Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)

The cult television series had its special makeup effects handled by John Vulich and his company Optic Nerve Studios for most of its run; by the seventh (and final season), the special makeup effects became handled by Robert Hall and his effects company Almost Human, though some episodes of the sixth series were handled by Harlow FX instead.

Earlier episodes acknowledged the Burman Studios' work doing the vampire makeup effects on the original 1992 movie, that the series was more or less a remake of. Despite the credit, Vulich's new vampires were different to the Burman's mimimal makeup design; the movie's vampires only had prosthetic ears, while the series' more demonic vampires were face appliances with furrowed brows and sunken eyesockets.

'The Master' leading the vampires in the first season was achieved as a prosthetic makeup evoking Count Orlok in Nosferatu, but updated with modern prosthetics to have a more demonic apperance, with furrowed brows inspired by Greg Cannom's work on The Lost Boys.

The demon Moloch in 'I Robot, You Jane' was a performer in a sculpted latex mask, reptilian in design.

The episode's plot involved Moloch manifesting in the modern age as a robotic demon; realized as an elaborate suit with tubing and playing all over, with even the horns being sculpted to resemble twisted tubes.

Similar reptilian prosthetics were designed for Burke Roberts as the demon Marc in 'The Puppet Show', with appliances over Burke's torso and arms as well.

The Hellmouth spawn in 'Prophecy Girl' were realized as large costumes; each tentacle had a performer inside operating it.

The Machida demon in 'Reptile Boy' was a performer in a full-body prosthetic, with the facial makeup especially giving them a snake-like appearance; completing this was the 'body' attached to the performer and worn around their legs.

The demon Eyghon in 'The Dark Age' possessed its hosts, so the prosthetic makeup applied on Robia LaMorte was designed to look like the demon was bursting from inside the host's skin.

A blue-skinned and horned demon facial appliance was designed and sculpted for Brian Thompson as the Judge in 'Surprise'.

The werewolves in 'Phases' were sculpted suits with a sculpted head; 'early stage' werewolf prosthetics were also made for the episode, but I don't remember if they actually are seen in the episode itself?

Behind the scenes photos of the more 'wolfman' prosthetics.

The demon Der Kindestod in 'Killed by Death' was a performer in a mask designed to resembly fairytale goblins or witches, with tusks and a crooked nose.

The mutant fishmen in 'Go Fish' were rubber bodysuits and facial prosthetics with a catfish-inspired appearance. Prosthetics were also required for the sequence where one of the schoolkids transforms into a fishman, his skin sloughing off.

The demon Ken in 'Anne' was a facial makeup sculpted to appear as if markings had been burnt into the flesh.

Ken's minions were facial prosthetics designed to appear as if they had human skin over their own.

The demon Kulak of the Miquot Clan in 'Homecoming' was realized as a face prosthetic applied on Chad Stahelski, with dinosaur-like spines on the scalp; a paintjob was applied on his neck and arms.

The demon Lagos in 'Revelations' was designed with horns and finished with a mottled texture.

The unnamed demon that appears 'The Wish' was realized as a squid-like mask and bodysuit; the bodysuit resembles the one Optiv Nerve had previously made for the Ikarran War Machine in the Babylon 5 episode 'Infection' but I suspect it was a resculpt rather than a reuse of the original suit.

The same episode required facial prosthetics to be applied on Emma Caulfield in her character Anya's guise as a 'vengeance demon', with a more skull-like face and decayed skin texture.

The demon in 'Gingerbread' had a goblin-like appearance to the facial prosthetics, worn with a torso and arm prosthetics.

The Sisterhood of Jhe in in 'The Zeppo' were another prosthetic mask, sculpted with large ears and small horns on the scalp.

A more elaborate zombie makeup was also applied on Darin Heames, looking more decayed than the other zombies in the episode; sadly can't find any behind the scenes images so these screenshots will do.

The obese demon Balthazar in 'Bad Girls' was achieved via actor Christian Clemenson wearing a fat suit with a prosthetic face makeup; Vulich has the makeup designed so that the horns pointed downwards as a reversal of the typical horned demon design. To save time, the fatsuit itself was actually recycled prosthetics made for another TV series, by Vulich's admission in a behind the scenes documentary.

The scabby demons in 'Earshot' were so named thanks to the scabs and sores sculpted on the rubber bodysuits also had tails sculpted on them, briefly seen in their action shots.

The hellhounds in 'The Prom' were performers in prosthetic makeups and bodysuits with fur applied; the rubber was given a paintjob to give it a spotty, mottled texture.

Dagney Kerr was made to wear a gruesome prosthetic appliance as the demon Kathy in 'Living Conditions', depicting her face ripped off to show the demon underneath.

The demon Gachnar in 'Fear, Itself' was realized via a prosthetic mask worn by Adam Bitterman, designed to resumble a flayed human face being worn over the demon's own.

Werewolves appeared once again in 'Wild at Heart', this time realized as facial makeups and hairsuits.

'Something Blue' also had demon prosthetics worn by extras in action sequences; the most ornate demon mask here being skull-like in design.

Another demon appearing in this episode was the 'Separvo demon', whose facial prosthetic design was a red-skinned skull-like face with a protruding jaw of sharp teeth.

The Gentlemen in 'Hush' were achieved as actors Doug Jones, Camden Toy, Don W. Lewis, and Charlie Brumbly wearing a pallid, gaunt makeup; Toy would play other monsters in Buffy, with Jones also being a regular creature performer in other productions. Several dummy heads were also constructed for when the Gentlemen's heads blow up.

The demons in 'Doomed' had prosthetics sculpted with a bumpy texture like the titular demon of 'Moloch', with spines going to the back like a porcupine's.

'A New Man' required Anthony Head to be fully transformed into a demon; thus he was made to wear an elaborate full-body prosthetic makeup over his upper body and face. Naturally a requirement had to be that the prosthetics were designed so that it would still recognizably be Anthony Head under the makeup.

'The I in Team' had another briefly-seen elaborate demon bodysuit just to be worn during an action sequence; in this case the demon bodysuit's design evokes reptiles, with frills around the side of the head.

The episode also involved other hostile demons, realized as performers in sculpted masks with tendrils on the bottom of their faces.

A complex prosthetic makeup was applied on George Hertzberg in his turn as the Frankstentin-esque cyborg Adam introduce in 'Goodbye Iowa'; the makeup covered his face, arms and torso, with 'hard' chrome-painted parts stuck on to given him a cyborg appearance.

The 'Monster' demon in 'Superstar' was a prosthetic torso appliance with distended limbs and a facial appliance with large ears and beard.

The skeletal demon Toth in 'The Replacement' was a prosthetic mask and gloves designed to have a skeletal appearance, with glowing veins; not sure how they achieved the effect?

The Lei-ach demons in 'Family' were prosthetic makeups designed to have a sallow, pallid appearance, with red sores painted on the noses and cheeks.

The cobra demon Sobek in 'Shadow' was realized as a full-body suit going down to the performer's feet; a prosthetic tail prop was also constructed to give the idea that the creature was slithering along the ground. The prop still existed in 2003, with photos by a group of fans being available to see on this Flickr page.

The dragon-like 'ghora demon' in 'Forever' was realized as a performer in an elaborate suit with three puppeteered heads; its a shame there seems to be no behind the scenes footage of images of the suit online!

'The Gift' had a very brief appearance of conical-headed demons, slightly resembling the xenomorphs of the Alien films, and realized as a performer in a prosthetic mask.

The demon bikers in 'Bargaining' were designed as prosthetic facial makeups sculpted to have no noses, with each mask being unique in design, usually with the specific tattoos.

The shark-like M-Fashnik demon in 'Flooded' was a facial appliance, rubber headpiece and long-sleeved rubber gloves worn by Todd Stashwick, with complimentary dentures for the sharp teeth.

The demon Sweet in 'Once More with Feeling' was actor Hinton Battle wearing a facial appliance designed with a fleshy beard-like tendril on the chin, as well as domed head.

Also in 'Once More, With Feeling' was a goat-like demon, realized as a facial prosthetic with curved horns.

The shark demon Bro'os in 'Tabula Rasa' was a performer in an sculpted shark-like prosthetic mask, with complimentary hand prosthetics as well.

The Suvolte demon in 'As You Were' was a sculpted latex bodysuit with a long-jawed head; the design feels inspired by the xenomorphs from the Alien films, especially the Newborn from Alien Resurrection.

The xenomorph influence is further strengthened by the Suvolte demon's young hatching from eggs, with crustacean-like offspring resembling the facehuggers.

'Seeing Red' had a similarly ornately sculpted suit made to realize a demon, this being the 'Nezzla demon', an insect-like design with the performer's face still visible inside, making it a more uncanny visual.

The demon Mandraz in 'Wrecked' was a face and torso prosthetic, both of them sculpted with smooth, curved features.

The demon Clem in 'Older and Far Away' (and other episodes of the sixth season) was a mask and arm appliances designed to give a saggy, loose-skinned appearance, with drooping ears and jowls.

In the same episode were prosthetic makeups applied to Kali Rocha as the vengeance demon Halfrek, as well as the stuntman who played the stunt-wielding demon; unfortunately can't find any behind the scenes or promotional images!

The flayed body of Warren in 'Villains' technically more counts as gore effects, given it's meant to represent the character's death; however, the prosthetics for his skinned body are so impressive (and applied on a performer rather than just a dummy corpse prop) that I'm including here just for the sake of it!

The earth elementals in 'Grave' were performers in full suits designed to resemble tree roots, with pincer-like gloves also made as part of the suit. Unfortunately, these are seen only in quick action scenes, and as of now there are no behind the scenes images or promotional photos showing them off better.

The goblin-like Gnarl in 'Same Time, Same Place' was performer Camden Toy in bodysuit sculpted with a visible rigcage and paunch; according to Christopher Burdett, the bodysuit and face piece was made of foam latex, but the nose and chin were made out of gelatin.

The demon Avilas in 'Help' was realized as a heavy prosthetic makeup and bodysuit, sculpted to have the flesh appear cracked and hardened, with an open abdomen and animal skull for a chin.

The spider-like 'grimslaw demons' in 'Selfless' were mostly realized as CGI barring a practical puppet used for sequences requiring the actors to interact with it; according to Christopher Burdett on his blog, the production team complained about the design; 'Unfortunately the process of fine tuning the design of this creature was a long and muddled road. Production had two default statements for feedback: "It looks phallic." and "It looks vaginal." Sometimes, if we were really lucky, they would tell us it was BOTH. They saw genitals in EVERYTHING. More then once in an attempt to deal with a perceived phallus or vagina they would have us make changes and actually made the situation worse.'

The realization of the grimslaw demon itself had the puppet constructed from foam latex with armature wires inside them, that were made out of a more rigid type of foam; it was finished off with an iridescent paintjob.

The extra-dimensional 'Beljoxa's Eye' in 'Showtime' was realized as a fairly simply puppet, with an offscreen puppeteer operating it to show the pulsating squelches and throbbing.

The 'imposing demon' in 'Potential' was a mask sculpted to have a thick neck and tendrils hanging from its face; the design was based on a sketch by Christopher Burdett, who has the concept art hosted on his own blog. Another demon makeup for Buffy is visible on his own site, but I'm not sure which episode it is from?

The demon in 'The Killer In Me' was a prosthetic mask sculpted to have an emaciated, rat-like appearance.

The warrior demon in 'Get It Done' was a performer in a sculpted musculature bodysuit and prosthetic facial makeup to have no nose and horns fixed on the chin.

Also in 'Get It Done' were the Turok-Han; Camden Toy as the first Turok-Han had a prosthetic makeup applied to him that gave him an an emaciated appearance, evoking Count Orlok in Nosferatu but more extreme.

Sources:

- Doodles, Designs and Art of Christopher Burdett blog's entries on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel