Hellmouth (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Hellmouth
Buffy the Vampire Slayer location
Created by	Joss Whedon
Type	Mystical portal
Notable characters	Turok-Han

In the fictional universe established by the television shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, the Buffyverse, a Hellmouth is an area fraught with massive supernatural activity.

"From beneath you, it devours."

Hellmouths are places of increased supernatural energy. According to the mythology of the "Buffyverse", this is the area in which the barriers between dimensions are weak. The Hellmouth has a focal point, which serves as a portal between earth and Hell. For these reasons, the Hellmouth attracts demons and other supernatural creatures, becoming a "hot spot" for supernatural activity. The television series has confirmed that there are Hellmouths under Sunnydale, California and Cleveland, Ohio, as well as other unspecified cities around the world (cf. "Chosen").

The Hellmouth is first mentioned by name in "The Harvest", the second episode of Buffy, when Rupert Giles claims that the original Spanish settlers of Sunnydale called the area "Boca del Infierno," which Giles then translates to "Hellmouth" in English.

The energies emitted by the Hellmouth can have strange effects. Sunnydale High, positioned over the focal point, bore most of this supernatural phenomena. Buffy described the effects thus; "where the way a thing feels kind of starts being that way for real". For example, an eight-year-old boy inadvertently brought the realm of nightmare to reality during his coma. A boy suffering from stress literally explodes. The ghosts of dead high-school lovers haunt the school. In Season 7, when the Hellmouth becomes more active than during any other time in the series, competition between social cliques escalates into full-blown war. Inexplicable feats of science become possible. People (mostly teachers and students as well as police) become drawn to do evil things.

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