Buffy used almost as many fairy tale tropes as horror movies ones.
Its not surprising, then, thatBuffyoccasionally drew on fairy tales in creating its monsters and its spells.
Theres a big difference between horror and fairy tales, though.
Thanks to popular slasher movies, the virginal heroines role in horror is rather different.
All this female empowerment doesnt always sit too well with stories of helpless princesses.
These five episodes all draw on fairy tales in different and distinctive ways, to varying degrees of success.
The fairy tale:Hansel and Gretel are abandoned in the woods.
Gretel shoves the witch in the oven instead and they escape.
The one that shes tied to, that is, not Mr Pointy.
Its a good bonding experience for them, though.
Unfortunately the next episode isBeer Bad, in which she is still moping over the irritating Parker.
But at least this story has a nice theme about overcoming fear together.
The fairy tale:LikeKilled by Death, Hush references fairy tales without being based on any specific story.
The reference to a princess is the strongest fairy tale feature of the episode.
*The decapitated talking horse is from The Goose Girl.
The Ladybird Well Loved Tales version left that part out.
