10 Best Monsters Of The Week In Buffy The Vampire Slayer

It couldn't have been anyone else. Season Four's episode "Hush" is Joss Whedon at his most ingenious, torturous and brilliant, and The Gentlemen are one his very best creations.

After The Gentlemen come to town they take everyone's voices, throwing Sunnydale into a void of silence as they kill innocent locals and take their hearts. The little lullaby that heralds their arrival is enough to make the audience realise they're bad news, as at the opening a little girl sings: "Can't call to Mom, can't say a word, you're gonna die screaming but you won't be heard."

Then there's the way they looked. Performed by the criminally underrated Doug Jones, The Gentlemen move as if levitating, smooth and slow, and their sinister smiles never once fall from their face.

Pair all of this with one of the show's best episodes, a dark and moody soundtrack, and some truly stressful moments (Willow and Tara fleeing from the smirking demons, for example), and what you've got is Buffy one-offs at their very best.