History NightmareFuel / BuffyTheVampireSlayer

* The Sunnydale High newspaper has [[BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E18Earshot an obituary section]]. Also, despite the numerous deaths of Buffy's classmates, her grade still has Sunnydale High's [[BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E20TheProm lowest ever mortality rate]].

A FridgeHorror for the ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''. You can understand there being a lot of terrors around Sunnydale as there is a Hellmouth there. So how many "terrors" take place worldwide with no one stopping them and everyone trying to get on as normal with no understanding of what is going on or anyone to protect them...

* Special mention must go to "Nightmares". Everyone's nightmares come to life:

* Sid the living ventriloquist dummy in "The Puppet Show". However, he's not quite as frightening when it is revealed that [[GoodAllAlong he's not a bad guy]] - he's a demon hunter whose spirit is imprisoned within the dummy. Prior to that reveal, however, he is truly unsettling.
* "The Pack". Those kids eating Principal Flutie... it only gets worse at the end when we find out that they didn't lose their memories. Let's all [[FridgeHorror take a moment]] to think about just how those kids are going to turn out.[[note]][[AllThereInTheManual According to some of Supplementary Material, and referenced on the 'Buffyverse Wiki']], one of the girls in that group became a vegan, so she might've been stable at least. However, nothing is mentioned about the others, and the incident would still be psychologically scarring...[[/note]]
* The fate of Amy's mother, [[AndIMustScream trapped in a trophy forever]]. One might argue that [[HoistByHisOwnPetard she had it coming.]] This one gets even nastier in the comics. A group of Initiative Soldiers go down into the recently collapsed Sunnydale, and one of them swears that a statue is looking right at him. Far from escaping the events of Season 3 or Season 7, she survived and ''is still alive and trapped there.''
* Marcie from "Out of Mind, Out of Sight", who becomes so [[AxCrazy unstable]] that she fully intends to [[FacialHorror mutilate Cordelia's face]] - including [[GlasgowSmile making her smile WIDER]]. (Of course, she doesn't succeed, but her intentions are still every bit disturbing and horrific.)
* How about Willow and Cordelia walking downstairs to the AV Club in ''Prophecy Girl'' to find a room full of dead kids who were watching cartoons before the vampires attacked. The music is an eerie, shrill note of horror, and the camera focuses on the blood-stained television screen, where it shows the Three Little Pigs dancing about gleefully as that horrifying music plays. It's implied that this made Willow faint from terror when she talks to Buffy later in the evening.

* Until "Some Assembly Required" antagonists were either congenitally evil monsters or insane humans. Eric Gittleson is just an ordinary student with serial killer in his marrow. And according to the Sunnydale High Yearbook, he spent some time in a juvenile detention center but managed to graduate. Current whereabouts unknown.
* Eyghon from "The Dark Age", especially when possessing the corpses of Giles' old friends. Not to mention when Giles takes Jenny back to his apartment, not knowing that she's been possessed...

* Der Kindestod from "Killed By Death" - incredibly creepy, and only able to be seen by sick people, and when you're very sick and weak and unable to fight back, it sucks your soul out by growing sucking tentacles out of its eyes. Brrrr. And just to add to the creepy factor, the thing ''enjoys'' what it's doing: When Buffy and Willow spot it from behind a window, it simply giggles and tips its hat before skulking off.
* The episode "Ted". Buffy's [[ParentWithNewParamour initial distrust of her mother's new boyfriend comes across as simple dislike at first]], until it turns out that [[BitchInSheepsClothing he's not the nice guy he presents himself as]]. Unfortunately, [[CassandraTruth nobody believes Buffy]], dismissing her claims. Later, when Ted is presumably (and accidentally) killed, Buffy faces criminal charges and she is guilt-ridden at having killed a human being... [[BackFromTheDead and then Ted returns]], apparently alive and well. Not to mention intent on killing Joyce and Buffy. Oh, and he turns out to be a [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot homicidal robot]] created by and based on a real human called Ted, an inventor who became distraught when his wife left him - driving him to build the robot Ted. [[FromBadToWorse Things went horribly wrong]] when [[AIIsACrapshoot robot Ted kidnapped and murdered the real Ted's wife]], [[TheBluebeard and then went on to murder all of his following wives when they didn't live up to his idea of "the perfect family"]]. Argh.

* "Passion." Angelus stalking Buffy, sneaking into her home at night and watching her sleep.

** And then there's Jenny Calendar, and "Giles's surprise."
* James going angry spirit on everyone in "I Only Have Eyes For You." Buffy encounters his spirit directly which goes from normal looking to a [[NightmareFace nightmare-inducing rotting corpse]], Cordelia discovers her face melting in the mirror, and the floor begins sucking Willow up leading to her giving some particularly painful screams.

* Poor Shelia from ''School Hard''. Sure she was a delinquent and had it coming, but even she has the common sense to know she screwed up big time after she's kidnapped by Spike, bound, gagged and wondering who the heck these people even are. By the time she's fed to Dru, she has a look of utter horror on her face as she realizes she's about to die, turning to Dru only now seeing the face of a monster staring back at her before the fangs comes. The fact that it cuts away just as Dru does the deed makes it even more frightening. It's also a good EstablishingCharacterMoment for Drusilla just to showcase how messed up she is. That underneath that sweet girl act is still a beast, even if weakened at the time.
--> '''Drusilla''': ''(To her dolls)'' You see Ms. Edith. If you have been good, you could've watched with the rest.
--> ''(Shelia gasps in horror and turns to Drusilla who's now in vamp face. Dru faces her, smiles, then let's out a monstrous growl as she goes to bite her)''

* The hell dimension Buffy encounters in "Anne"- desperate, down-down-on-their-luck teenagers who are already without a home are tricked into entering a dimension where 100 years equal 1 human dimension day. [[FateWorseThanDeath They are here imprisoned, forced into grueling manual labor in a decrepit factory, have their identities beaten out of them and, after numerous decades have passed, are spit back out into the world to live on the streets until they die - old and driven mad.]] All this and no one even has the time to look for them because ''they've only been missing for a day.''
* The scene in "Dead Man's Party" when the recently-deceased burn victim rises from the dead in the hospital, very shortly after the doctors have given up trying to resuscitate him. The state of [[FacialHorror the man's horribly-burned face]] is frightening enough, but there's also the fact that the camera fixes on the {{Flatline}} during the ensuing chaos.
* "Lover's Walk": As silly and ineffectual as drunk!Spike appears throughout much of the episode, the scene where he forces Willow to help him by shoving a broken bottle in her face and threatening to rape her while she weeps with terror is genuinely disturbing.
* "The Wish"

* One shot outside the Bronze has a vampire shaking a girl around like a dog might. Scary in itself, but take a ''cloooooose'' look. [[IdenticalStranger Remind you of anyone?]] It's intended to be Faith, who they got before she became a Slayer. Faith, by all accounts, is the baddest of the badass, if she doesn't stand a chance it shows how doomed the world is. WordOfGod says the girl's resemblance to Faith was accidental, which makes sense seeing as there would be no reason for her to be in Sunnydale if she hadn't been called as the Slayer. Buffy had not died yet in the Wishverse, so neither Faith nor Kendra would have left their hometowns.
* "Gingerbread". The idea of manipulating parents into committing acts of mass murder for the sake of their children sends chills up your spine. You can imagine the potential aftermath had Buffy failed, parents waking up to find they had murdered their own children. The terrifying part was how strong the subtext was. Up until they introduced the MonsterOfTheWeek, it just seemed like a plausible tale of normal people allowing their hysteria to get the better of them. The book burning, the locker raids - it could all happen in real life under the right circumstances.
* "Helpless". Everything that Zachary Kralik (said monster) did in that episode was Nightmare Fuel. This includes taking medicine. He turns a person into a vampire, makes him feed on his assistant (which they then mutilate), kidnaps Buffy's mother and takes pictures of her. Enough to fill a whole room with. Luckily, he only appeared in this episode.
* "Consequences." The implication that at the nadir of her sanity Faith would rape Xander to death? ''Cree-pee.'' Later on the idea that Buffy becomes just as bad if not worse? [[NightmareFuel Way to make Slayers unappealing.]] Buffy certainly did become a bit more morally grey at the [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E21GraduationDayPart1 end of season 3]] and during season 6, but she never came close to anything that compares to the seriousness of rape or any killing as cold-blooded as any of Faith's murders. She was in the wrong to try and kill Faith later, but it was done after Faith's FaceHeelTurn and with the intention to cure Angel.
* The Sunnydale High newspaper has [[BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E19Earshot an obituary section]]. Also, despite the numerous deaths of Buffy's classmates, her grade still has Sunnydale High's [[BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E20TheProm lowest ever mortality rate]].

* "[[HalloweenEpisode Fear Itself]]"

* The Gentlemen. Tall, suited demons resembling humans except for their large, lidless eyes and never-ceasing smiles. They float about a foot across the ground, never breaking stride only smiling an image that will burn into your brain. They attack in the middle of the night, knocking on your door politely, then cutting out your heart while you are still alive. And [[AndIMustScream you are unable to scream]], completely helpless.[[note]]According to The Other Wiki, Joss Whedon intended them to be monsters that children would remember being scared of later in their lives.[[/note]]
** Doug Jones - who played the main Gentleman - has done those eyes, teeth and hand movements without any prosthetics in public. It's still terrifying.

* "Listening to Fear". Easily one of the most unsettling episodes of the series. The Queller. Oh, dear God, the frigging Queller.
* "Family". When Tara's brother tells her that he will beat her up if she doesn't get in the van. It's very difficult to notice, but Tara flinches, proving that none of the demons or monsters she has faced as a Scooby scare her as much as her brother does. Really hits close to home for those who have suffered physical abuse at the hands of a family member.
* The very end of "I Was Made to Love You". Far scarier than any of the monsters featured on that show is the very real notion that someone could come home one day and find their mother or father dead.

* The season six premiere, "Bargaining", had Buffy brought back to life inside her own coffin, forcing her to dig herself out of her own grave. Watching it is bad enough. For Sarah Michelle Gellar, who has a morbid fear of being buried alive, filming those scenes must have been terrifying.

* "After Life". Anya slicing away at her face with a knife.
* The worm monster in "Doublemeat Palace". Not only that but the way it kills you- it sprays a liquid at you which paralyzes you (it spreads upwards so you can "flail your arms" hopelessly). It then proceeds to slowly eat you over the course of several hours while you are unable to move or scream but can feel everything. ''Poor Gary''.
* Surprising one: Vision!Xander going after Vision!Anya with a frying pan in a fake vision in Hell's Bells. Far scarier than all the monsters.
* An in-universe example in "Dead Things", where Buffy realizes the way she's acting (she's described elsewhere on the site as being the same as arch-nemesis Faith) has nothing to do with Spike, or what was done to her, this is her true self. She's so scared and distraught by this that when she opens up to Tara she begs not to be forgiven.

* Throughout the series we see many characters who are killed in gruesome ways by the monster-of-the-week- there is the boy who was shredded by the prom hound, the graffiti-artist victim of the Gnaarl, the Doublemeat workers who were slowly eaten alive by a worm monster etc. In "Lessons" we see that the spirits of people who Buffy couldn't save can manifest themselves as poltergeists and exact vengeance on her or those around her. Now just stop and think about how many people have died horribly hoping Buffy would come and save them over the course of the show?
* "Same Time, Same Place". Willow is trapped in a cave with a Gnarl - a demon that paralyzes its victims, then removes their skin to eat, one strip at a time. Oh, and it's also immune to magic, so Willow, who recently went evil and nearly destroyed the world, is completely helpless against him. Its taunting bumps up the octane rating another notch. Just before Buffy shows up to save the day, we see Willow, [[AndIMustScream paralyzed, helpless,]] and about to undergo an excruciating death. Her expression is one of absolute terror. She can't see Buffy at all, even when she does show up to save the day.

* The episode "Conversations with Dead People" features Dawn trapped in her house with the spirit of her dead mother, who, struggling to manifest herself, ends up being about as terrifying as any monster the show features. Could double as breaking the cutie.

* The Shadow Puppets from Get it Done are some of the most disturbing imagery in the show, ominous music building and pictures forming all around of demons eating humans and a girl being killed.

* Adam Busch (aka Warren) is just the creepiest dude ever. Whenever the First shows up as Warren, prepare for some truly epic creepiness. He has a stare that says, "I will devour you slowly, and not in a sexy way. In a way where I tie you to a table and fillet you one morsel at a time, keeping you alive with blood transfusions and an iron long." And then he quotes Franchise/StarWars.

* A FridgeHorror for the ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''. You can understand there being a lot of terrors around Sunnydale as there is a Hellmouth there. So how many "terrors" take place worldwide with no one stopping them and everyone trying to get on as normal with no understanding of what is going on or anyone to protect them...

[[caption-width-right:300:"Wherever she is, I don't think we'll have to worry."]]

[[caption-width-right:300:"Sorry, Jenny. This is where you get off."]]

[[caption-width-right:300:"I'll have your daughter. I won't kill her. I'll just make her like me. Different. She'll go to sleep. And when she wakes up, your face will be the first thing she eats."]]

[[caption-width-right:300:"They all ran away from you. They always will. Open your heart to someone and...hmm. But don’t fret, little girl. You’re not alone...anymore.”]]

[[caption-width-right:300:"Imagine what you'll feel with my fingers wiggling in your brain."]]

[[caption-width-right:300:"Bored now."]]

[[caption-width-right:300:"When it's bad, Buffy won't choose you. She'll be against you."]]

* A FridgeHorror for the whole Buffyverse. You can understand there being a lot of terrors around Sunnydale as there is a Hellmouth there. The spin off Angel shows how many of these "terrors" happen in nice, normal places. Those just occur in L.A. So how many "terrors" take place worldwide with no one stopping them and everyone trying to get on as normal with no understanding of what is going on or anyone to protect them...

[[folder: Season One]]

** Emphasis on the tarantulas. It's PlayedWith, the student's arachnophobia was actually caused by accidentely killing his pet spiders, so he sees their ghosts trying to drag him down... "I don't hate spiders, ''I love them''..."

* The fate of Amy's mother, [[AndIMustScream trapped in a trophy forever]]. One might argue that [[HoistByHisOwnPetard she had it coming.]] This one gets even more nasty in the comics. A group of Initiative Soldiers go down into the recently collapsed Sunnydale, and one of them swears that a statue is looking right at him. Far from escaping the events of Season 3 or Season 7, she survived and ''is still alive and trapped there.''

[[folder: Season Two]]

* Until "Some Assembly Required" antagonists were either congenitally evil monsters or insane humans. Eric Gittleson is just an ordinary student with serial killer in his marrow. And according to the Sunnydale High Yearbook, he spent some time in a juvenile detention centre but managed to graduate. Current whereabouts unknown.

* Der Kindestod from "Killed By Death" - incredibly creepy, and only able to seen by sick people, and when you're very sick and weak and unable to fight back, it sucks your soul out by growing sucking tentacles out of its eyes. Brrrr. And just to add to the creepy factor, the thing ''enjoys'' what it's doing: When Buffy and Willow spot it from behind a window, it simply giggles and tips its hat before skulking off.

* The entire concept of [[TheWoobie Drusilla's]] character. A sweet if somewhat fanatical Christian girl having her family murdered, being stalked, implied to have [[RapeAsDrama horrible]] [[ColdBloodedTorture things]] [[MindRape done]] to her and for years having to flee and attempt to start her life over again, knowing fully well that she won't be able to, and nobody will be able to stop her harassers- for reasons she doesn't understand except maybe ForTheEvulz - completely wrecking her sanity and identity. By the time she's turned into a vampire she is so traumatised that [[DrivenToMadness she has completely blocked out reality.]] Later episodes of Angel also go on to state that Angelus turned her into a vampire so she'll have to suffer with her trauma ''forever'' and that for her, [[AndIMustScream "it'll never end".]] Not only this, but what Drusilla is actually ''capable'' of makes her one terrifying figure.

[[folder: Season Three]]

* The hell dimension Buffy encounters in "Anne"- desperate, down-down-on-their-luck teenagers who are already without a home are tricked into entering a dimension where 100 years equal 1 human dimension day. [[FateWorseThanDeath They are here imprisoned, forced into grueling manual labor in a decrepit factory, have their identities beaten out of them and, after numerous decades have passed, are spit back out into the world to live on the streets until they die- old and driven mad.]] All this and noone even has the time to look for them because ''they've only been missing for a day.''

** The early scenes right after Cordelia's wish becomes HarsherInHindsight. She reunites with Harmony and her friends and discovers that, thanks to Buffy not having come to Sunnydale, she's still as popular as she ever was. On first viewing, those scenes just seem like they're establishing that without Buffy, Cordy would still be an AlphaBitch, but once you know what a horrible, Vampire-occupied wasteland Wishverse Sunnydale is, the scenes of ordinary high school life (the few surviving students cramming into an algebra class, random guys asking Cordelia to a dance) take on a horrible tone of the few remaining survivors trying desperately to live normal lives despite impending violent death.
** Some of the really horrifying things are in just how ''subtle'' the changes are, such as class being cancelled for the "monthly memorial", Harmony commenting on Cordy's bright colors making her a target for vamps, and a guy asking her to the "Winter Brunch."

* "Gingerbread". The idea of manipulating parents into committing acts of mass murder for the sake of their children sends chills up your spine. You can imagine the potential aftermath had Buffy failed, parents waking up to find they had murdered their own children. The terrifying part was how strong the subtext was. Up until they introduced the MonsterOfTheWeek, it just seemed like a plausible tale of normal people allowing their hysteria to get the better of them. The book burning, the locker raids - it could all happen in real life with the right circumstances.

* "Consequences." The implication that at the nadir of her sanity Faith would rape Xander to death? ''Cree-pee.'' Later on the idea that Buffy becomes just as bad if not worse? [[NightmareFuel Way to make Slayers unappealing.]] Buffy certainly did become a bit more morally grey at the [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E21GraduationDayPart1 end of season 3]] and during season 6, but she never came close to anything that compares to seriousness of rape or any killing as cold-blooded as any of Faith's murders. She was in the wrong to try and kill Faith later, but it was done after Faith's FaceHeelTurn and with the intention to cure Angel.

[[folder: Season Four]]

* The Gentlemen. Tall, suited demons resembling humans except for the their large, lidless eyes and never-ceasing smiles. They float about a foot across the ground, never breaking stride only smiling an image that will burn into your brain. They attack in the middle of the night, knocking on your door politely, then cutting out your heart while you are still alive. And [[AndIMustScream you are unable to scream]], completely helpless.[[note]]According to The Other Wiki, Joss Whedon intended them to be monsters that children would remember being scared of later in their lives.[[/note]]

** The Gentlemen's weird "Footmen" that went around on their hands and feet, in freaking straitjackets - just the sight of them along side the floating gentleman are scary as hell.

** Also, with most other antagonists we receive at least some explanation about their motives or plans, even if it usually boils down to "aquire an artefact of great power/open the Hellmouth/kill people/chause mayhem". [[NothingIsScarier We never learn what the Gentlemen needed the hearts for]].
* During the first of Faith's nightmares, it starts off fairly innocent, with her and Buffy making a bed. Then Faith notices blood on the white sheets, "Damn, just when we got it clean, too." Then she realizes that the wound is coming from herself, and that the knife Buffy stabbed her with at the Season 3 finale ''is still in her''. She pleadingly says, "Aren't you ever going to take this thing out?" Nightmare!Buffy's response is ''to shove it in deeper'', with the blankest look on her face. Thank goodness it was just a nightmare, but it is creepy as hell.

[[folder: Season Five]]

[[caption-width-right:300:Imagine what you'll feel with my fingers wiggling in your brain.]]

[[folder: Season Six]]

* An in universe example in "Dead Things", where Buffy realizes the way she's acting (she's described elsewhere on the site as being the same as arch nemesis Faith) has nothing to do with Spike, or what was done to her, this is her true self. She's so scared and distraught by this that when she opens up to Tara she begs not to be forgiven.
* The last scene of "Normal Again" is truly psychologically frightening, in fact the entire premise of the episode is just disturbing. Buffy going berserk. The true horror of the very last scene in the episode is [[spoiler: wondering if everything up to this point, and for the future of both characters and show, was all just in her head! Damn you Joss for that ending!]]
* Adam Busch put it best: On a show full of monsters and demons, the scariest thing is a guy showing up with a gun in broad daylight. This of course lead to the two words that still pack a punch to any Buffy fan. "Your shirt..." Over a decade later, still one of the cruelest if not the cruelest kill Joss Whedon ever had.

[[folder: Season Seven]]

* It's strange, but the death of Joyce serves as this. The entire episode is gut wrenching and devoid of any kind of atmospheric music, as if the scariest thing of all in the show is just cold, hard reality: you can be a hero, and you can be strong, but one day your mother, father or any other loved one could die and there can be absolutely nothing you can do to stop it or change it. The lack of music in particular punctuates the feeling that this is not drama - it's real people dealing with a very real and common situation, and the vampire stuff is shoved to the side for the entire episode. Bonus points for Anya demanding someone explain to her how a body can just suddenly be...empty, and devoid of the person that was in it.
* Dawn tries to resurrect Joyce. When she's half way through the spell, a silhouette of Dawn's mother is seen slowly walking (you might say "walking like a zombie") through the curtains. As Dawn finishes her ritual, she looks around to see some sign that it has worked, and that's when someone knocks at the door. The whole episode was centered about people explaining to Dawn how bringing back people from the dead is wrong, and furthermore how they sometimes come back wrong... but no one ever fully explains what that means. It doesn't help.

--> '''Drusilla''': You see Ms. Edith. If you have been good, you could've watched with the rest.

* The last scene of "Normal Again" is truly psychologically frighting, in fact the entire premise of the episode is just disturbing. Buffy going berserk. The true horror of the very last scene in the episode is [[spoiler: wondering if everything up to this point, and for the future of both characters and show, was all just in her head! Damn you Joss for that ending!]]

* Buffy's first fight and injuries against the Turok-Han.

* Buffy's first fight against the Turok-Han.

** The smile on Gnarl's face when he slowly scratches off a thin strip of skin and eats it, while paralyzed Willow is enough to make anyone {{Squick}}. Thinking about it further, imagine being in Willow's position: you're paralyzed and being eaten slowly, and the only thing you can see is this atrocious thing's ''face''. The fact that he sounds like SaladFingers does not help matters.

** Possibly their most spectacularly scary entrance was their silent appearance slightly in the distance behind Tara, at first blurred, but you recognize their signature movements a second before they come into focus. Brrrrr. A nice suit, floating so they appear a little taller, extremely pale face? [[SlenderManMythos This remind you of anybody?]]

*** Emphasis on the tarantulas. It's PlayedWith, the student's arachnophobia was actually caused by accidentely killing his pet spiders, so he sees their ghosts trying to drag him down... "I don't hate spiders, ''I love them''..."

* The fate of Amy's mother, [[AndIMustScream trapped in a trophy forever]]. One might argue that [[HoistByHisOwnPetard she had it coming.]]
** This one gets even more nasty in the comics. A group of Initiative Soldiers go down into the recently collapsed Sunnydale, and one of them swears that a statue is looking right at him. Far from escaping the events of Season 3 or Season 7, she survived and ''is still alive and trapped there.''

* Der Kindestod from "Killed By Death" - incredibly creepy, and only able to seen by sick people, and when you're very sick and weak and unable to fight back, it sucks your soul out by growing sucking tentacles out of its eyes. Brrrr.
** And just to add to the creepy factor, the thing ''enjoys'' what it's doing: When Buffy and Willow spot it from behind a window, it simply giggles and tips its hat before skulking off.

* One shot outside the Bronze has a vampire shaking a girl around like a dog might. Scary in itself, but take a ''cloooooose'' look. [[IdenticalStranger Remind you of anyone?]] It's intended to be Faith, who they got before she became a Slayer. Faith, by all accounts, is the baddest of the badass, if she doesn't stand a chance it shows how doomed the world is.
** WordOfGod says the girl's resemblance to Faith was accidental, which makes sense seeing as there would be no reason for her to be in Sunnydale if she hadn't been called as the Slayer. Buffy had not died yet in the Wishverse, so neither Faith nor Kendra would have left their hometowns.

* "Consequences." The implication that at the nadir of her sanity Faith would rape Xander to death? ''Cree-pee.'' Later on the idea that Buffy becomes just as bad if not worse? [[NightmareFuel Way to make Slayers unappealing.]]
** Buffy certainly did become a bit more morally grey at the [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E21GraduationDayPart1 end of season 3]] and during season 6, but she never came close to anything that compares to seriousness of rape or any killing as cold-blooded as any of Faith's murders. She was in the wrong to try and kill Faith later, but it was done after Faith's FaceHeelTurn and with the intention to cure Angel.

* Glory can be kind of terrifying in her own way without getting into the whole eating sanity thing. She's practically an anti-Buffy, both are super strong, sexy, blondes, with odd ways of chatting as they fight, yet unlike Buffy she's ditzy and evil, the ditziness doesn't take away from how terrifying she is though since she's much stronger than Buffy and Curb-Stomped her every time they fought. And to make things worse, it isn't even as bad as other unstoppable BigBad like Adam who were stronger than her where each time Buffy had a little bit of hope she could pull out a win somehow, Buffy and the Scoobies, save Willow, never seem to slow her down much less hurt her when she comes for them.
** Glory's little chat with Tara is terrifying since she's breaking her fingers in the middle of a crowded park, during a festival, in the middle of a day and there's nothing a powerful witch like Tara can do. Glory even warns Tara that if she screams or calls for help than Glory will just kill everyone around them who tries to interfere. And when she gets angry that Tara isn't the key she makes it very clear that she will devour Tara's sanity, which Tara states earlier is a fate worse than death.

* The worm monster in "Doublemeat Palace".
** Not only that but the way it kills you- it sprays a liquid at you which paralyzes you (it spreads upwards so you can "flail your arms" hopelessly). It then proceeds to slowly eat you over the course of several hours while you are unable to move or scream but can feel everything. ''Poor Gary''.

* The last scene of "Normal Again" is truly psychologically frighting, in fact the entire premise of the episode is just disturbing. Buffy going berserk.
** The true horror of the very last scene in the episode is [[spoiler: wondering if everything up to this point, and for the future of both characters and show, was all just in her head! Damn you Joss for that ending!]]
* Adam Busch put it best: On a show full of monsters and demons, the scariest thing is a guy showing up with a gun in broad daylight. This of course lead to the two words that still pack a punch to any Buffy fan....
** "Your shirt..." Over a decade later, still one of the cruelest if not the cruelest kill Joss Whedon ever had.

* Xander getting his eye caved in by Caleb... the way the blood runs down his cheek... [[EyeScream that is horror.]]
** Caleb's whole persona. Particularly since Creator/NathanFillion, the actor, played [[Series/{{Firefly}} Malcolm Reynolds]]. The dissonance is disturbing.

** Caleb's whole persona. Particularly since NathanFillion, the actor, played [[Series/{{Firefly}} Malcolm Reynolds]]. The dissonance is disturbing.

* The episode "Ted". Buffy's [[ParentWithNewParamour initial distrust of her mother's new boyfriend comes across as simple dislike at first]], until it turns out that he's not the nice guy he presents himself as. Unfortunately, [[CassandraTruth nobody believes Buffy]], dismissing her claims. Later, when Ted is presumably (and accidentally) killed, Buffy faces criminal charges and she is guilt-ridden at having killed a human being... and then Ted returns, apparently alive and well. Not to mention intent on killing Joyce and Buffy. Oh, and he turns out to be a homicidal robot created by a real human called Ted, an inventor who became distraught when his wife left him - driving him to build the robot Ted. [[FromBadToWorse Things went horribly wrong]] when robot Ted kidnapped and murdered the real Ted's wife, and then went on to murder all of his following wives when they didn't live up to his idea of "the perfect family". Argh.

* Sid the living ventriloquist dummy in "The Puppet Show". However, he's not quite as frightening when it is revealed that he's not a bad guy - he's a demon hunter whose spirit is imprisoned within the dummy. Prior to that reveal, however, he is truly unsettling.

** WordOfGod says the girl's resemblance to Faith was accidental, which makes sense seeing as there would be no reason for her to be in Sunnydale if she hadn't been called as the Slayer. Buffy had not died in the Wishverse, so neither Faith nor Kendra would have left their hometowns.