History Main / ItWontTurnOff

* [[{{Film/WeirdScience}} Weird Science]] features a computer that goes wild. Turning it off doesn't work. Unplugging it doesn't work. Hitting it with a metal baseball bat causes the ''bat to shatter''.

* Possibly the creepiest moment in ''[[Film/ChildsPlay Child's Play]]'' occurs when the mother of the family realizes there are no batteries in the Chucky doll ... and yet it's been walking and talking as advertised since they bought it.
* In the American remake of {{The Grudge}}, this happens to one of Kayako's victims, Susan. Right after finding no one there outside her apartment after her initial relief at seeing her (now late) brother through the peephole of her door (especially considering the scare she went through when she was leaving her office building being pursued by Kayako's vengeful spirit), the signature death rattle suddenly emanates loudly from the phone she was holding. In terror, she drops and breaks the phone, yet the rattle can still be heard. Of course, {{It Got Worse}} from there.

* In TomClancy's ''DebtOfHonor'', a Japanese businessman's TV abruptly switches channels - every attempt to return it to the original station is met with insouciance on the part of the TV until the guy turns it off and sees an incoming missile guided by an infrared laser that just happens to be the same frequency as the TV remote.

* Played for laughs in one skit on ''APrairieHomeCompanion'' where a self-help tape voiced by Mr. Rogers starts hitting on a woman and the woman tries hitting the power button.

** In ''WesCraven's New Nightmare'', Heather's son keeps watching the original ''NightmareOnElmStreet'', even after Heather pulls the plug on the TV.

** In "The Time of Angels", being creeped out after believing she saw a captive Weeping Angel on a looped 4-second recording change its position while her back was turned, Amy tries using the remote to switch off the monitor, to no avail. As it turns out [[spoiler: any image of an Angel becomes an Angel itself. Something Amy learns as her attacker [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou projects itself out of the monitor to get her.]]]]

* MaximumOverdrive has a few scenes that fall under this trope, notably the electric carving knife that turns on and attacks a waitress.
* In ''Stay Alive'', a film in which players of a video game die if their game-avatars do, one character uses a portable game console to send his avatar into the game's analog of a real haunted house. He pauses the game to fetch something from the real house, leaving the console inside his van. Not only does the game un-pause itself, leaving his avatar standing inert while its enemies close in, but the van's power locks and windows seal themselves so he can't get to the controls.

** A variation, "It won't delete," from the Japanese sequel ''Ring 2''. Asakawa's former assistant, now investigating the urban legend himself, records footage of a Cursed Video victim and promises to watch the tape so she can be spared. He doesn't. When he reviews the footage, he tries to delete the interview... but it's still there. Even after repeated attempts. Then the mechanism gets stuck, showing a still frame of the victim looking just like Sadako... and [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel it gets REALLY WORSE for him afterwards]].

* In the original ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet'', Nancy yanks her phone out of the wall after she gets a call of Freddy's trademark claw scraping noises. He's still able to call, however, and "assaults" her in a way that is either NightmareFuel, {{Squick}}, or a CrowningMomentOfFunny, depending on your tastes.

* In the American remake of {{The Grudge}}, one of Kayako's targeted victims Susan, right after finding no one there outside her apartment after her initial relief at seeing her late brother through the peephole of her door (considering the scare she went through when she was leaving her office building being pursued by Kayako's vengeful spirit), the signature death rattle emanates loudly from the phone she was holding. She drops and breaks the phone, yet the rattle can still be heard. Of course, {{It Got Worse}} from there.

* WebOriginal/SCPFoundation has a few examples. [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-261 SCP-261]] is a vending machine that dispenses strange snacks. If it's unplugged, it dispenses stranger snacks. [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-158 SCP-158]] can be used to remove someone's soul. After someone accidentally spilled a soul onto a laptop, it started running without power and behaving erratically.

* In "The Tiki Room", TheLeagueOfSTEAM encounter a tiki idol that is making an incessant drumming noise. Not only can they find no way to turn it off, they also are unable to remove it from the room.

* TheSCPFoundation has a few examples. [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-261 SCP-261]] is a vending machine that dispenses strange snacks. If it's unplugged, it dispenses stranger snacks. [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-158 SCP-158]] can be used to remove someone's soul. After someone accidentally spilled a soul onto a laptop, it started running without power and behaving erratically.

* A season 2 episode of ''{{Torchwood}}'' has the group attend a cinema where silent film footage of what Cardiff looked like in the past is being shown. However, some footage of the Villains Of The Week ends up being edited into the footage (somehow). The man operating the telecine machine attempts to stop it, but finds he can't stop the machine.
** The EvilPhone version happens in the Torchwood audio play "The Dead Line" - phones ring despite not being plugged in. Anyone that answers them goes into a coma.

* In ''Film/BruceAlmighty'', Bruce gets a call on his pager from the same number, even after ripping out the battery, hurling it out of the window, and watching it get run over.

* In TomClancy's Debt of Honor, a Japanese businessman's TV abruptly switches channels - every attempt to return it to the original station is met with insouciance on the part of the TV until the guy turns it off and sees an incoming missile guided by an infrared laser that just happens to be the same frequency as the TV remote.
* In the first Three Investigators novel, the main characters are told about a cursed electric organ that played both when nobody was near it, and when it was unplugged. (The guy who owned it did experiments to be sure.) They later investigate the organ, but it turns out to be just a trick, like everything else in the haunted house.
* In Alan Garner's ''Elidor'', the magical artifacts the children bring back to the mundane world cause all the appliances in their house to start running, even when not plugged in.
* A radio that changes stations and volume by itself and cannot be turned off is used by [[spoiler:Melanie via telekinesis]] to warn other characters of danger in ''The Door to December'', by DeanKoontz.

* In ''Videogame/{{Half-Life 2}}'' at least one TV set briefly shows an image of the G-man, despite not being plugged in.
** A Vortigaunt ''was'' powering it, though.

* In "The House That Haunted {{Batman}}", a classic Neal Adams story from the ComicBook/{{Batman}} comics, there is a phonograph playing a recording of a scream. It continues screaming even after Batman lifts the needle off the record.

* In ''BruceAlmighty'', Bruce gets a call on his pager from the same number, even after ripping out the battery, hurling it out of the window, and watching it get run over.

* In the original NightmareOnElmStreet, Nancy yanks her phone out of the wall after she gets a call of Freddy's trademark claw scraping noises. He's still able to call, however, and "assaults" her in a way that is either NightmareFuel, {{Squick}}, or a CrowningMomentOfFunny, depending on your tastes.

* ''TheGoodies''. RuleOfFunny version happens in "Lighthouse Loonies", with a foghorn which won't stop blaring even after Tim and Graham have switched it off, pulled the plug, jumped up and down on it and swallowed the pieces.

* In ''HalfLife 2'' at least one TV set briefly shows an image of the G-man, despite not being plugged in.

* In ''{{Doom}} 3'' there's an [[ApocalypticLog audio log]] that mentions a technician getting his hand torn off by a machine that wouldn't stop running, even after it was disconnected from the power-grid. Presumably the work of the [[LegionsOfHell demons]], who were already messing with the Martian colonists before they invaded.

* SaladFingers has a radio and a telephone that emit noises despite clearly being nonfunctional. At least, Salad Fingers ''hears'' noises coming from them...

* Inverted (Inverted? Played with? Lampshaded? Definitely parodied) in ''TheSimpsons'', when Homer's bemoaning the crisis of the week, and a convenient TV advert that'll hopefully solve his problem plays. Once it's done, he tells Lisa that it was a good thing she turned on the TV:

* {{Polybius}} apparently doesn't turn off.

* Played strictly for laughs in TheThreeStooges short "Men in Black" ([[MenInBlack no relation]]). The three play doctors and are constantly being paged, "Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard!" They get frustrated and destroy the paging system but it continues to page them, even as they're shooting it, until it says, "Oh, they got me!"

* The horror film ''[[{{ptitlecx3rkta7}} 1408]]'' had a hotel alarm clock/radio that went off even after it was unplugged.

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** "The Time of Angels": Being creeped out after believing she saw a captive Weeping Angel on a looped 4-second recording change its position while her back was turned, Amy tries using the remote to switch off the monitor, to no avail. As it turns out [[spoiler: any image of an Angel becomes an Angel itself. Something Amy learns as her attacker [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou projects itself out of the monitor to get her.]]]]

* Used in several ''{{Supernatural}}'' episode. For example in "Houses of the Holy", a fundamentalist Bible show appears on a character's TV, and will not leave how often they change the channel.

** In WesCraven's New Nightmare, Heather's son keeps watching the original Nightmare on Elm Street, even after Heather pulls the plug on the TV.

* Played stritcly for laughs in TheThreeStooges short "Men in Black" ([[MenInBlack no relation]]). The three play doctors and are constantly being paged, "Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard!" They get frustrated and destroy the paging system but it continues to page them, even as they're shooting it, until it says, "Oh, they got me!"

* In Alan Garner's "Elidor", the magical artifacts the children bring back to the mundane world cause all the appliances in their house to start running, even when not plugged in.

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