History Main / CreepyChangingPainting

caption-width-right:250:''[[VideoGame/LegacyOfKain This portrait remains singularly inanimate. I knew better than to assume that it remains as such....]]''

[[caption-width-right:200:[[VideoGame/LegacyOfKain This portrait remains singularly inanimate. I knew better than to assume that it remains as such....]]]]

[[folder:Fanfiction]]
* ''FanFic/DungeonKeeperAmi'' features this in an interesting way. When her dungeon is under direct attack by the dark god Crowned Death things start falling apart or warp in eerie ways as his rot-everything power infects them. Strangely, it is noted that parts of her Dungeon under observation are more reluctant to succumb to the effect.

* In one episode of ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'', Pete, Myka and Claudia were stuck in a house where the changes they made in the room changed the painting of that same room. And [[RealityChangingMiniature vice-versa]].

* Certain posters in ''Videogame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' will change, and [[SanityMeter they change more often the further you get in the game]]. Children's fan art will become crying faces (or vanish entirely, leaving '[[ArcWords IT'S ME]]' written on the walls), management's posters will turn into newspaper articles about a mysterious SerialKiller who lured [[WouldHurtAChild children]] into a back room and murdered them, wearing an animatronic suit, and the poster of Freddy in the left hall will occasionally change to show Freddy pulling his head off, [[spoiler: or a yellow version of Freddy's face without eyes, which will trigger a slumped-over yellow Freddy suit to appear in your office, where he'll crash your game unless you bring up the monitor again.]]

* ''Grim Tales 11: Crimson Hollow'' has portraits of the Black Family to collect. When you look at them on the collectibles screen, they change from a normal portrait to a gruesome illustration of the subjects' fate and back again.

* In the [=PlayStation=] game ''D'', once the player, as Laura, has started the second disc (after the Indiana Jones-esque boulder escape) Laura can walk over to an innocent looking painting of an indifferent-looking girl. Upon pressing the action button, the girl in the painting will inexplicably smile (with a non-lipped laugh) before the painting flips to a clue for the next in-room puzzle before it goes back to the same girl who goes right back to looking indifferent.

* In the PlayStation game ''D'', once the player, as Laura, has started the second disc (after the Indiana Jones-esque boulder escape) Laura can walk over to an innocent looking painting of an indifferent-looking girl. Upon pressing the action button, the girl in the painting will inexplicably smile (with a non-lipped laugh) before the painting flips to a clue for the next in-room puzzle before it goes back to the same girl who goes right back to looking indifferent.

* ''VideoGames/AnimalCrossingNewHorizons'' introduced these in the 1.2.0 update. Some of the paintings you can buy from Redd turn out to be fakes, and some of those fakes turn out to be haunted and will change slightly every so often. One painting opens and closes its eyes, while another goes from smiling to frowning and back again.

* Certain posters in ''Videogame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' will change, and [[SanityMeter they change more often the further you get in the game]]. Children's fan art will become crying faces, management's posters will turn into newspaper articles about a mysterious SerialKiller who lured [[WouldHurtAChild children]] into a back room and murdered them, wearing an animatronic suit... and [[spoiler:the picture of Freddy in the corner of the Left Hallway will shift to that of [[AnimalisticAbomination an empty, golden Freddy costume,]] before the suit appears in your office from BehindTheBlack.]]

* A version of this happens in ''VideoGame/LaserGhost''. The first "boss" is a large street sign with a man and a woman's face, which suddenly turn to look at you one at a time and become demonic ghostly faces to attack you.

* As a FreezeFrameBonus in ''Disney/LiloAndStitch'', a poster in Nani's room has a surprised expression for a few frames after Stitch hits Jumba with a VW Beetle.

* Laura Palmer is given a painting by a mysterious old woman in ''Film/TwinPeaksFireWalkWithMe'' that shows an angel and some kids. Laura hangs it in her bedroom before going to sleep, and then dreams she goes through the door in the painting. When she wakes up, the angel is gone. (This is significant for the plot.)

* One episode of ''Series/{{The Twilight Zone|1959}}'' features a ventriloquist who notices while shaving in front of a mirror that his DemonicDummy keeps on changing the tilt of its head every time he glances at it in the mirror. Then he looks directly at the dummy, and it ''winks'' at him. He responds by throwing something at it, causing its face to seemingly break.

* ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective'': Basil has a painting of Ratigan on his wall. When Basil explains who Ratigan is, he finishes by announcing his name loudly, in which lightning strikes and the painting then has a large grin.

* ''VideoGame/HamtaroHamHamHeartbreak'', a children's game for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance system features one of these on the entrance wall of Boo Mansion.

* In the "Magnetic Rose" segment of anthology film ''Anime/{{Memories}}'', Miguel sees a picture of Eva being kissed by her fiancé, Carlo, becoming jealous at the sight of it. As he and Heintz leave the room, [[{{Foreshadowing}} Miguel has replaced Carlo in the photo]].
* In ''Manga/NatsumesBookOfFriends'' Natsume buys a painting of some trees at a swap meet that sinks roots into his walls, gains a silhouetted figure and starts draining his life energy after he brings it home.

-->'''Awara''': When you hang this on the wall, it looks like a normal painting... but if ya tear it away from the bottom page by page, like this... the Mona Lisa in the painting starts to move little by little... until she eventually creeps up ta ya.
-->'''Homura''': '''Is anybody interested in making pleasant art!?'''

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* The ''Literature/BigendBooks'' have an example in the hotel Hollis stays while in London. It's actually several paintings the staff keeps swapping.
* The holographic cover of Mickee Madden's ''Everlastin''' inverts this trope: it shows a man standing next to a painting of a woman in a field but it's the ''man'' and not the painting who changes, fading in and out on the cover to indicate that he's actually a ghost.

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'':

--> Narrator: If it could talk, it would likely be politer than the real thing.
--> Painting: Don't count on it!

* The queue of Ride/TheHauntedMansion has something like this. In the queue, there is a headstone with the engraving of a woman's face. Every so often, the woman's eyes will open, dart around for a few seconds, and then close. The queue also contains several paintings that morph into a different painting, such as a painting of a woman morphing into a tiger.

Sub-trope of SpookyPainting, possibly a SisterTrope to OffscreenRealityWarp. May overlap with ExpressiveAccessory. See also PortraitPaintingPeephole.

* ''Grim Tales 11: Crimson Hollow'' has portraits of the Black Family to collect. When you look at them on the collectables screen, they change from a normal portrait to a gruesome illustration of the subjects' fate and back again.

* Early villainess Hexadecimal in ''WesternAnimation/{{ReBoot}}'' had a drama mask for a face, which could [[ExpressiveMask change expressions]], but only when offscreen. Hex could invoke this by passing her hand in front of her face.

** The [[Characters/DoctorWhoWeepingAngels Weeping Angels]] are creepy moving ''statues''.