10 Best Monsters Of The Week In Buffy The Vampire Slayer
8. Hansel And Gretel
Like Sweet, this demon - creepily masquerading as Hansel and Gretel - is in place as a plot device, as an adversary who comes along every few decades and causes paranoia, murder and violence in once peaceful and together towns.
The Hansel and Gretel appearance and cold, dead stares are seriously creepy, and their innocent and quiet demeanor force Sunndydale into a fit of purges and animosity not seen since the Salem Witch Trials. This is a villain who is not only a solid monster of the week, but a major league example of how evil Buffy's world can be.
Originally set up as the victims of the true, as-yet-unknown monster of the week, this terror forces audiences into a false sense of pity and an acceptance that the episode is just like all the rest. Then comes the twist, and the whole formula is turned on its head.
Twisting their way into the minds of Joyce Summers and her friends, Hansel and Gretel go from victims to enemies real fast, and when the big reveal gives audiences the chance to see the demon's true form, there's a clear sense that nothing is ever what it seems, and that on Buffy you can be assured that what you're looking at isn't what you always get.