15. Queller Demon

Following on from our recent look at the very best of The X Files monstrous rogues gallery, we now turn to that other hit sci-fi/fantasy series of the 1990s  Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy is fondly remembered for many things - great dialogue, charismatic characters, a lasting impression on nearly ever genre series since - but it's often forgotten that the series could be scary too. With a premise based around a teenage hero who fights monsters from the pits of hell, Buffy features a bumper crop of dreaded demons and vicious vampires from across its 144 episodes. As the article mentioned above said, because Buffy was a show with a great sense of humour it would occasionally have a campy villain but that doesn't stop a great number of others from being memorable monsters and, yes, indeed, creepy. Even when removing the Big Bads from the equation - as this list has done - there are still many a creepy creature in the series to give you sleepless nights. So read on to find out the most sinister supernatural citizens of Sunnydale. Try saying that three times fast. First up, did someone mention sleep? Here's a creature you wouldn't want to wake up to...Listening to Fear (Season 5, Episode 9) Buffy sported a great range of monsters and villains in its time, including vampires, demons, robots and hell gods (a few of which you may see on the following pages), but it often slips people's minds that it even once featured an alien. Summoned to Earth, the Queller lived in an asteroid that arrived in Sunnydale to kill the insane, by means of suffocating them with a deadly mucus that it produced. It would have been free to have its merry way, picking off the mentally-challenged as it so pleased, but it made the mistake of going after an ill Joyce, Buffy's mother, meaning it elicited the wrath of the Slayer. Somewhere between a cockroach and a slug, the Queller is a hideous sight, made even creepier by its tendency to crawl around on the ceiling, watching over the sleeping. Next time you're laying in bed at night and you hear something, you might want to make sure there is nothing on your ceiling. You'd be mad not to - which would only make the Queller more interested.