History Main / CatScare

* Parodied in the first episode of ''Series/GarthMarenghisDarkplace'' as, when the newly arrived psychic doctor Liz is greeted by an eldritch cat that tells her to leave, the hands that threw the cat are patently visible.

* Played straight in an episode of ''{{Profit}}''.

* In ''House II: The Second Story'', someone in a haunted house full of portals thinks he hears something ominous, but it's just a harmless dogerpillar.

* Parodied in ''FatalInstinct''. While Ned Ravine is searching his house for intruders he opens the medicine cabinet in his bathroom and discovers his cat inside it. The cat jumps out yowling.

Although the use of an actual cat for a CatScare is common enough to have named the trope, the [[SuperTrope general technique]] of building up tension and then startling the audience with something that turns out to be harmless is also known as a "Lewton Bus". [[TropeNamer This name]] comes from producer Creator/ValLewton, who [[TropeCodifier popularized the technique]] with a scene in his 1942 movie Film/CatPeople: the heroine is being stalked by a hostile were-panther, but the cat-like hissing noise that startles the heroine and audience turns out to have come from a bus's air brakes.

* ''Film/CatPeople'' has an interesting inversion. There is a scene where the viewer is expecting a cat to show up and attack the heroine, only for the tension to be broken by the arrival of a bus with an air brake that sounds like a cat hiss. ''Cat People'' was made in 1942, so it's not clear if they were parodying this trope on purpose or playing it straight. The CatScare trope is also called a "Lewton's Bus" in commemoration of ''Cat People'', which has one of the first uses of the trope in cinema.

* ''Film/CatPeople'' has an interesting inversion. There is a scene where the viewer is expecting a cat to show up and attack the heroine, only for the tension to be broken by the arrival of a bus with an air brake that sounds like a cat hiss. ''Cat People'' was made in 1942, so it's not clear if they were parodying this trope on purpose or playing it straight. The CatScare trope is also called a "bus" in commemoration of ''Cat People'', which has one of the first uses of the trope in cinema.

* A human [[spoiler:(unless you count Brainiac in her head)]] example in ''{{Smallville}}'', ''Identity''. The somewhat-sympathetic bad guy of the week in a hospital bed. Someone wearing ominous black gloves puts their hands on the end of the bed with scary music. Oh, it is just [[HairOfGoldHeartOfGold Chloe]]... [[spoiler:She takes those off and {{Mind Rape}}s him into a catatonic state. There is some kind of horrifying grandeur in seeing the resident NiceGirl does this with a tiny PsychoticSmirk.]]

* ''{{Series/The X-Files}}''

* ''SherlockHolmes'':

* In Act II of the GilbertAndSullivan operetta ''Theatre/HMSPinafore'', the ship's company is trying to sneak the two protagonists off to elope. They are startled by what they believe to be the ship's cat, not knowing that what they hear is the Captain with [[ATasteOfTheLash a cat o' nine tails]].

* Parodied in the MadTV skit "Apollo the 13th: Jason Takes NASA" (in reference to ''Apollo13'' being released). An astronaut hears a noise and goes to investigate. Sure enough, he's relived to find that it's only a cat roaming around (never mind that it would impossible for it to get on the space shuttle), only to encounter Jason two seconds later.

* Parodied in ''Film/TheresNothingOutThere'', where [[GenreSavvy Mike]] finds the cat and then wonders loudly how it got there.

* The Disney version of ''Disney/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians''. In this case, it's because a feisty cat is purposefully helping the puppies to hide, and he knows that jumping out hissing with limbs splayed will startle Jasper just enough to let the puppies get away.

* Even the normally unshakable ''Manga/Golgo13'' has a moment when a cat jumps onto the balcony just as he's making a sniper shot. His ReflexiveResponse is to whirl to face the intruder, chambering another round as he does so...thus ejecting the cartridge case he's just fired off the balcony [[OhCrap where it's picked up by a police patrolman on the street below]]. For a brief moment, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Golgo actually forms an expression!]]

* Even the normally unshakable ''Golgo13'' has a moment when a cat jumps onto the balcony just as he's making a sniper shot. His ReflexiveResponse is to whirl to face the intruder, chambering another round as he does so...thus ejecting the cartridge case he's just fired off the balcony [[OhCrap where it's picked up by a police patrolman on the street below]]. For a brief moment, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Golgo actually forms an expression!]]

* In AmnesiaTheDarkDescent, hiding in the shadows is usually something you do when a monster is around. This makes it far freakier when a [[spoiler:cockroach]] hisses at you. It is very loud, seems to come out of nowhere, and will still get you the twelfth time it happens. However, it is completely and utterly harmless.

'''Troy:''' ''Is someone throwing it?''

'''Troy:''' Is someone throwing it?

* ''{{Below}}'' is set on a [=WWII=] submarine, and pulls off a ''manta ray'' scare on a repair-crew of divers.

* In ''TheLostWorldJurassicPark'', Dieter sneaks away from the group to go to the toilet. He hears a few suspicious noises and looks around, rifle in hand. He slowly comes up on some ferns when a dinosaur pops out and snarls in extreme close-up. Dieter gives a yell and dives backwards, bringing his gun to bear...and the camera pulls back, revealing it's actually the chicken-sized Procompsognathus. Of course, he soon finds out they're not so harmless, but even so, he laughts it off at the time.

* Used in the Family Guy hour-long season premiere, "And Then There Were Fewer."

* Played straight in ''PetSematary'', where the newly resurrected cat hisses at his owner as he walks into a dark area. The cat is only the first creature to come back changed.

-->-- '''Mike''', ''There's Nothing Out There''

* Parodied in ''There's Nothing Out There'', where [[GenreSavvy Mike]] finds the cat and then wonders loudly how it got there.

** Ravens tend to fly in out of nowhere in ''SilentHillDownpour''. Also, [[TheRoom hai doggie]], didn't expect you to still be in that police cruiser.

** In ''Film/{{Alien}}'', the cat scare precedes the absolutely terrifying first appearance of the adult alien. Since the cat wasn't being tossed through the air, the film crew got it to hiss on cue by suddenly putting it nose to nose with a dog. Other than Ripley, Shithead the cat is the only survivor at the film's end.