In the Buffy back from the dead. After Buffy's resurrection, strange things happen - creepy skulls appear in photos, and Buffy isn't acting like herself.

It turns out a "hitchhiker" came back with Buffy, a consequence of the magic used to revive her. This entity starts taking over the Scooby Gang's bodies to torment the others in dark Willow storyline. Anya becomes one of the possessed, leading to the horrifying scene with Xander.

Anya Cutting Up Her Face Is The Most Terrifying Image In Buffy History

Anya’s Body Gets Hijacked In A Horrifying Scene

The Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 6 episode “After Life”, gives audiences the expectation that a horror has followed Buffy back to Earth, but Anya’s horrifying scene is totally unexpected. In this episode, Buffy has just been brought back to life, but everything is definitely not okay. Buffy starts seeing creepy skulls in her family and friends' photos, and she is gloomy, quiet, and just not Buffy.

It is eventually revealed that a “hitchhiker” followed Buffy back when they resurrected her following her death in Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 5. It is part of the magical balance - something bad has to counteract the good of having Buffy back in the world. The hitchhiker takes over the Scoobies’ bodies and torment the others, making it terrifying because it alludes to the possibility of the resurrection being a grave mistake. Anya is one of the characters whose body gets hijacked to frighten the gang.

The Anya Scene Is So Disturbing Because Buffy Is Messing With Horror Story Structure

Anya’s Scare Happens On A Downswing

The reason Anya’s hijacker scene is particularly horrifying is that it happens in a scene where the scary event has already seemingly happened, messing with the generally accepted flow of horror pacing. It happens when Buffy seems to have dreamwalked to intimidate Willow and Tara and call them “reckless bitches” for what they did. After this happens, Willow calls Xander to tell him what happened. In a normal horror structure, this would be the down beat - the quiet aftermath after the scare.

Instead, the scare isn’t done after all. With vacant white eyes, Anya approaches Xander, a chilling laugh accompanying the self-inflicted cuts on her face. Suddenly, she collapses, the wounds inexplicably gone, leaving her unharmed but the situation deeply disturbing. A strange, lumpy entity then detaches from Anya, oozing through the floor and out of the room. Previously, it is thought that something is wrong with Buffy, so this is where the viewer’s attention is directed - it is a horrifying surprise to see it affecting the other characters involved in the resurrection spell.

Buffy's Entire Premise Is A Sendup Of A Horror Trope

Surprising And Delighting The Viewer Is Key To BtVS’s Appeal

Joss Whedon hardly invented the surprisingly powerful blonde, but he did take the subversion much further than his predecessors. The slasher boom of the 1980s established the seemingly vulnerable blonde teenage girl possessed a hidden, inexplicable power. Movies like A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors introduced Kirsten, a blonde with dream-manipulation abilities tied to her lineage. Similarly, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood featured Tina, a telekinetic blonde whose powers stemmed from trauma. While reveling in the stalk-and-slash formula, these films frequently imbued these fair-haired heroines with latent abilities, although with arbitrary explanations.

The core of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is challenging horror tropes with a feminist slant.

The character of Buffy Summers, in contrast, has a key destiny which she grapples with for seven seasons. The core of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is challenging horror tropes with a feminist slant. This begins in the very first scene of BtVS, with Darla posing as the frightened blonde girl, only to turn out to be the predator. This sets up the expectation that accepted tropes will be turned on their head in the iconic series. This only gets better when Buffy is introduced to Sunnydale.

Buffy Summers was a seemingly ordinary cheerleader burdened with the very real, ancient responsibility in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Her strength and abilities weren't arbitrary at all - they were the result of a long lineage. Buffy flipped the script on the 80s trope, presenting a blonde teenager whose power wasn't a convenient plot device but an intrinsic part of her identity and a heavy weight she had to bear, all while navigating the relatable horrors of high school. "After Life" similarly flips expectations on their head, making it the opposite of a Buffy comfort episode.