late '90s/early '00s, but his soulless counterpart Angelus was one of the most ruthless killers in TV history. Throughout Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) regales the Scooby gang with stories of Angelus killing hundreds of men, women, children, and even puppies.
Between the psychological torture of Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar), the murder of Giles’ true love Jenny Calendar (Robia LaMorte), and his attempt at destroying the world, even anti-hero Spike (James Marsters) agreed that Angelus often went too far in his sadism.
Caleb
Played by Nathan Fillion, one of many famous actors who made an appearance on Buffy, Caleb is one of the most disturbing characters in the whole show. An excommunicated preacher and open misogynist, he uses his joy in punishing "dirty girls" to serve The First Evil.
Throughout the final season of Buffy, Caleb kills several potential slayers, bombs the Watchers Council, and gouges out Xander’s left eye with his bare hands. Despite his allegiance to the supernatural, there is something particularly terrifying about his very human hatred of women and the men that try to protect them.
Warren
Probably the most hated character in all of Buffy history, Warren (Adam Busch) will always be remembered for his abhorrent actions towards the women of the show. From creating a living, feeling, robot to use for his sexual pleasure — to controlling the mind of his ex-girlfriend (again, for his sexual pleasure), he was already the lowest of the low. What sealed the deal for fans, though, was the attempted murder of Buffy that resulted in the death of universally beloved Tara (Amber Benson).
Warren doesn’t have the power or appearance that automatically invokes fear like other demons on the show. Warren is truly terrifying because he is a human with a soul but lacks a conscience.
Gnarl
In the Season 7 episode "Same Time, Same Place," Willow (Alyson Hannigan) returns home from her witchcraft rehab to find the body of a flayed teenager. Unable to find Buffy and the rest of the Scooby Gang, she goes on the hunt and stumbles across the lair of Gnarl.
Gnarl paralyzes his victims before using his long sharp nails to slowly and painfully peel off chunks of their skin and eat them. Gnarl is immune to magic spells and can move quickly and strike without warning, making him one of the most frightening and formidable foes.
Der Kindestod
There is nothing more horrifying in TV and cinema than an antagonist that targets young children. The name of the demon Der Kindestod means "child death," which, alone, is enough to send shivers up anyone’s spine.
Der Kindestod is only visible to sick children, and he uses this ability to sneak around a hospital, sucking the life from them with eyes that extend into fanged stems and large tusk-like teeth.
Queller Demon
When Willow and Tara spot a meteor landing while stargazing in Season 5 episode "Listening to Fear," they decide to investigate. When they go to the landing site, they find that something has escaped the meteor, leaving a trail of toxic slime. That something is the Queller Demon — an extra-terrestrial that targets the mentally ill.
With Buffy’s mom Joyce at home suffering from a brain tumor, she is the perfect target for the Queller Demon. The slug-cockroach hybrid crawls along with the ceiling of Joyce’s bedroom before pinning her down and spewing a thick goo onto her face. The Queller is enough to make even those with the strongest stomachs squeamish.
Zachary Kralick
In one of the earlier episodes, "Helpless," where Giles is still under the order of the Watchers Council, he is assigned a task to test Buffy by removing her supernatural abilities and pitting her against an ominous rival. He secretly injects her with a substance that renders her physically powerless. Buffy must, once again, prove that she is a hero with her natural gifts as she faces off against Zachary Kralik (Jeff Kober).
Zachary Kralik is perhaps the most disturbed of all Buffy bad guys because he was a serial killer before being sired as a vampire. It is revealed that Kralik abused and murdered over a dozen young women, including his mother, before being sent to an asylum for the criminally insane. But what happens when you take away the soul of someone who is already seemingly soulless? Nothing good.
The Gentleman
Despite Season 4 generally falling somewhere in the middle on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer season ranking, it will always be one of the most talked-about due to Episode 10 — "Hush." "Hush" has gained notoriety for its demons, The Gentlemen, being some of the most horrifying creatures ever to grace TV.
The Gentlemen and their footmen steal the voices of everyone in Sunnydale and stalk around the town in search of fresh human hearts. With their pale white skin and their blackened grimaces, coupled with the gleeful way they kill, there is a reason The Gentlemen are the most famous Buffy villains of all time.
Turok Han
Turok Han, also known as the "Uber Vamps," are the race of ancient vampires that Buffy encounters in the final season. They are the vampires that vampires fear.
Unlike other vampires, the Turok Han do not even appear human, as they have no humanity left. They are also unaffected by crucifixes and do not need permission to enter the homes of any human. Although stakes, decapitation, and fire can kill them, Anya describes trying to kill one as “like trying to pierce steel with wood.”
The First
The First Evil is the personification of evil itself and the first entity to encapsulate all evil in existence. The First comes in many forms throughout the Buffy series, starting in Season 3 episode "Amends." In "Amends," it poses as the many victims of Angel when he was Angelus and tortures him with his guilt.
In the later seasons, The First appears with other characters who have passed to taunt those who remain living. Despite it not being a physical being, The First does have ways and means of completing its evil bidding — it can merge with living beings to control them, and it can alter reality. It can also use hypnotic triggers on humans and demons. In the final episode and battle of the series, Willow remarks that destroying The First’s army has rendered it powerless, but was it dead? That may be an unanswered question, but there is no question that The First is the biggest bad of all the Buffy the Vampire Slayer big bads.