10 Worst Buffy The Vampire Slayer Villains

Buffy the Vampire Slayer features an outstanding roster of characters. Joss Whedon and his team of writers filled their supernatural world with plenty of memorable personalities, ranging from flawed heroes to grisly demons.

Most of the villains in Sunnydale are memorable for all the right reasons. They can be powerful, repulsive, morally complex, or even a combination of all three. Regardless of which season you’re on, there are plenty of juicy antagonists to watch and enjoy. However, not all of them are commendable.

Every now and then, the villains just fall flat, and this is particularly noticeable during the first three seasons, which heavily rely on the monster-of-the-week formula. Whilst some of these villains are held back by lacklustre designs, others are just plain silly and can actually cause us to laugh due to how ridiculous they are.

Thankfully, most of these villains only make a brief appearance before Buffy and the gang put an end to their wicked ways. And even though they’re disappointing when compared to the show’s other antagonists, the majority of them are still entertaining in their own unique way.

Many consider Season 3 to be Buffy’s best outing, and it’s easy to see why. The season is stacked with stellar episodes and rounds off the gang’s school years in the best possible way. But there are still a couple of mediocre episodes here and there.

The plot of ‘Gingerbread’ revolves around a set of siblings known as Hansel and Gretel. Rather than being a physical threat, Hansel and Gretel cause havoc by forcing the parents of Sunnydale into a witch-hunting frenzy. With their pale lips and flat delivery, they're clearly meant to be creepy, but their dialogue is so bad it’s hard to take them seriously:

“There’s bad people out there. And we can’t sleep. Not until you hurt them.”

To make matters worse, there’s a curveball at the very end, and it turns out Hansel and Gretel are actually an illusion – the real demon is a goblin-like creature who takes on the appearance of the siblings to manipulate his victims more easily.

Far from making them more interesting, this final twist does nothing to elevate the quality of Hansel and Gretel. With poor dialogue and barely a minute on screen, these characters are a low point of Buffy’s third season.