History Main / OminousVisualGlitch

** In Season 2, Carmilla's sister Mattie is capable of inflicting a camera distortion with her [[MakeMeWannaShout bloodcurdling screeches]].

* In Book 6 of ''Literature/KingdomKeepers'', Finn notices that the holographic DHI (Disney Host Interactive) copies of a sleeping host can pixellate when seen on a digital camera snapshot, to rather ominous effects.

* ''Literature/{{Oathbringer}}'', third book of ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'', has an illustrated version. The tower of [[spoiler:Urithiru]] makes Shallan uneasy, and when she tries to sketch her supernaturally-enhanced PhotographicMemory of it, it always comes out with [[https://coppermind.net/wiki/File:The_Tower.jpg warped perspective]] and strange darkness. The tower turns out to be [[spoiler:the lair of an EldritchAbomination, and the effect ends when they drive the entity away.]]
* In ''Literature/SnowCrash'', after [=Da5id=] receives a full visual dose of Snow Crash (itself named because its MindControl language resembles a glitch causing a display to show white noise), his Metaverse avatar and voice link begin to deteriorate until he looks like this:

* ''VideoGame/TaikoNoTatsujin": When selecting the Ura Oni difficulty for "Ka" (彁), the Oni difficulty plate glitches into the Ura Oni difficulty plate instead of flipping over. The song itself is also a glitch-themed song.

Subtrope of PaintingTheMedium, and very close to CameraAbuse. Related to FalseCameraEffects. In video games, it may overlap with InterfaceScrew. SpookyPhotographs have glitches as well, but they are present on the paper as opposed to a screen (unless they're digital). Compare HologramProjectionImperfection. See also OminousTelevision. May result from TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou

* ''Series/TheKozZone'', a 1989 local UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} tv series by the once and future ''Series/{{Svengoolie}}'' where he would "break in" to the local station's broadcast and pirate-show an old, crappy film. It would have intentional glitches as though he as breaking into the feed.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', "Future Imperfect": Commander Riker is trapped inside of a LotusEaterMachine. Once he realizes the reality is strange and doesn't make sense, he is moved to another "real" world, but the setting has simply changed to a new illusion. The shift between several illusions uses distortion with little squares.

** In "Duane Barry", the TV at Duane's place goes out and static fills the screen. The room is flooded with light and Duane starts to levitate. There is a flying saucer above his house and he's abducted.
** In "D.P.O.", Darin Peter Oswald can control lightning and electricity. He changes channels on the TV that his mother is watching, and if she tries to change it back, it gets static. At the end of the episode, Mulder and Scully watch an institutionalized Darin staring at a TV in the room. The camera pans over to show the screen, channels changing. There's a shot of deadpan Darin, then the whole screen gets static, and it goes into credits.
** In "Wetwired", distortions of the picture implied that a person is under influence of subliminal transmission that triggered the person's worst fears and compelled them to kill.
** In "Demons", Mulder underwent an extreme psycho-treatment to induce his memories of Samantha's abduction. His "memories" (probably hallucinations) were showed in freaky colours with distorted people, and the picture is intentionally grainy.
** "Kill Switch": Mulder is trapped in a virtual reality simulator. When he realizes that it's not real, the reality from his perspective starts to short out. He sees the glitches and "Scully" dissolves into an image of animated person.
* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'':
** The Machine has "problems" in season 2, which show themselves as visual glitches.
** As of season 3, [[spoiler:Root's]] appearance in the opening credits is glitchy, with color fluctuations and rectangular visual distortions appearing.
* ''Series/TheDailyShowWithTrevorNoah'' references this while talking about Ted Cruz's refusal to endorse Trump at the 2016 Republican Convention. The audience really should've known something was going on when the big screen started flickering mid-speech.
-->'''Trevor:''' I've watched horror movies, people! When you see screens flickering, you get your ass ''outta the house!''
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** In "Extremis", the effect is used for the buildup to TheReveal, that the world we see in the episode is a computer simulation, and that the episode itself is a recording/retelling by the simulation!Doctor to the real Doctor.
** In "The Lie of the Land", it's used to signify the mind-control the Monks use to keep the population under wraps.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' season 3 episode [[Recap/SupernaturalS03E13Ghostfacers "Ghostfacers"]]: The episode is a parody of ghost hunting reality tv show and much of the footage is recorded through handheld cameras. The feed glitches just before ghost echoes appear or a supernatural event happens.

** When Snake is low in health in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'', the screen begins to judder with static and digital artefacts when he's hit. Occasionally images of puppet strings attached to him glitch in appearance as he dies.