If there is one universal truth established frequently on the supernatural classic Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it’s that evil takes a holiday on Halloween. But even with evil’s penchant for relaxation on October 31, Buffy still managed to deliver several haunting, harrowing Halloween-themed outings. Despite the persistent love for season 2’s “Halloween,” the series’ greatest All Hallows’ Eve special is undeniably season 4’s “Fear, Itself.” Twenty-five years later, the fourth episode of Buffy’s fourth season remains a spine-tingling tour de fears, delivering an outing so simultaneously frightening, moving, and ultimately hilarious that the series would never bother to attempt a proper Halloween special for the rest of its run.
Across seven seasons, Buffy only explicitly tackled the holiday three times, offering a pointedly Halloween-themed episode every other year. In the first outing, aptly titled “Halloween,” Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Xander (Nicholas Brendon), Willow (Alyson Hannigan), and a number of unlucky Sunnydale denizens get turned into their Halloween costumes by the scheming and villainous Ethan Rayne (Robin Sachs), a shadowy figure from Giles’ (Anthony Stewart Head) past posing as a costume shop owner in order to unleash chaos on the Hellmouth. In traditional Buffy fashion, the holiday frame and supernatural twist are used as a vehicle for a larger commentary on teenage girlhood and high school heartaches.
Two years later, Buffy starts college and faces her biggest fears once again in the fourth episode of season 4, titled “Fear, Itself.” Much like “Halloween” before it, the main propulsion of the episode is the holiday, with Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Oz (Seth Green) all attending a frat house’s Halloween bash. “Fear, Itself” offers a true masterclass in deploying Halloween imagery, using the day as a means to further explore the series’ overarching themes, all while participating in the sacred TV rite of dressing our favorite characters up in costumes and putting them through a supernatural sprint. This time around, it’s no trickster sorcerer but rather a well-meaning frat bro that unleashes a fear demon, trapping the unfortunate attendees of this party in a house of horrors.
Buffy’s fears manifest in a gaggle of undead college guys grabbing and clawing at her as one taunts her: “No matter how hard you fight, you just end up in the same place.” While the scene’s striking imagery poignantly evokes the real-life horrors of college rape culture and is riffing on the gendered violence used frequently in horror, this fight equates Buffy to her work more than anything, highlighting her fear that she’ll lose her support system to her calling and be left with the vampires and ghouls as her only company. Rather than be tied to one singular boy and her juvenile longing for regular dates and pretty outfits, Buffy’s updated nightmare showcases just how much she’s grown as a character in the time between the series’ Halloween outings.
If “Halloween” finds Buffy grappling with her reluctance to lose her femininity, relationships, and freedom to her calling, then “Fear, Itself,” allows her to contend with the grief of accepting that her calling requires sacrifice, but not letting it get in the way of living. By clawing her way out of the basement and away from those words, Buffy overcomes her fear of being swallowed by the Slayer, committing instead to finding a healthy balance between what she wants for her life and what is required of her by her sacred duty. The taunting frat zombie asks Buffy why she even bothers, but it’s the relationships she shares with her friends, family, lovers, and enemies that pushes her to become the most realized version of herself, as showcased in this haunting episode.
And much like Buffy herself, Xander and Willow’s fears grow up, too. As the only member of his friend group to not attend college, Xander becomes invisible inside this house of horrors, showcasing his fear of being left behind by his friends as they all grow and change without him in this new experience. In season 2, Xander’s biggest fear was being lessened by his proximity to his friends (dwarfed by Buffy’s strength, stumped by Willow’s smarts), but in season 4, he’s terrified they’ll all leave him behind. Similarly, Willow’s season 2 struggle to be seen and understood when she herself barely knew who she was finds new grounding in season 4, as Willow’s fear of losing control of her magic and not being taken seriously showcases her growth as a character. This allows her to gain confidence while still giving her room to unpack her newfound power and the way she’s perceived by those around her.
But alongside these moving examinations and heartfelt metaphors, “Fear, Itself” never forgets the humor at the center of this often zany series. When Buffy, Xander, Willow, Oz, and, eventually, Giles and Anya (Emma Caulfield) finally make their way to the epicenter of this haunted frat house, they discover the demon that has been behind this meddling all along, as he was absorbing the partygoers’ fearful reactions to gain the strength he needs to become corporeal once again. He rises from the smashed floor of the attic, smoke billowing and hellfire implied beneath the floorboards—only to be all of five inches tall. Buffy and the gang coo and laugh before she ultimately crushes him beneath her boot. As the episode’s final stinger, Giles translates the text beneath the terrifying illustration in the spellbook used to summon him: “Actual size.”
By ending on this deeply unserious note, the series once again establishes Buffy as a force beyond her fears, and an individual above the tricks and trials of a single, silly holiday. In a show where every episode introduces new and terrifying supernatural opponents, the Halloween episode should feel like a pointless endeavor. But Buffy’s commitment to the holiday, particularly in this season 4 episode, injects humor and heart into a traditional TV convention, and allows the show to poke fun at the spooks and scares that have become old hat to our titular Slayer, all while elevating the stakes of her usual Big Bads in comparison.
Through a single, 41-minute Halloween jaunt in the middle of the series’ most transformative season, Buffy examines the pain and anguish of growing into adulthood, bolstered by the show’s signature humor and moving central relationships. This episode is so successful in its scares, metaphors, and laughs that the series’ only Halloween-adjacent follow-up (season 6’s “All the Way”) forces the holiday itself to take a backseat as the real horrors of adulthood—babies, marriage, life, death, virginity, and responsibility—become much more frightening in comparison. It’s an effective episode in its dour presentation of the terrifying nature of the unknown future, but has little interest in unpacking how and why the holiday itself is so rife with potential perfectly utilized in season 4’s hair-raising special.
Across the larger Buffyverse, spinoff series Angel’s single All Hallows Eve attempt (season 5’s “Life of the Party”) is closer to a “Something Blue” rehash than a satisfying holiday episode, as everything Lorne (Andy Hallett) says at the Wolfram & Hart Halloween party comes to fruition. Following in the footsteps of “All the Way,” this season 5 episode is yet another example of this universe failing to achieve the same success as Buffy’s Halloween magnum opus.
Ultimately, “Fear, Itself” is the distillation of every single universal fear the series seeks to examine, pointedly building on the themes established two years and over 40 episodes ago as a means of perfecting this classic TV trope. As Buffy the Vampire Slayer graduates from its high school setting and looks towards the future, this episode becomes a haunting, harrowing, heartbreaking, and hilarious victory lap for a show that perfectly understands not only the sanctity of the Halloween special, but the gravity and humor of its pointedly grounded themes—all wrapped in a neat, cobweb-covered bow.
All seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer are available to stream on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ in the U.K.
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