History Main / ScareChord

* Probably the most famous scare chord in Western cartoon history isn't even 30 years old! Dick Walter composed a 6-second-long, three-note jingle for ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' and it's been used [[StockSoundEffects EVERYWHERE]].

* ''Franchise/OnePiece'': The recurring track "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A81AKe3Z51Q Duel That Defies Description]]", which debuted in ''Anime/BaronOmatsuriAndTheSecretIsland'' where it accompanied a horrifying WhamShot. In the anime, it similarly plays whenever something makes the Straw Hats freeze and stare in horror, such as more [[WhamShot Wham Shots]] or when a villain [[ForTheEvulz says something particularly psychopathic]].

* The "Firebird Suite" also does a pretty impressive leap in volume when transitioning to the main portion of the piece.

* The Sosumi ("so sue me") beep sound on UsefulNotes/{{Macintosh}} computers is a tritone piano chord. Also the Chimes of Death on older Macs.
* The original UsefulNotes/PlayStation had a creepy off-key version of the logo sting when an error occurred on boot-up, known as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ92RVruaxs "Personified Fear"]].

* ''VideoGame/SweetHome1989'' uses these to good effect, despite being an 8-bit game on the UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem. Encounters with enemies are preceded by a slowly building tune, before a sharp shriek brings the enemy onto the screen. The same shriek comes with the many talking corpses you find before their picture shows on the screen.

* ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeedMostWanted'' and ''[[VideoGame/NeedForSpeedCarbon Carbon]]'' play a Scare Chord to a camera pan every time you're spotted by a squad car.

* The M. Night Shyamalan films ''Film/TheSixthSense'', ''Film/{{Signs}}'', ''Film/TheVillage'', and ''Film/LadyInTheWater'' are rife with these.

* In the original version of ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'', a musical sting pops up like this in the opening of Gourmet Race as a [[ScaryFlashLightFace partially-shadowed]] King Dedede tauntingly looms over Kirby from his point of view, appearing to be much bigger than usual, and gives him a PsychoticSmirk before the scene fades back to the title screen. Of course, this sting is actually the beginning of the music that plays on Gourmet Race's title screen after every time the scene fully finishes.

* ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' plays one to accompany a character's "shocked" reaction. Like when Blathers accepts a bug donation from you or when you knock down a wasp hive and are about to get stung in about five seconds.

* Creator/MelBrooks' ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'' has fun with this trope as a horror movie convention, using a horse's neigh as a scare chord every time the name "Frau Blucher" is mentioned. Finally, the hunchbacked assistant (Marty Feldman) starts saying the name just to set off the horses.

* The original ''VideoGame/PoliceQuest'' had a "dun dun da dun" stinger when something bad was about to happen, which would sometimes mean Sonny being killed ("bang bang", :dies:). ''Open Season'' played a PsychoStrings and piano scare chord when you found the dead body in the dumpster, and for other disturbing scenes (eg, the severed head in the refrigerator).

** WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit'' puts a {{lampshade}} (... windowshade?) over his in a scene where thunder and lightning clashes whenever the characters say the word, "BULLET!" Annoyed, Lord Victor slams down the nearby windowshade, which stops the entire effect.

* Music/DirEnGrey has "Obscure", which opens with a fairly audible ambient section, but very suddenly transitions into the song's incredibly brutal main riff, then transitions ''again'' into a discordant wall of drum blasting and grinding guitar noises. [[SerialEscalation That's just the intro]], and that's just one song...in fact, they have made Scare Chords an essential component of their musical style.
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpuA_CQU_i4‎ Kyoukotsu No Nari]]" is arguably one of the worst offenders.

* [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke Mewtwo]] and [[OlympusMons Arceus]] both have pretty unnerving cries in the otherwise ([[ParentalBonus fairly]]) innocent ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' games. Arceus compounds this by having a musical theme consisting almost entirely of drums and shrill trumpets.

* In ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', shortly after the reveal that [[spoiler:"Judge Doom" is a toon, his voice builds higher in pitch until his eyes turn into daggers and pop out]] and the soundtrack jolts. As if it wasn't scary enough already...

* Parodied in ''VideoGame/SpookysHouseOfJumpScares''. The jump scares of the title are actually cardboard cutouts of spiders, ghosts, skeletons and other monsters done in a cutesy style. Some sounds that accompany their appearances do qualify for this trope, while others are not scary at all.

* Parodied in the ''WebVideo/JoueurDuGrenier'''s Nightmare Circus video, where the scare chord is provided by Fred screeching away on a violin on-camera (see the page image).

*** Or you find a bear tiptoeing in to steal your honey.
* There's another one that plays in ''VideoGame/Sims2'' when your sim turns into a plantsim.

** * Violin screech* (+ 30 Adrenaline) "Cool!"

* Venetian Snares' "Szamár Madár" has quite the horrifying number of scare chords at the beginning of their piece. This troper guarantees you'll jump at least once if you listen to it in a dark room in complete silence. Can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivxt2Pt4AI8 HERE]]

* The first episode of ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' ended with the Vogon commander threatening Arthur and Ford with either being ThrownOutTheAirlock or ''(dramatic chord)'' [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment having to appreciate his poetry]]. This sequence was repeated at the beginning of the second episode, where the sound cue in the script read "DRAMATIC CHORD ([[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail SHRUBBERY]])." The actual chord used in the recording of the first episode is a snippet of Ligeti's ''Volumina'', an organ piece which amounts to a lengthy discordant scare chord.

* Let's get this out of the way first: [[FinishHim FINISH]] [[FinishingMove HIM!]] '''[[Franchise/MortalKombat DAH-DAH-DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!]]''' (Or "DU-DU-DUNNNNNNN!" post-[=UMK3=])

* Minecraft's cave noises have this in spades! You're walking around in a dark cave, when suddenly, [[HellIsThatNoise "WHOOOOooooooooooo!"]]

* ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeed: Most Wanted'' and ''Carbon'' play a Scare Chord to a camera pan every time you're spotted by a squad car.
** Sort of happens in ''NFS II'' and ''III'' with the VariableMix music when crashing your car before resuming the previous section of music it was playing.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek: Elite Force 2'' is riddled with these, every time an enemy comes at you, or you die by, well, anything.

** ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon 2''. had [[spoiler:the dimensional scream]]. The first you get it, you hear a high-pitched noise as you pass out. If that wasn't scary enough, the 'H-H-Help!' that accompanied it made it so.

* There's another one that plays in Sims 2 when your sim turns into a plantsim.

* ''VideoGame/MetroLastLight'', continuing the ''[[{{VideoGame/Metro2033}} Metro]]'' series, adds a few more for the newer mutants.

* ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}''
** Also, the loud, sudden two notes that signal that Raz is about to be nabbed by the Hand of Galochio. [[SuperDrowningSkills Yep, that water is too deep for you to touch.]]
* ''Mario Kart'': The infamous whizzing sound of a Blue Shell. ''Especially'' if you're in first place. In some games, there's even a warning siren blaring as the Blue Shell gets closer and closer until it explodes. In that case, the siren stops.

* ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' has one remarkably startling scare chord: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=42--BkUGHcI "Whoops!"]] which plays when you are attacked by the zombies in the Threed hotel and immediately upon eating the Magic Cake. There are some fairly less frightening (but still shocking nonetheless) chords, namely [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbHnLIlJdkA "Whoa!"]] when something unexpected occurs in a cutscene (Pokey entering your house at the beginning of the game, Paula being kidnapped by the Dept. Store Spook, etc.) and the one you hear when an enemy touches you from behind and triggers the red swirl.

* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' does [[http://images.wikia.com/freddy-fazbears-pizza/images/d/d6/Windowscare.ogg this]] to you when you click on the light to find an animatronic lurking in the doorway, and unleashes this [[http://images.wikia.com/freddy-fazbears-pizza/images/a/a7/XSCREAM.ogg God awful sound]] when you're jumped by one of them. It could have been called ''"[[JumpScare Jump Scare:]] TheGame"''

* Probably the most famous scare chord in Western cartoon history isn't even 20 years old! Dick Walter composed a 6-second-long, three-note jingle for ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' and it's been used [[StockSoundEffects EVERYWHERE]].

** Not to mention the original ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' sound novels, where these techniques are used QUITE liberally. The first one happens when [[spoiler:the victims of the first twilight are found in the garden shed, their face smashed]]. Thou shalt shit your pants.

** Also noteworthy is that the original novels of the When They Cry novels have almost perfected the act of causing the same effect as the Scare Chord without using music at all just by suddenly shutting off all sounds. This effect is quite nervewracking since it can come out of nowhere and it is always a sign that something very bad will happen.

* In the first ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'' movie, the moment Shiki opens her GlowingEyesOfDoom and initiates a CurbStompBattle against a group of [[StringyHairedGhostGirl ghosts]] is accompanied by a Scare Chord, which quickly changes to [[ThemeMusicPowerUp Shiki's recurring theme]].

* ''WesternAnimation/AngelaAnaconda'': the episode "I'm With Stupid" ends on a final shot of Mr Mooey, the ventriloquist dummy that Angela has just thrown in the garbage. The episode seemingly prepares to end with the usual upbeat lead-out music, only for sudden chord to replace the final note as Mooey's eyes bolt open.

** Another scare chord plays after [[Recap/RenAndStimpy2x07SonOfStimpy something comes out of Stimpy's BUTT]], [[DudeNotFunny makes a sound...]][[DeconstructiveParody and smells funny!]]

-->-- ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', riffing ''Film/TheKillerShrews''

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'': The Prowler has an almost-demonic sounding chord that follows nearly ''every move'' he makes, with part of it made from an elephant's trumpet.