"Enough! I grow tired of this spooky 'OoOoO' business! I am a pirate, blast it! Pirates do not MOAN! I am a cold-blooded villain who robs innocents of life and loot, not a crying ghost!"
It's common for ghosts and spirits to make all manner of noises when they wish to communicate with the living. One such noise is otherworldly moaning or screaming. There are several reasons why a ghost may groan or shout. It could just be how ghosts in a particular setting vocalize, a sign or symptom of depression on the ghost's part, a ghost's way of warning the living about something, or an intimidation tactic.
This is a staple in Gothic Horror, like all other things ghostly.
Compare Death Cry Echo, Death Wail, and Our Banshees Are Louder. Polar opposite of Whispering Ghosts. May overlap with Super-Scream if it's an actual power.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Films — Animation
- The LEGO Movie: Played for Laughs. Vitruvius' ghost form was clearly meant to be funny, seeing as the animators deliberately made him appear to be dangling from a string. The hilarity is ramped up by him doing a silly "oooooh" sound as he leaves.
Films — Live-Action
- Godzilla vs. Kong: A variation with Mechagodzilla's piloting supercomputer which has been fashioned out of Ghidorah's skull. Although the skull is physically just a hunk of bone with no vocal chords, it's still producing audible echoes of Ghidorah's signature roar and growls, foreshadowing that Ghidorah's consciousness is still in there. Hearing the skull's wailing is actually what draws Madison's attention to the door leading to the Skull Room in the first place, confirming that humans In-Universe can hear it too. Which makes it all the more staggering on Apex's part that they still thought it wasn't an overly-risky idea to hook the thing up to Mechagodzilla as its brain.
- Discussed in Halloweentown, when Grandma Aggie says ghosts are "very depressed creatures" and mimics their signature moaning so her granddaughter Sophie will know how to properly make the sound.
Folklore and Mythology
- In Irish and Scottish folklore, the banshee (or bean-sidhe) is a fairy-woman or ghost and often guardian spirit of the old Gaelic families who can foretell death in "her" family. She wails and cries through the night to warn the family that one of them will soon die. If the family hear her crying three nights in a row, they know that they should begin planning a funeral. As she can foretell death in the family that she protects, the banshee is also grieving for the family as well as warning them of impending death. When multiple mná-sídhe (fairy-women) are heard wailing at once, it foretells the death of an important political or religious figure. As she is often a guardian spirit to specific clans and can foretell death in "her" family, she is mourning the impending death as well as warning the family. Most often, the banshee is depicted as an old, frightening woman, but she can also appear as a strikingly beautiful woman of any age that suits her.
- Much of Latin America believes in the legend of La Llorona, the spirit of a woman who died after she drowned her children and cannot enter Heaven until she has found them; she is heard crying "¡Ay, mis hijos!" ("Oh, my children!") as she searches for them. Those who hear her crying supposedly are doomed to die soon.
Literature
- Subverted in the first Araminta Spookie book: Araminta lives in a Haunted House and spends much of her free time looking for ghosts. While exploring a secret passageway behind the boiler room, she suddenly hears a "horrible, teeth-on-edge, spine-chilling screaming" which she is certain is "exactly the kind of noise a ball-and-chain ghost would make." However, she realizes it's not a ghost—it's just her aunt Tabitha screaming at the uncooperative boiler. Averted later, when she meets real ghosts who are quite polite and not noisy at all.
- In A Christmas Carol, the ghost of Jacob Marley lets out a frightful cry to scare Scrooge into listening to him, unhinging his jaw for added effect.
- Played with in the Harry Potter series with the character of Moaning Myrtle, a deceased Hogwarts student who haunts a girls' bathroom and is called as such because she is often heard crying. Her moans are described as being alternately depressing or ear-splitting. However, other than being a ghost, she is not seen as particularly creepy by the characters and is considered an annoying drama queen. However, her lavatory haunting ground contains the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.
- Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: The undead soldiers that Mr. Strange conjures up can only speak in a ghastly unintelligible shriek, which he eventually identifies as the Black Speech of Hell.
Live-Action TV
- The Haunting of Hill House (2018): Nell's attempts to communicate as a ghost only come through as distorted groans and wails, coupled with a Ghostly Gape. Zig-zagged in the finale when Nell gathers enough presence of mind to speak clearly.
Radio
- John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme: There's a sketch in which the ghosts of Emmeline Pankhurst and Albert, a soldier who died in World War II, explain their thoughts about voting. It ended like this:
Albert: And in conclusion, wooooooo!
Mrs Pankhurst: Albert, I said no woo-ing.
Albert: Spoilsport.
Theatre
- The intentionally disastrous Show Within a Show The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guild Dramatic Society's Production of A Christmas Carol features long-suffering stage manager Gordon as the terrifying spectre of Jacob Marley...who stands there and goes "Wooooo", woodenly and very loudly.
Video Games
- Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest features ghost ropes in the level Ghostly Grove, which wail as they appear and disappear.
- EXTRAPOWER: Star Resistance: The ghosts of Stage 3 give off a ghostly wail as their death cry.
- Fable: The wraithlike Screamers have a permanent Ghostly Gape and a shriek that inflicts Life Drain.
- Fatal Frame: Being a ghost-fighting Survival Horror series, there are ghosts that do this when confronted.
- Defied in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door; Ghost Pirate Cortez, the boss of Chapter 5, initially moans during his speech, only to declare that he is tired of that, and instead starts talking with a mix of pirate-speak and Gratuitous Spanish from then on.
- Pokémon:
- The Ghost-type move Astonish is described as a startling shout, although it's not classed as a sound-based move. Misdreavus and Mismagius, a line of Ghost types based on banshees, naturally learn the move leveling up.
- Runescape: Mortals perceive ghosts' speech as incoherent wailing unless they have a Ghostspeak amulet to translate it into ordinary dialogue.
- The Wolf and the Waves: This is the noise that plays whenever you switch to ghost form.
Western Animation
- Danny Phantom:
- The aptly-named Ghostly Wail is an extremely strong, destructive vocal attack that uses ecto-energy. Sounding like a legion of tortured souls all groaning and moaning at the same time, it is the most powerful ability of both Danny and his evil future self and is unique to them.
- The weather ghost Vortex can let loose a ghostly sonic shriek, a sub-power of the above-mentioned Ghostly Wail but only slightly less powerful.
- Razzberry Jazzberry Jam: In “Phantom Of The Jam”, ethereal wailing echoes through the House Of Jam whenever the Jazzberries try to rehearse for their performance at the Masquerade Ball. This gets a big ol’ lampshade hung on it when they actually meet the ghost responsible.
Herschel: OOOOOOOOOooooooOOOOOOooooOO!RC: Stop that.Herschel: It is a bit standard, huh.
- Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: Very loud wails from the costumed antagonists, most of whom were ghost-based, are quite common. This also happens in later entries in the franchise from time to time.
