History Main / CatScare

* In [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/95/William_Hogarth_-_Industry_and_Idleness%2C_Plate_7%3B_The_Idle_%27Prentice_return%27d_from_Sea%2C_%26_in_a_Garret_with_common_Prostitute.png/617px-William_Hogarth_-_Industry_and_Idleness%2C_Plate_7%3B_The_Idle_%27Prentice_return%27d_from_Sea%2C_%26_in_a_Garret_with_common_Prostitute.png Plate 7]] of ''Industry And Idleness'' (a series of printed art pieces that Creator/ScottMcCloud classifies as an 18th-century comic) by Creator/WilliamHogarth, [[MeaningfulName Tom Idle]] is hiding from the law and is scared awake by a cat falling down a dilapidated chimney.

* ''Film/GonjiamHuantedAsylum'': When a male member of the crew inside the asylum goes into the bathing room, he sees what looks like the top of someone's head in the water in the tub and freaks out. Ji-Hyun reaches into the tub and grabs the hair, revealing it's actually a wig on something round and white.

* In Lewton's film ''Film/TheBodySnatcher'' there is a scare with a horse and in his ''Film/TheLeopardMan'' a tumbleweed and a train are used at certain points in the movie.
* ''Film/NightOfTheDemon'', directed by Lewton regular Creator/JacquesTourneur, has Dr. Holden breaking into cult leader Karswell's mansion. In the library, a hissing cat makes him jump. Then, while he's searching, the doors slam shut and the cat morphs into a leopard.
* Played with in ''Film/ChernobylDiaries'', when the tour group is investigating a noise in an abandoned Prypiat building. They track down the source of the soft, furtive sounds, only it's a ''[[BearsAreBadNews bear]]'' that comes lurching toward them. Yet though it's clearly ''not'' harmless, the startled animal books it outta there rather than attacking, making this a DoubleSubversion of sorts.

* ''Film/ButchCassidyAndTheSundanceKind'': At one point during their flight from the posse, Butch and Sundance hide among some cliffs. They nervously watch the open plain below, only for them to hear a rustling sound behind them. Sundance quickly turns around and shoots at the source of the sound — and we see a poor Gila monster tumbling over dead.

* Parodied in the ''Series/{{MADtv}}'' skit "Apollo the 13th: Jason Takes NASA" (in reference to ''Film/{{Apollo 13}}'' being released). An astronaut hears a noise and goes to investigate. Sure enough, he's relieved 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.

* ''Videogame/FiveNightsAtFreddysSecurityBreach'' parodies its own infamous {{Jump Scare}}s with the Map Bot, a simplistic Staff Bot that will grab you with the appropriate sound effect... only to calmly offer you one of its free maps as the screeching dies down. This happens several times, and even if you're in hiding the Bot will ''rip you out of hiding just to make its offer''.

* In ''ResidentEvilREVisited,'' when you first arrive at a local motel, you have the option of walking into a bar where you hear inhuman retching sounds, implying you're in for your first zombie encounter. In reality, there are two human drunks sitting at the bar and the sounds are coming from another patron puking his guts out in the toilet. [[spoiler: After you run into your first zombie, however, they become zombies themselves]].

* ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'': In the Exeunt Omnes level, an Assassin jumps into the water in front of you, then vanishes before you can kill it. Another can be briefly seen in the First Encounter level. Many other variations of this trope abound in the series.
* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'' lots of these. The most embarrassing is [[spoiler:a cartoon sun prop falling from the ceiling]].
* The point and click adventure game ''VideoGame/BrokenSword'' has this early on in ''Shadow of the Templars'' if you examine the trash bins in the alley. Two of the bins are empty, but opening the third and final bin produces a ScareChord and a yowling black cat who startles George. Trying to click the bins after opening the cat's bin will prompt George to shrug and say "I'd had it with sticking my nose into French trash cans."
* ''VideoGame/TheLastDoor'' has an interestingly plot-relevant one. In Anthony's manor house, you hear the sad meows of a cat you thought you fed a dying bird to. You find the bird seemingly gone from the cat's food bowl and a trail of blood leading over to a hole in the wall. [[spoiler: When you go down into the basement and open a fresh patch of cement, you find the cat and its eyes have been gouged out. It runs away in a literally-blind panic. This demonstrates that there's something less-than-natural going on with these birds.]]
* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'', after [[spoiler: Joker takes over Blackgate]], you have to untie Harleen Quinzell. Any GenreSavvy fan is waiting for a gas attack or some trap, but she calmly stands up and has a quick chat with the bat.
* Happens in the RPG horror game ''VideoGame/AoOni'' with an actual cat popping out from behind a bookcase that quickly leaves the room. [[spoiler:You see immediately afterwards that he had a good reason for fleeing, as the Square Oni follows shortly after.]]
* Happens early in ''VideoGame/JurassicParkTheGame'', with some birds flying out of a bush. Also later on when Gerry and Jess are getting ready to leave the maintenance shed soon after having survived a ''T. rex'' versus ''Triceratops'' fight, there are horrible metallic banging and screeching sounds...which are caused by a toucan sharpening its beak on a barrel.
* Used to great effect in ''VideoGame/SpookysJumpScareMansion'' with actual spring-loaded wooden cutouts of chibi skeletons, slime creatures, and the like. You might actually be startled by the first one and feel rather silly. After that, it's just funny and makes the whole game feel like it's going to be a parody. Then the ''real'' horrors start to show up... Next thing you know, you're on edge enough to be freaked out all over again when the same cut-out you've seen a dozen times pops up right in front of you.
* In ''Robin & Orchid'' Orchid spots a pale face which appears to be hovering outside the church basement window. When Robin photographs it, a startled cat runs off.
* The opening of ''VideoGame/ColdFear'' loves this trope, having things like chains rattle or cans fall from shelves to spook the bejesus out of the player who's on-edge expecting zombies. It makes the impending ''actual'' JumpScare that much worse.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' has a wolf pup in the caves that makes the '''''"!"''''' [[BuffySpeak spotted-by-guard chord]] when it sees you. Of course, since it's just a pup, all it does is continue to run around doing puppy things.
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII'': In Jipang, checking the pots in one basement causes you to discover [[spoiler:a human head. …Which turns out to be attached to the still very much alive body of a young girl hiding out in there to avoid being sacrificed]].

* ''Franchise/SilentHill''
** In the monster-filled Midwich elementary school, Harry sees that there's something in one of the lockers; of course, when he opens it, it turns out to be a cat. However, once it's off-screen, something decidedly ''not'' a cat can be heard devouring it.
*** Subverted in the alternate form of the school. Harry can hear the same locker door banging against its latch, but when he opens it there's nothing inside except bloodstained rust. When he turns to leave, another locker bangs open and [[PeekABooCorpse a mutilated body falls out]].
** There's also Larval Stalkers, which appear as vaguely toddler-shaped shadows that make your radio emit static (normally a clue that an enemy is nearby) but only harmlessly make squeaking noises before vanishing if you touch them. Not only is it going to make you good and tense, but it'll also fool you into thinking the similar-looking but very much dangerous Stalkers encountered later in the game are ''also'' harmless...
** Ravens tend to fly in out of nowhere in ''VideoGame/SilentHillDownpour''. Also, [[Film/TheRoom hai doggie]], didn't expect you to still be in that police cruiser.

* ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines''

* ''VideoGame/ClockTower1995'' does this one literally. Upon entering either the second bathroom or the storage room, the crate in the opposite corner may start to shake. The protagonist's portrait changes to one of shock, and out jumps... the cat. Also subverted due to the fact that there's also about a one in four chance that it's the game's resident psychopathic killer instead of the cat.
* In ''VideoGame/FatalFrameIII'', as part of a reference to ''Film/TheGrudge''. After having a dream about a ghost encounter in the attic, the protagonist can go downstairs and open a closet, at which point her housemate's cat will leap out.
* ''VideoGame/AlienVsPredator''
** In one of the games, shortly before the Aliens come into play, there's a piece of ventilation in THE EXACT SHAPE of a Xenomorph head that drops quickly in from above and hangs there.
** Cat scares are built into the game in the form of the marine's motion sensor. Rather than a standard enemy radar, it shows the relative location of any object that moves nearby, accompanied by a [[CriticalAnnoyance warning beep]]. It won't detect any Xenomorphs hiding motionless in the shadows, but it ''will'' freak you out every time you scare a cat, almost step on a cockroach, or walk by a crane hook swinging in the breeze.

* Literally used in ''VideoGame/{{Calling}}'' but they also are there to warn something bad is about to happen if you don't do exactly what the cat says.
* In ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys2'', the old animatronics love to employ this trick: when they appear in your room, you immediately think they're gonna kill you, but then the lights go out, and when they come back on, they're gone. So, you go back to looking at the cameras, or put on your Freddy mask to be on the safe side, when '''[[JumpScare REEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHH-]]'''. [[labelnote:Note]]In the case of putting on your Freddy mask, the animatronics will actually rip it off as they go in for the kill.[[/labelnote]]
* ''Videogame/FiveNightsAtFreddysSecurityBreach'' parodies its own infamous {{Jump Scare}}s with the Map Bot, a simplistic Staff Bot that will grab you with the appropriate sound effect... only to calmly offer you one of its free maps as the screeching dies down. This happens several times, and even if you're in hiding the Bot will ''rip you out of hiding just to make its offer''.
* There's one particular corridor in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' which the player can walk into, then a few bat-like creatures will drop down and fly towards the camera. They can be killed easily with some quick lock-ons and firing action, but they respawn the second the door closes, and if you haven't played the game in a while...
* Adventure game ''VideoGame/{{Scratches}}'' inverts and subverts this in the Director's Cut edition: in the additional chapter, ''Last Visit'', the player spots in a hole a pair of glowing eyes which the player character mistakes for a cat. Most people, having played the original game first, will know that the thing in the hole is '''no''' cat. [[spoiler:Except it is. The real scare is elsewhere.]]
* Occurs a couple times in ''VideoGame/{{Siren}} 2'', although you're more likely to hear them hissing and then immediately run off given the poorly lit/dark environments. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] occasionally in [[https://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=456C0987DDCB6369 this YouTube walkthrough]].

* Inverted in ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption''. If you see any {{cats|AreMean}} around, that is your warning to ''[[DemonicSpiders run like a Kenyan sprinter]]''. And you will ''only'' see them -- [[TruthInTelevision they are dead silent until they pounce]], at which point, you're probably ''[[OhCrap already screwed]]''.
* In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'', "[[DownloadableContent Lost in Nightmares]]" has quite a bit of this in its first section, such as [[spoiler:the dead body of a guard falling from above when you walk up the stairs]], complete with DramaticThunder and lightning. The L-shaped hallway also makes its return, [[spoiler:where bats break through the windows when you walk through it the second time]]. Players of the first ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'' get some extra ParanoiaFuel from dogs barking outside when you walk through said hallway. Once you enter the dungeons, however, there's no more Cat Scares to be had. [[JumpScare But]] [[ScareChord damn near]] [[DemonicSpiders everything else]].

-->"That's not a cat. That's a furry munition."

* Lampshaded during ''[[Webcomic/SchlockMercenary Schlocktoberfest]]'' [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20071013.html 2007]].

** "Grotesque". A clunking cliché, but it does allow Scully a nice line about thinking that one of the pictures on the wall had come to life.
** In "Teso dos Bichos", the cat scare is the actual plot (they might be possessed by a jaguar spirit, you see).
** Used in [[GratuitousSpanish "Agua Mala"]] as [[spoiler:a ChekhovsGun.]]

For example, a heroine may be tiptoeing down a dark hallway to escape the serial killer who cut the power in her house when a door in the hallway starts to slowly creak open ... she pauses, a look of genuine fear in her face as the door slowly edges open and out leaps ... ''a cat!'' Phew, not what we were expecting. It was only a cat...

Note that although the Cat Scare is harmless by itself, it is very often used to effectively [[DoubleSubversion double-subvert]] a JumpScare. In this scenario, the Cat Scare is introduced to soften up the audience for a ''real'' scare to follow shortly — so in the above example, although the heroine (and the audience) is relieved that it was "just a cat", the camera may subsequently cut back to her and reveal how the serial killer is [[EnemyRisingBehind approaching from behind]] while she's breathing that sigh of relief. Similarly, another variant is that some FridgeLogic associated with the cat's presence clues the character in to the real horror to come. ("Hang on, if all the doors were shut, how'd that cat get in...?")

As Creator/RogerEbert points out in his book of Hollywood clichés, the cat often enters shot hissing and raving, airborne at chest height, as if it has been ''thrown'' into shot by a technician. (Hence another common name for this phenomenon: "the spring-loaded cat;" in particular because the feline in question often appears to be deployed as soon as the door/chest/other suitable object is opened).

While sometimes the "cat" is logically hidden, sometimes it's BehindTheBlack — a place where the person ''should'' see it but is off-camera.

* In Lewton's film ''Film/BodySnatcher'' there is a scare with a horse and in his ''Film/TheLeopardMan'' a tumbleweed and a train are used at certain points in the movie.

* Played with in ''Film/ChernobylDiaries'', when the tour group is investigating a noise in an abandoned Prypiat building. They track down the source of the soft, furtive sounds, only it's a ''[[BearsAreBadNews bear]]'' that comes lurching toward them. Yet though it's clearly ''not'' harmless, the startled animal books it outta there rather than attacking, making this a Double Subversion of sorts.

* An especially complex use: In ''Film/TheGirlWithTheDragonTattoo'' (American version), a journalist is hired by an old man to investigate the old man's suspicions about his own family's possible involvement in a disappearance. It is arranged that the journalist will live in the family guest house, on the remote island owned and occupied entirely by members of the family (suspects all, and generally a hostile group). The journalist befriends a stray cat, but is later obliged to leave for several days, locking the doors and windows of the guest house behind him (the cat is outdoors); when he returns he finds the cat waiting for him inside the guest house. In this case the cat scare is used to show not just that someone has entered the guest house in his absence, but also to hint that that person probably wanted him to know that they'd been there. The cat is benign and very cuddly, but its presence indicates something sinister.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In the [[TabletopGame/{{Fudge}} Fate]] setting TheSecretLifeOfCats, the [[Main/PlayerCharacter PCs]] are magical cats defending their human burdens from monsters. One ability you can acquire for your cat character is essentially this.

* ''Series/{{CSINTY}}'': In one episode, Danny & Lindsay enter a suspect's apartment in the dark, guns drawn. A cat startles them, causing Lindsay to say, "Whew, almost neutered you, Kitty."

* Lampshaded in ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'':

* A particularly notable example in Creator/{{Disney}}'s adaptation of ''[[WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfIchabodAndMrToad The Legend of Sleepy Hollow]]''. Ichabod Crane is wandering through some genuinely terrifying woods just after midnight, trying to get home on a painfully slow horse after a town get-together. He hears a variety of spooky sounds, such as owls and frogs croaking his name. The cat scare appears as Ichabod and his horse are suddenly brought to the ground... but Ichabod can still hear hoofbeats! Trembling, he turns to the side and realises it's just the wind blowing a set of cat tails against a hollow log. He and his horse start giggling in relief... and are soon joined by [[BigBad someone else's]] [[EvilLaugh cackling]].

* Salem Saberhagen from ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'', a wizard [[BalefulPolymorph turned into a cat]], gains the power to startle people in this manner on Friday the 13th.

* Done in [[https://i.redd.it/6zdyk2nm7ik01.png This]] strip from [[https://www.facebook.com/OTAComics/ OTA Comics]], which then shows why you can't always trust what you see.

** 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. [[spoiler: Other than Ripley, Jones the cat is the only survivor at the film's end.]]