History Main / BatScare

[[folder: Real Life]]
* Aside from the risk of zoonotic diseases that all animals carry, a swarm of bats is more scary than dangerous. They'll bite if handled but if you remain still, they'll fly past and away from you. Roosting bats have much more to fear from spelunkers than the other way around: rousing them in winter can needlessly use up their fat stores and cause them to starve before spring.

* In a NancyDrew book, as Nancy is enjoying a picnic with a new friend, a flock of birds abruptly take off from a tree. Nancy suddenly remembers something that the friend told her--that the birds get spooked by people--and realizing that someone is in the tree, watching them. Sure enough, seconds later, someone starts shooting at them.

The mass version of a CatScare, a Bat Scare is when characters who are exploring an apparently-deserted location -- a cave, vacant house, abandoned barn, etc -- unexpectedly disturb a colony of winged animals. As startled by the characters' presence as vice versa, the whole flock explodes into flight, fluttering ''en masse'' from their roosting-place and right at the explorers' faces. Both the characters and the audience get to [[JumpScare jump out of their skins]], but the animals don't actually hurt anyone, flying away as quickly as they'd emerged.

** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E23InspirationManifestation Inspiration Manifestation]]", Spike's entrance into the locked chamber where the titular spell spellbook is kept startles a large flock of [[BatOutOfHell vampire fruit bats]]. Downplayed in that Spike's not startled by them -- he's as oblivious to them as to every other thing in that scene -- but they serve to highlight the unsettling nature of the place and that the chamber has been abandoned for a ''long'' time.

* In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E23InspirationManifestation Inspiration Manifestation]]", Spike's entrance into the locked chamber where the titular spell spellbook is kept startles a large flock of [[BatOutOfHell vampire fruit bats]]. Downplayed in that Spike's not startled by them -- he's as oblivious to them as to every other thing in that scene -- but they serve to highlight the unsettling nature of the place and that the chamber has been abandoned for a ''long'' time.

** In "Winter Wrap-Up", Twilight Sparkle tries to help wake up hibernating animals. After being startled by a nest of snakes, Twilight backs into a cave... and is chased out again by a flock of bats.
** In "Gauntlet of Fire", Rarity and Spike are prospecting for gems, and when Spike starts mysteriously glowing, he accidentally wakes up a flock of bats that swarm over Rarity.

** In "The Seemingly Never-ending Story", the Simpsons get stuck in caves. The obligatory flock of bats appears, and everybody is scared but baby Maggie; being the BadassAdorable that she is, she enthusiastically greets the bats with waving.

* ''VideoGame/HauntingStarringPolterguy'': Happens in the underworld. Polterguy has to dodge a swarm of bats that emerge from a coffin.

* Several versions of the opening credits of ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' cartoons include a swarm of bats emerging from a spooky house's attic window or front door.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** In "The Seemingly Never-ending Story", the Simpsons get stuck in caves. The obligatory flock of bats appears, and everybody is scared but baby Maggie; being the BadassAdorable that she is, she enthusiastically greets the bats with waving.
** Bats fly out of the card catalog drawers at the public library.

* Inverted on an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys''. Eliza tried to greet a bat only for the bat to scream "Eek! A human!" frightening all the other bats into waking up and flying away.

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[[folder: Comic Books ]]

** In ''BatmanYearOne'', Batman uses this as a bookend to [[ExtremeMeleeRevenge teaching]] [[KillerCop Branden's]] [[CorruptCop squad]] their services are no longer wanted.

[[folder: Films -- Animated ]]

[[folder: Films -- Live-Action ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live Action Television ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

** ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'' uses a similar event, with the added gross-out factor that one of the characters is lying down checking a broken-down car's undercarriage at the time, so the rats run ''right over'' their face and body.

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[[AC: ComicBooks]]

[[AC:[[AnimatedFilms Films -- Animated]]]]
* ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'': When the vikings approach the dragons' nest, they go inside expecting to fight hordes of dragons. All the dragons fly out, fly past the vikings, and flee, without a single one attacking. Of course this only leads up to something [[AlwaysABiggerFish even worse]] coming out of the cave.
* ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'': While lost in the woods, Maurice wakes up a flock of bats, which spooks his horse and leads to him being left behind.

[[AC:{{Film}}s -- Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', a flock of birds emerges from the mouth of a statue in the jungle, scaring one of Indy's porters.
* Subverted in ''Film/PitchBlack'', in which the flock of small flying aliens that gets disturbed and flies around frantically actually turns out to be ''very'' dangerous.

[[AC:Literature]]

[[AC: LiveActionTelevision]]

[[AC: VideoGames]]
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', swarms of bats are scripted to fly at the player character in response to certain triggers, such as when they enter the final chamber of Bleak Falls Barrow.

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]
* Several versions of the opening credits of ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' cartoons include a swarm of bats emerging from a spooky house's attic window or front door.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** In "The Seemingly Never-ending Story", the Simpsons get stuck in caves. The obligatory flock of bats appears, and everybody is scared but baby Maggie; being the BadassAdorable that she is, she enthusiastically greets the bats with waving.
** Bats fly out of the card catalog drawers at the public library.
* On ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', Dale plans to collect bat guano to sell, so he, Bill and Boomhauer go into a cave. Inevitably, they run out screaming after waking up the bats.
-->'''Dale:''' We've awaken a sleeping, pooping giant!

[[AC: RealLife]]

* In Michael Reaves' ''The Shattered World'', Beorn is dropped off at Darkhaven's partially-collapsed Spire of Owls, from which he's tasked to sneak into Pandrogas's laboratory and rob it. Sure enough, a bunch of owls are disturbed by his arrival and flutter past him in the Spire's stairwell, verifying that he's starting out in a long-abandoned part of the castle.

* In Michael Reaves' ''The Shattered World'', Beorn is dropped off at Darkhaven's long-deserted Spire of Owls, from which he's tasked to sneak into Pandrogas's laboratory and rob it. Sure enough, a bunch of owls are disturbed by his arrival and flutter past him in the Spire's stairwell, verifying that he's starting out in a long-abandoned part of the castle.

Moreso than a CatScare, this trope is often used to emphasize the forsaken and/or unexplored nature of the site itself. While a lone cat won't hesitate to wander around near people, a whole colony of bats (or birds, moths, pterosaurs, whatever) is unlikely to settle for long in a place where humans regularly venture. Sometimes combined with HandInTheHole for added tension. Versions in which the animals turn out to be [[ForbodingFleeingFlock fleeing from something]] ''much'' more dangerous are common.

Moreso than a CatScare, this trope is often used to emphasize the forsaken and/or unexplored nature of the site itself. While a lone cat won't hesitate to wander around near people, a whole colony of bats (or birds, moths, pterosaurs, whatever) is unlikely to settle for long in a place where humans regularly venture. Sometimes combined with HandInTheHole for added tension. Versions in which the animals turn out to be fleeing from something ''much'' more dangerous are common.