Shows up in just about every Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode whenever a kid suspects something scary lies behind a closed door or something similar, complete with whispery "Oooooh Oooooh" sounds and blaring high notes on something that sounds like a trumpet/trombone.
For many a troper, the channel was immediately changed upon hearing the ominous sound accompanying the picture of the empty rowboat.
The creepy music in the background during the infamous "Beat-Stuffing Scene" of Nip/Tuck. That scene was terrifying, but that horrible music just MADE it.
Many music tracks in the present Doctor Who TV series contain the sound of an alarm bell ringing; when it's time to be alarmed.
Same thing goes for "Hey! Who turned out the lights?..." Hardly surprising given it's coming from a freaking ambulatory spacesuit occupied by a skeleton and a swarm of microscopic flesh-eaters.
Whilst not really that terrifying, the Cloister Bell inside the Doctor's TARDIS is certainly ominous. It only sounds when the end of the universe is imminent.
On the contrary, imagine being alone, in the dark, with just this sound to keep you company...
Also, the dat-dat-dat-dat of the sound of drums, which is echoed not only in the music, but also in the sound of knocking that heralds the death of the Tenth Doctor.
And you know what's even scarier? They're not doing the Master's drumbeat. They're singing the theme song. The Master's drumbeat was in the theme song from the very first season of Doctor Who.
Then there's the footsteps of the Cybermen in the new series. Whoever thought something that sounds like a stapler-gun could be so creepy?
Doctor Who loves this trope, especially in the new series. Aside from the aforementioned examples, there's "EXTERMINATE", the ticking of Clockwork Androids, the echoing of whatever that thing in Midnight was, and a very distinctive noise that seems to play every time a Weeping Angel moves.
The Weeping Angels now have two more horrible sounds to their credit. One is their laughter, an awful squealing sound of stones scraping each other, and the second is the low crunching sound as they move on-screen.
The sort of rustling noise that plays whenever the Silence are nearby.
And those birds from Amy's Choice. Those freaking birds. Darn Dreamlord.
Torchwood loves this trope as well. In the serues 2 episode "Adrift" the scream at the end that starts out normal, then rises in pitch until it becomes unnatural, then continues long past the point where the character would have needed to take a breath.
On Lost, a multitude of strange noises, including the sound of a New York taxi cab receipt printer, invariably precede an attack by the Monster.
How about after Ben moves the Island and several characters begin experiencing "time flashes" which are accompanied by a blinding flash and a increasingly loud noise that sounds like chimes, followed by a whooshing sound and magnetic humming. Hear it here.
When Jack and Kate Find Charlie hanging from the trees. The horrid, low gong-like chiming is torrid.
Not to mention the whisperers.
Tales From The Dark Side had an opening theme that used to make me and my sister either freeze up or jump to the television to turn it off.
In the The Sopranos episode "Funland," every dream sequence Tony has is marked by a sound like creaking wood boardwalks, played at various volumes. This specific example was especially frightening, since at times the audio cue wouldn't be played until half-way through the scene; when a seemingly normal situation between recurring characters suddenly devolved into surreal nightmares, and that goddamn noise plays... The psychological twist is almost as bad as the sound itself.
The Stargate Verse has a sound for the replicators that's a simple metal tapping, for thousands of legs.
This sometimes tends to be The Stig's choice of listening material on Top Gear when he drives a car around the track: Morse code, bagpipes, vuvuzelas.
Star Trek: Voyager: In "Equinox," the extra-dimensional aliens have to open portals into our universe to attack. When a portal forms, the first thing you hear is a high-pitched, whining hiss. It's pretty creepy and even creepier for the characters who are also thinking "WHERE IS IT WHERE IS IT?" If they aren't fast enough, it's the last sound they'll hear.
Babylon 5: The sound of a Shadow vessel. They like to scream in the minds of their prey to add terror to their attacks. As though their cleave beams which can split most ships in half with one shot need added terror.
Heroes, at least in Season One, managed to make the ticking of clocks very creepy and unnerving. Because that sound indicated someone was about to lose their brain.
Invoked in one episode of Criminal Minds when one cop was watching the funeral of another cop and commented how anyone who killed cops should have to hear Amazing Freaking Grace for the rest of eternity.
The WWE seems to be deliberately invoking this in turning Michael Cole heel by making him the "Voice of the WWE." At one point he was doing commentary for both Raw and Smackdown! and in general his entire gimmick is that he never shuts up. They're deliberately trying to turn his voice into Hell Is That Noise.
Kamen Rider Double: "Maximum Drive! Maximum Drive! Maximum Drive! Maximum Drive!..."
The sounds of many Vanity Plates, eg the Psycho Strings-like synth sound accompanying the WGBH logo, and PBS's Tricolored P-Head Moog glissando and brass fanfare.
In 1984, thistelenovela OP was supposed to remind you of a Greek traditional song. It ended up becoming the creepiest telenovela song ever. Aaaaaaaaaaaah!
Really not helped by the Creepy Monotone singing voices and the terrifying lyrics about destiny and being puppets of it. YIKES.
On the UK children's drama Byker Grove, the laugh at the end of the credits became this in the episode where Jemma Dobson died, when it happened to play just as a still image of Jemma's corpse was on-screen.
The musical theme from The Twilight Zone... ♪ toodoo-doodoo toodoo-doodoo♫
Shows up in just about every episode of Oz usually when something dramatic happens or just in general the music is really ominous sounding. Really contributes to the Nightmare Fuel nature of the show.
