History Main / OminousMusicboxTune

* The Northern Kings' version of the Music/{{Radiohead}} song "Creep" uses a music box to make the song sound incredibly...well, creepy. This is especially noticeable at the beginning and end of the song, creating an eerie and spooky atmosphere.

* The end of 'The Well' by Pagan folk band Omnia features a music box rendition of 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.' It's their version of the [[MuderBallad Murder Ballad]] 'The Well below the Valley', a song containing lyrics about incest and infanticide.

* ''Anime/{{Ghost in the Shell|1995}} 2: Innocence'' has an entire sequence set inside a very creepy MindScrew mansion, all accompanied by the world's biggest music box ("The Doll House" versions 1 and 2). The score composer said in interview that he wanted it to sound like you were ''inside'' said music box -- and he most certainly succeeded. In the Making Of extras on the DVD it's shown how they did it: they had a company specializing in music boxes make them a huge one to play the tune, and then took it into some empty mine shaft to record it. Sure, they could have just electronically added the echo, [[ShownTheirWork but it just wouldn't have been]] [[DoingItForTheArt authentic enough]].

* In Chapter 2 of ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'', when [[spoiler:[[AloneWithThePsycho confronting Noelle in the hospital]] during the epilogue of a Weird Route playthrough]], the interaction is underscored by a song referred to in the game's files as [[https://youtu.be/5Eyk5Hg7v8A "flashback_exerpt.ogg"]], a minor-key music box arpeggio atop a droning synth string version of "THE HOLY".

* In Chapter 2 of ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'', when [[spoiler:confronting Noelle in the hospital during the epilogue of a Weird Route playthrough]], the interaction is underscored by a song referred to in the game's files as [[https://youtu.be/5Eyk5Hg7v8A "flashback_exerpt.ogg"]], a minor-key music box arpeggio atop a droning synth string version of "THE HOLY".

* ''Anime/GhostInTheShell 2: Innocence'' had an entire sequence set inside a very creepy MindScrew mansion, all accompanied by the world's biggest music box ("The Doll House" versions 1 and 2). The score composer said in interview that he wanted it to sound like you were ''inside'' said music box - and he most certainly succeeded. In the Making Of-extras on the DVD it's shown how they did it: they had a company specializing in music boxes make them a huge one to play the tune, and then took it into some empty mine shaft to record it. Sure, they could have just electronically added the echo, [[ShownTheirWork but it just wouldn't have been]] [[DoingItForTheArt authentic enough.]]

* The Red Queen's theme from ''Film/ResidentEvil'' was written to sound like a sweet child's waltz. As the movie continues, her theme becomes increasingly dark and menacing as she shows her murderous colors to the group.

* The tune in ''Film/TheUntouchables'', first heard as Elliot helps a woman struggling with her baby carriage up the stairs. The second time we hear it is at the end of the bloody shootout immediately afterward.
* The Lament Configuration in ''{{Franchise/Hellraiser}}''.

Compare IronicNurseryTune, CreepyCircusMusic, and CreepyChildrenSinging, where creepy songs and nursery rhymes are played in the background to add tension and fear to a scene. Similar to the UncannyValley, in that the ''tiny'' bit that's "off" is what makes it feel ''very'' wrong. ForDoomTheBellTolls and XylophonesForWalkingBones are about similar instruments used for creepiness, but aren't necessarily associated with lullabies.

* Heard in ''Film/GoodBurger'' [[https://youtu.be/9orKwcYJrfk during the appearance of Heather the Psychopath]] (portrayed by LindaCardellini).

* A eerie music box can be heard at the begining of "Mommy's Little Monsters" by Music/CreatureFeature

* ''VisualNovel/RadicalDreamers'' has a music-box [[DarkReprise reprise]] of "Day of Summer" after each scenario's end credits. It also features during a key scene of the main scenario.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChronicles'' has a song called [[https://youtu.be/WAh5-pmz3gM Mag Mell]], which is the theme of a location filled with [[spoiler: sleeping Carbuncles]] that you can only get to [[spoiler:after getting past the unknown element Miasma Stream.]]

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'', the Music Box song isn't terribly creepy, but the scene that goes with it makes it somewhat depressingly creepy. [[https://youtu.be/sEF7yp2BeT0]] Here is LetsPlay/HCBailly's moment; the music box starts at 4:25

* ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'':

* [[http://youtu.be/YRFmOcaxcP8 This]] remix of [[VideoGame/{{Touhou}} ZUN's]] ''[[http://youtu.be/VHgxvy68o7Q Mary the Magician]]'', from his ''Touhou'' [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary]] ''Ghostly Field Club''.

* In ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'', a distorted tune of this nature plays whenever your Shade [[note]] a ghost that appears wherever you are after you died, which you must defeat to reclaim your coins)[[/note]]is nearby.

** In the first game, all of the music associated with [[EnfanteTerrible Chauncey]] is played on a music box. This includes the music that plays when you unlock the door to his room, the music when you are talking to him, and his battle music.
** The remix of the ''Luigi's Mansion'' theme in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'' features an Ominous Music Box at the beginning.

[[AC:For added atmosphere, play the music from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b5MCvI0n48 this track]] while reading on. Also put the video on a loop to keep hearing it endlessly.]]

[[AC:For added atmosphere, play the music from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b5MCvI0n48 this track]] while reading on. Put the video also on the loop to keep hearing it endlessly.]]

[[AC:For added atmosphere, play the music from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b5MCvI0n48 this track]] while reading on.]]

** In [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys2 the sequel]], the player must keep winding a music box that plays "Grandfather's Clock" in order to keep an animatronic from moving from its place. Forget to wind it and you'll learn to dread "Pop Goes to Weasel" in a hurry...

* [[https://youtu.be/sC0jGfUzVyk The Sandman]] in ''Film/{{Hanna}}''.

* ''Film/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'': When the Baudelaire children (now orphans) were brought to the ashes of their home by Mr. Poe, a creepy music box plays. Bonus points to the filmmakers for having the music be played on a visible music box jutting out of the rubble, presumably one of Violet's projects.[[/folder]]

* "The Box Part 1"(album version) by Orbital.

* Davey Jones' music box in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest''. It was supposed to be romantic--because of Davy Jones and [[spoiler:Calypso/Tia Dalma]], but the effect was kind of ruined when they did that [[OminousPipeOrgan crazy-evil organ arrangement]] while the fish-pirates were scrubbing the deck.

* As if there wasn't enough horror motifs in the 1999 remake of ''Film/{{The Haunting| 1999}}'' (it already had CreepyCircusMusic), there was also a music box tune which Eleanor was humming almost from the beginning of the movie ([[FridgeHorror suggesting even then that she was already being drawn to the house]]). She later finds the actual music box in the nursery of Hill House. If it isn't too blasphemous to consider, [[WildMassGuessing one might wonder if this is meant to be the tune for the song "Journeys End In Lovers Meeting" from the Shirley Jackson novel.]]
** Actually, the "song" from the novel is called Carpe Diem, and it's a poem that Shakespeare wrote for his play, "Twelfth Night."

* The Fifth Seal, Hungarian anti-war psychological drama, begins with the off-putting sounds of a large standing music box being wound up (with close-up shots on the internal mechanism, no less), its individual instruments tuning up, before it begins playing a short, unsettling, sometimes off-key bohemian chamber piece. It's practically the only continuous piece of music we hear throughout the movie, [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ShooOutTheClowns and when it stops...]]
* The "A Series Of Unfortunate Events" movie with Jim Carrey as Count Olaf. When the Baudelaire children (now orphans) were brought to the ashes of their home by Mr. Poe, a creepy music box plays. Bonus points to the filmmakers for having the music be played on a visible music box jutting out of the rubble, presumably one of Violet's projects.[[/folder]]