Based on the movie of the same name, Joss Whedon brought his Chosen One to the small screen in 1997 with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The story was about a girl who has to go from being a slightly spoiled teenager to the one who can save all humanity from the growing threat of vampires and other killer monsters.

The ongoing storylines surrounded Buffy’s ultimate battle to stop Hellmouth from consuming Sunnydale and bringing great evil to the world. However, with a Hellmouth comes some of the scariest, craziest, and horrific monsters imaginable to battle the forces of good. Here is a look at the 10 scariest monsters Buffy and her Scooby Gang faced on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

THE FIRST

Throughout Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Slayer had to face multiple apocalypses, while most heroes just need to stop one. When it comes to the end of time, the one that held the most threat was The First, also known as The Infinite Evil.

The First influenced everything that happened on the show before finally showing up in the final season. Based on the totality of its power, The First could be number one on most lists. However, when it comes to scary monsters, The First only torments and manipulates people to achieve its ultimate goals and it’s not that scary on its own.

GLORY

What makes Glory so scary is that she doesn’t look frightening. When seeing Drucilla or Darla, people knew they were evil through and through. They were just bad people who no one could trust. However, Glory was something different. Glorificus is a god.

Glory was the Big Bad of season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and wanted to return to her hell-dimension where she could destroy all realities and dimensions. At one time she was one of the three rulers of Hell, but she scared the other two so much that they banished her to earth. It took the combined efforts of Buffy, Willow, and the gang to finally take down this one beautiful woman.

UGLY MAN

The Ugly Man is scary for a pair of reasons. First, the monster is scary looking and very frightening. Second, he is a manifestation from a child. In the first season episode “Nightmares,” the Ugly Man showed up and started attacking people in Sunnydale. At the same time, people’s nightmares become a reality.

This terror is because the Ugly Man came to life through the traumatic memories of a young child, beaten into a coma by his little league coach after their team lost a game. Buffy is finally able to help the child overcome his fears. This monster is one that shows the trauma suffered by a child can manifest itself in scary ways.

DER KINDESTOD

When it comes to Der Kindestod, this is just a scary monster based on its looks and actions. It appeared in the episode “Killed by Death” from the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This monster was a demon that sucked the life out of young children, making it appear that they died from a fever.

The fact that this is a child-killing monster is scary on its own. What is scarier is that this demon looks horrifying, the appearance-based slightly on the classic horror villain Freddy Krueger. The fact that only children could see the demon made it even worse, as they were the least equipped to handle the horror.

KILLER CLOWN

The fact that this was not a major villain or even the key villain of the week on Buffy the Vampire Slayer shows how scary the Killer Clown really was. The Killer Clown was on the same episode as a second monster on this list, the Ugly Man.

In “Nightmares,” the monster was a manifestation of an abused child’s nightmares after a trusted adult assaulted him. The Ugly Man was able to turn everyone’s nightmares a reality. In the case of the Killer Clown, this was Xander’s greatest fear – a manic murdering clown with a knife. It was horrifying.

THE MASTER

The Master holds the distinction of being the main villain in season 1 and the first genuinely evil and scary monster the show delivers to fans. He is so scary and evil that it was hard for Buffy the Vampire Slayer to take it to the next level when it came to the Big Bads on the series.

Honestly, outside of one example, there is no other vampire baddie in the show’s seven seasons that came close to touching the fear factor that The Master delivered in that first season. He was so scary that, even after his death, his spirit haunted Sunnydale. He also returned as the first face of The First in the final season of the show.

DARK WILLOW

When Angel turned evil on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it broke people’s hearts, and they wanted to see him return to his former self. When Willow turned evil, it was a thousand times worse. Willow was the best of the Scooby Gang. Yes, she was a witch, and there was always danger, but she was the heart and soul of the gang.

When Willow’s lover Tara died at the wrong end of a gun, Willow lost it and turned completely evil. She was deadset for vengeance and wanted nothing more than to make the assassin and the world pay for her loss. It took the true power of love and friendship of Xander and Buffy to pull her back, but evil Willow was scarier than almost anything from the Hellmouth.

GNARL

If anyone has seen the horror movie The Descent, Gnarl looks like a demon that would be right at home with the cave dwellers in that film. When it comes to all the monsters introduced on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, none are quite as frightening and scary as this creature.

Gnarl showed up in the seventh season episode “Same Time, Same Place” when he killed a teenage boy and flayed him. Then, he really made Buffy mad when he paralyzed Willow and started to feed on her like a parasite. After Gnarl paralyzed Dawn, Buffy went to town on the creature in its home.

ANGELUS

Angel is one of the greatest heroes in the Buffyverse, and his own spinoff show Angel ended up beloved by fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to the point where it was better in many ways by the time it came to a close. However, before Angel was a vampire with a soul, he was Angelus.

Angelus was possibly the cruelest vampire in existence. He showed no mercy and destroyed anything and everything just because he could. What made him so scary was that fans, along with Buffy, fell in love with Angel only to see him lose his soul and revert to Angelus, a vampire so horrible that he didn’t deserve retribution. However, Angel received that retribution, and it proved even the scariest, most despicable monsters could find their way.

THE GENTLEMEN

The scariest monsters to ever appear on Buffy the Vampire Slayer were The Gentlemen. These creatures were frightening and caused an entire generation to suffer from nightmares when just picturing them. Bald, dressed in black suits, with darkened eyes and silver teeth, these are the things of nightmares.

The Gentlemen come and knock on doors and tap on windows seeking seven hearts. When they appeared in the fourth season episode “Hush,” they took everyone’s voices, so no one could cry for help when these scary monsters showed up. Nothing was scarier on Buffy the Vampire Slayer than these mute monsters.