My Favorite Halloween Specials #5: "Fear, Itself"

No, this is not the anthology series on NBC, but a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Halloween episode. Buffy generally lends itself to being a Halloween special, but all of the specials are extremely well down, which makes it hard to choose which one is my favorite.

But I've come to the conclusion that "Fear, Itself" is my favorite for a number of reasons. One is that it allows the Scooby Gang to explore a haunted house full of demons, something that always grabs my attention within the horror genre. Another is that they just have such a good time making Halloween into their episodes, especially this one, which features a creepily decorated house to create the Halloween ambience. Plus, Buffy gives us Halloween activities as well, something which can be missing from a lot of specials; they actually acknowledge the spirit of Halloween, rather than tying it loosely into a horror-related plot.



But check out the other Halloween Buffy specials as well; the episodes are almost always great, and are sure to hearken to your tastes. Plus, the "Hush" episode is bone-chilling.