Creepy Circus Music

"...she suddenly heard unexpected music. It filled the night air as if it had been only waiting for Meggie's footsteps: strange music, a carnival mixture of bells, pipes and drums, both boisterous and sad. Meggie wouldn't have been surprised to find a whole troupe of fairground entertainers waiting for her..."

— Inkheart

There's something about circus music.

Done straight, it lets everyone within earshot know that they are in a world of fun for children of all ages! However, unless you're in an actual circus, then you are more likely to hear this kind of music slowed way down and played in a minor key. The effect is haunting, scary and maybe even sad and nostalgic. Often it will sound as if it's being played on an old, rusty calliope with wheezing pipes and unsteady pressure regulation, leading to out-of-tune notes.

To make it even scarier, it's often Source Music in an Abandoned Area to indicate that the area is not so abandoned as the characters thoughts – and if a circus, which is well accustomed to packing up and moving, had to leave everything behind...well, whatever's inhabiting this place now is something to run away from very quickly.

Definitely "Music To Run Away From Really Fast", if ever there was such a thing, as it usually means that there's a Monster Clown somewhere waiting to eat you. Or the circus is haunted. Or both. The other main use of this is as a cue that a character is losing their mind.

Instruments you might hear in this type of music include a pipe organ or calliope, a music box, and, less commonly, bells or a children's choir.

Please note: This trope is about circus music that is intended to be creepy. Some instances of circus music might come across as Accidental Nightmare Fuel, but you should use your judgment to figure out if the context in which the music plays is intentionally creepy or not. If it is not intended to be creepy, it most likely belongs on Happy Circus Music.

Compare Ironic Nursery Tune, Creepy Jazz Music, Sinister Whistling and Soundtrack Dissonance. See also Circus of Fear and Amusement Park of Doom. May overlap with Circus Synths, in which case it also fits Freaky Electronic Music. Contrast Happy Circus Music.

Fun fact: The "standard" circus theme is called "Entry of the Gladiators" and was composed as a military march. (History does not record whether the soldiers were intended to emerge from a tiny little car.) Because the song is so recognizable, it is common to hear the familiar 10-note melody in creepy circus music.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Gyo: Towards the end of the story, the main character stumbles into a Circus of Fear where the insane ringmaster is directing a show performed by infected people and animals. There's also an orchestra of infected monster clowns that play an eerie tune, and the ringmaster points out that they aren't playing the instruments, but only blowing the virus gas into them which comes out as otherworldly music on its own. The ringmaster believes it's a "march from another world", that the gas is sentient and is communicating and directing all the infected circus artists, since they move along with its rhythm. Sadly the OVA downplays this scene a lot and the creepy circus music is rather bland.
• A creepy little number called "Yuuenchi" plays in the Cowboy Bebop episode "Pierrot le Fou" when Spike Spiegel battles Mad Pierrot at his abandoned amusement park.
• In Dragon Ball Z, several of Majin Buu's themes in the Funimation score have circus motifs, which totally fits the childishly deranged and pretty unsettlingly nature of the Manchild Humanoid Abomination.
• The ending credits to Paranoia Agent.
• The recurring number "Dream" from Mysterious Girlfriend X is definitely inspired by this.
• This track from the soundtrack of Paprika.
• Chargeman Ken!: "Waves of the Danube" in the Circus Episode is played in a minor key, and has a very melancholic tone. This turns out to be fitting, because the circus is a trap to kill Ken.

Fan Works

• In Calvin & Hobbes: The Series, a Haunted House's Hall of Mirrors play this.
• the basement of the abandoned Sunny Days Foster Care in Starlight Over Detrot has this playing from seemingly everywhere.
• The vocaloid fanfic Rotting Camellias has this playing in its Circus of Fear.
• A fan fiction/song based on Friendship is Magic, "Carnival Cat vs. Ponyville", has this aesthetic going for it the entire time.

Films — Animation

• Invoked in Animal Farm (1954). When the animals are exploring Mr. Jones' house, Benjamin accidentally starts up a record player that plays a loud, orchestral version of "Entry of the Gladiators." Benjamin is so frightened by the music that he kicks the record player with his donkey hooves, destroying it. Being a farm animal, Benjamin probably doesn't understand the concept of "circus music," but the music itself still sounded loud and hyperactive enough to scare him.
• Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night: The infamous Nightmare Fuel scene in which Puppetino transforms Pinocchio back into a wooden marionette by playing a sinister, chaotic carnival music with a cursed organ grinder.
• Batman: The Killing Joke: "I Go Looney," the Joker's written Villain Song from the original graphic novel about succumbing to madness in times of stress, is imagined here as a deranged carnival-ish tune, with a bit of a vaudeville showtune aesthetic as well. This is quite fitting for a Monster Clown singing about insanity to a man being forced through a carnival dark ride.
• Coraline has an excellently creepy scene with the Other Kangaroo Rats. Bonus points for occurring in an actual circus of sorts.
• Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker uses an offscreen music box to similar effect. We are talking about the perversion of a home created by two Monster Clowns after all.
• "You're Only Second Rate", the Villain Song from Aladdin: The Return of Jafar, is a swingy Broadway-style song that contains some elements of this. For example, circus-themed imagery is used throughout the song, and when Jafar sings the line "You think your cat's a meanie, but your tiger's tame", you can hear the melody of "Entry of the Gladiators" in the background.
• "Jester" from Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return is a creepy circus song befitting the Villainous Harlequin who sings it.
• The first part of "Pink Elephants on Parade" from Dumbo is a circus march played in a minor key, and made even more frightening by the surrealism of the scene. When the singing starts ("Look out! Look out! Pink elephants on parade!") the brass and xylophone are replaced by a circus-esque organ.
• The Lion King (1994): The hyena theme sounds like a carnival of horrors that goes berserk after some time, fitting for such a group of deranged and clownish characters.
• The Nightmare Before Christmas has some pretty intense carnival-esque music as Oogie Boogie sics his casino-themed deathtraps on Jack.

Films — Live-Action

• The theme to Child's Play 2 has this.
• The theme music from The Elephant Man, especially the unused Belgian Circus track.
• Batman (1989): "Waltz to the Death", by Danny Elfman, is The Joker's Leitmotif. The theme actually sounds more like something from the 19th century (think Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite), but it's played on rather loud horns that remind one of a circus band; and while it's not very creepy in itself, the two scenes during which it's played certainly are (the Joker gleefully shooting a man several times and the Joker forcing the film's Damsel in Distress to dance with him - at gunpoint - atop Gotham City's cathedral).
• Batman Returns: Given the presence of the Red Triangle Gang, a malevolent group of criminals that were formerly a children-stealing Circus of Fear, Elfman has implemented a creepy circus vibe and ominous organ grinder music whenever they appear, as observable in "Shadow Of Doom/Clown Attack", "Lair (Part 1)" and "The Rise And Fall From Grace (Part 1)".
• "Carnival From Hell", another Danny Elfman piece for Sam Raimi's Darkman starts off like normal carnival music, but an underlying note of tension keeps building up until it takes over turning the music into a tune of pure chaos and menace when the protagonist loses his patience with a carnival worker who doesn't want to give him a game prize. While the pay off is played for laughs, this track remains eerie to listen to.
• The unused track "Circus Delire" for Delicatessen.
• There's a creepy calliope ditty called "To The Shock of Miss Louise" in The Lost Boys.
• The Carousel Trap music in Saw VI.
• The title theme to Puppet Master movies sounds like it's played on a well-meaning but thoroughly evil music box.
• In The Company of Wolves this track begins to take the form of scary circus music as unsettling Soundtrack Dissonance while the Asshole Victims at the wedding party freakishly turn into wolves.
• The Green Goblin's theme from Spider-Man, especially during his first appearance at the parade has a very unsettlingly and menacing jaunty carnival tune to it. Given the theme is done by the aforementioned Danny Elfman and the Goblin is often considered Marvel's answer to the Joker, it's very fitting. For Goblin's return in Spider-Man: No Way Home, the creepy circus allusions in his theme music is even more overt and when played during Norman's attack on young Spidey and Aunt May — all complete with Evil Laugh, it's scary as hell.
• Opening theme to The Funhouse.
• The "Nenia Suspence" (meaning "suspenseful dirge") track, used as the leitmotif of the creepy clown doll from La Casa 3, a dim carnival music with an eerie voice (presumably the clown's) that keeps repeating "burial" played in reverse.
• Unsurprisingly, the 2012 film The Devil's Carnival is loaded with this. Bonus points for the film taking place in Hell.
• The Haunting (1999) features a rotating, mirrored room which played a sprightly circus-type song composed by veteran horror composer Jerry Goldsmith. While this was justified in-story by Hugh Crain having built and designed his mansion for children to play in, a review of the movie said it best (in paraphrase): "No horror movie can be complete without creepy circus music." As if the original tune isn't unsettling enough, Eleanor later visits the room in the middle of the night while having her requisite freak-out, and the imbalanced spinning she suffers is augmented by a very deep, discordant bass line running in counterpoint to the calliope.
• Logan's Run uses something quite similar to this in the carousel sequences. Not exactly creepy circus music, but definitely demented circus music.
• Both adaptations of Stephen King's IT have multiple takes:
  • The 1990 miniseries has "Georgie Dies" which is straight-up creepy circus music in the first part, whereas Pennywise's leitmotif "Circus Source" is used more as Soundtrack Dissonance, but even a happy carnival tune just feels creepy because of the association.
  • In the 2017 movie, Pennywise dances to a deranged, distorted circus music in front of Bev when she awakens in his lair, while Chapter 2 has "Dirty Little Secret" in which Pennywise sings to Richie while an eerie circus waltz is heard.
• The Band's eponymous theme to The Last Waltz is a calliope-accompanied funhouse tune in, yep, waltz time. Instead of creepy, though, the effect is wistful and elegiac. And mighty damned pretty!
• In A Streetcar Named Desire the Varsouvania Polka is an example of this, showing up every time Blanche loses her mind a little more.
• The opening credits theme for Eyes Without a Face sounds like a demented circus tune.
• The title theme of Killer Klowns from Outer Space features the abovementioned "Entry of the Gladiators" as a metal guitar riff, to match with the tongue-in-cheek evil circus theme of the titular creatures.
  • The tracks "The Inevitable (Pt. 1)" and "Klownfrontation" fit the bill as genuine creepy circus music.
• Apocalypse Now has a calliope theme as the background music of Do Lung Bridge, the "ass hole of the world." Unusually for this trope, there's no actual circus in the movie (although the carnival-like lights of the bridge invoke that visual). Instead, the music is used to imply that the residents here have gotten out of the proverbial boat and treat the warzone like a carnival game.

Literature

• Featured intermittently in Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes.
• An early hint that something really weird is going on in Full Tilt is "the sound of calliope music and screams."
• In Stephen King's IT, during his encounter with Pennywise at Derry's Standpipe, Stan Uris hears "Camptown Races" coming up from the dark staircase of the building. This is how it probably sounded like...

Live-Action TV

• Shows up in a few Are You Afraid of the Dark? episodes. Namely in "The Tale of Laughing in the Dark" and "The Tale of the Dark Music."
• Sesame Street: The "Mechanical Technology" segment, which includes several horrifying close-ups of dolls with lifeless eyes, is set to Janko Nilovic's "Portrait d'un robot".
• Doctor Who uses this to great effect in the Seventh Doctor story "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy". It's just similar enough to some well-known circus tunes to be off-putting, seems to come from nowhere inside the circus tent, plays during some of the most surreal and creepy scenes in the story, is used to drown out a young woman's screams, and is just catchy enough to stay in your head...
• American Horror Story: Freak Show, which takes place at a circus, uses a variation of the standard AHS opening theme that fits this trope to a T. Just listen.
• A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017):
  • In one scene of "The Wide Window: Part 2", the Baudelaires, Mr. Poe, and a disguised Count Olaf are heading to a Kitschy Themed Restaurant called "The Anxious Clown" so Olaf can trick Poe into handing the children into his care over brunch. As they drive to the restaurant, the camera lingers on a sign advertising it, with a picture of a Sad Clown, as creepy circus music plays in the background.
  • Naturally, this type of music is prominent in "The Carnivorous Carnival", especially when Olaf, posing as the ringmaster of Caligari Carnival, sings a song during the freaks' performance.
• Shows up in several Tales from the Crypt episodes, namely "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone", "Lower Berth", "Strung Along" and "Food For Thought".

Music

• Older Than Television: "Alabama Song" from The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, first performed in 1930. A wasted flapper and a derelict-looking man in a rumpled suit joylessly chant the nihilistic lyrics as they ride in the back of a clunky old pickup truck - and the discordant musical accompaniment is effectively sinister and disreputable in sound, describable only as "circus music being played in a junkyard." When they covered it on their debut album in 1967, The Doors played up the creepy angle in the arrangement, featuring Ray Manzarek playing both staccato organ notes and a Marxophone, an old zither connected to bouncing hammers that produces a jittery, chimey sound.
• The first two Mr. Bungle albums are chock full of horrifying moments of off-key, sinister circus music, played on keyboards tuned to sound like a calliope or pipe organ. Their first album even features a Monster Clown on the cover.
• "Come See the Meatboy" by Calibretto.
• Vocaloid:
  • "Dark Woods Circus" by Machigherita
  • "Circus Monster" by Luka, which features the slowed-down variety. The song itself is actually rather sad, and the circus music adds to that effect. The tune in question sounds more sad then creepy.
• "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!" by The Beatles. Cirque du Soleil's LOVE takes this to its logical conclusion by making this song the centerpiece of a Circus of Fear, representing the controversies the group triggered in both the U.K. and the U.S. after Beatlemania's initial wave. As the scene climaxes, the music becomes a sinister combination of "Helter Skelter" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)".
• Creature Feature's "The Greatest Show Unearthed"
• Unsurprisingly featured in Melanie Martinez's "Carousel".
• When Tom Waits isn't doing Creepy Blues, Creepy Bluegrass, or Creepy Jazz, it's usually this. Especially once he gets ahold of that calliope-organ of his. His Concept Album The Black Rider contains a lot of it, including an old carnival tune "sung" by William S. Burroughs.
• Experiment 16 by Mentally Detached
• Arc Attack's aptly-titled "Creepy Circus Song" (complete with creepy children laughing)
• The Dark Cabaret act "Circus Contraption" is, yet again, made of this trope.
• The Tiger Lillies use this trope quite often.
• "Lions Roar" by The Hush Sound is a great example.
• ''The Carny of Mr. Dark'' by Deathwatch Beetle Repairman.
• Pink Floyd's "Poles Apart" contains a brief segment composed of this.
• Many Years Ago by Alice Cooper.
• Nox Arcana's Carnival of Lost Souls is a whole album of this stuff! For example, see Hall of Mirrors, in which a creepy organ waltz is backed up by the sounds of maniacal laughter.
• The Eels song Trouble with Dreams. "Flyswatter" also has a similar feel to it - both have verse sections that juxtapose a creepy minor key toy piano riff with surprisingly aggressive drumming.
• The Barenaked Ladies' track "Tonight is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel" has some major clown-vibes, used to create a sense of eerie detachment from the events of the song. It's a different kind of creepy from the classic monster clown effect.
• David Bowie's "After All" (from 1:56 - 2:18).
• "Put A Straw Under Baby" by Brian Eno.
• "Spinning In Daffodils" by Them Crooked Vultures has a very dark circus riff.
• On "Random 2", a Gary Numan tribute album, somebody uses this to remake "Down in the Park". You know, that song about a combination jail/extermination camp that's also been covered by Marilyn Manson.
• Nightwish's song Scaretale certainly counts, at least from about 4:10 onwards, while also appearing to homage Grim Grinning Ghosts.
• The "Big Top" section of King Crimson's "Lizard" suite could qualify, closing the piece (and the album) with the sound of a circus riff slowly spinning out of control.
• Nine Inch Nails - "Pilgrimage"
• "Psycho Circus" by KISS opens with some very creepy circus music playing.
• Bruce Springsteen has a little calliope figure at the beginning and end of "Magic" and some faint hurdy-gurdy in the bridge... while Bruce wanders through a Crappy Carnival. According to the Boss, people who think it's about the the Bush Administration are mostly correct.
• Miracle of Sound:
  • The tune of Joker's Song is built on a carnival/circus theme, befitting the Monster Clown that's singing it.
  • His song "Call of Duty Circus" also uses this trope.
• Diablo Swing Orchestra has dabbled in this a couple times, as well as pretty much everything else.
• Alice Cooper's The Last Temptation features this type of music in the outro of it's first track, "Sideshow" complete with a creepy carnival barker.
• Both Leo Sayer's and Three Dog Night's version "The Show Must Go On" features this prominently, although Three Dog Night's version features much slower circus music that flows with the rest of the song.
• No Doubt's song Tragic Kingdom has a prominent carnival sound that gets faster and more chaotic by the end, until it explodes into a Big Rock Ending.
• Brian Wilson/the Beach Boy's SMiLE has a linking piece between "Wind Chimes" and the ominous "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" with a creepy circus-y calliope.
• YouTube composers Derek & Brandon Fiechter have a whole series of this type of music, and most of the songs are even labelled word-for-word as "Creepy Circus Music". Look here. However, they also wrote a song called "Circus Performers", a joyful song that completely averts this trope and is instead labelled as simply "Circus Music". It's still placed in their "Halloween Music" playlist, though, probably to keep it together with the creepy circus music.
• Bensound.com offers up Exactly What It Says on the Tin with the royalty free track Creepy.
• Dot's Calliope EP is full of this, particularly the tracks "Calliope" and "Freakshow".
• Kevin Macleod has written a few songs in this style, such as his "Tenebrous Brothers Carnival" series, and "Waltz of the Carnies".
• Zomboy's song Organ Donor blends this with Dubstep and Speed Metal via an overclocked caliope, best described as ideal music for fighting your way out of a Circus of Fear. (the boss Monster Clown shows up at 2:31.)
• SiIvaGunner: "Mad Jack Battle (Beta Mix)" combines the frantic brass and strings of Mad Jack's battle theme with the equally frantic melody of "The World Revolving." Mad Jack's creepy laugh is heard multiple times throughout the video to add to the effect.
• "Sadly Go Around" by Bruno Alexiu is an eerie piece with an undercurrent of fast notes on a calliope and a music box melody. The song's title is an ironic twist on "merry-go-round."
• The Cog Is Dead has "The Circus of Clowns," a song about a Circus of Fear containing several Monster Clowns. The tune prominently features a creepy music box melody and a swingy chorus.
• Eminem's Subverted Kids' Show Signature Style involves elements of this, especially on The Eminem Show, Relapse and Music To Be Murdered By.
• Unsurprisngly, "Carnival" by Rachel Rose Mitchell makes heavy use of this.
• Five Finger Death Punch's "Welcome to the Circus" uses the off-key, creepy circus music at the beginning, during the bridge, and at the end.
• The album Free to Be… You and Me uses this in the song "Girl Land," about the closing of the titular amusement park where "good little girls" pick up after the boys and are forbidden to climb trees, a thinly-veiled metaphor for tradition gender roles. It turns sinister when the ringmaster announces that "You go in a girl, and you never get out! It's revealed in the last verse that Girl Land will be replaced by a park where "You'll do what you like/And you'll be who you are."
• Project Pitchfork have a Bread and Circuses-themed song with a Circus Synths main riff appropriately titled "The Circus".
• The Human League's "Circus of Death".

Podcasts

• Creepy Circus Music serves as the Leitmotif of The Thrilling Adventure Hour villain Nightmares the Clown whenever he appears. It's immediately followed by Sadie Doyle delightedly shouting "Clown!"

Pro Wrestling

• Doink the Clown's entrance theme as a heel was a low-pitched rendition of "Entry of the Gladiators" overlaid with Evil Laughter.

Theater

• Alban Berg's Wozzeck — always a great source for horror music tropes — gestures towards this pretty strongly with the military parade music.
• Assassins opens with a corny circus waltz arrangement of "Hail to the Chief" as the curtain rises on a shooting gallery of American presidents.
• As mentioned under Film-Live Action, A Streetcar Named Desire features a Varsouviana Polka that plays whenever Blanche reminisces about her late husband, Allen Grey; it's a sign that her mind is gradually slipping. We eventually find out why: The two were dancing to the Varsouviana when Blanche, in a fit of rage, told Allen that she'd seen him in bed with a man earlier that day. Allen was so ashamed and terrified of his true sexuality being revealed that he ran out and shot himself. Blanche blames herself for his death, which was the catalyst to her own mental breakdown, and so the Varsouviana Polka has run endlessly through her head ever since.

Video Games

• This type of music can be heard in Bendy and the Ink Machine Chapter 4, when Henry is fighting Bertrum Piedmont.
• The Creepy Docks music in BioShock.
• BioShock Infinite also features an apparently-cheerful calliope tune that plays while Booker and Elizabeth are at Battleship Bay. The problem? Listening closely reveals it's an instrumental version of Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," originally released in 1979 and made famous with Lauper's 1983 version...and the game takes place in 1912. It's one of the clues that the "tears" in time-space caused by the quantum particles which suspend the city of Columbia in the air are actually windows into years ahead, and that there are forces working to rewrite the past by stealing from the future.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Super Mario 64: "Merry Go Round" would sound happy under normal circumstances, but it's downright disturbing when heard in the lower levels of the Big Boo's Haunt level.
  • Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon: The music used in the level "Ambush Maneuver" is a creepy calliope waltz befitting the toy train set where the level takes place.
  • Super Paper Mario uses this type of music in association with the sinister Magical Clown Dimentio:
    • Dimentio, Charming Magician is Dimentio's leitmotif, which combines a sort of swanky, circus/magic show tune with a feeling of power and dread.
    • "It's Showtime," Dimentio's Boss Remix, starts out with chaotic fast notes, creating a feeling of overwhelming power. However, the more "magical" elements from "Dimentio, Charming Magician" slowly come in, and this trope comes into full effect later (0:47 in the linked video), as the song switches to a dark waltz-like reprise of "Dimentio, Charming Magician"'s main melody.
  • In Super Mario Kart, the "Ranked Out" jingle is a dark version of the first 10 notes from "Entry of the Gladiators".
• The music in Chortlebot Challenge in Wario Land: Shake It!.
• The main menu music of Psychonauts and the final level, The Meat Circus.
• Although it isn't your standard circus tune, the creepy theme from the Banjo-Tooie level Witchyworld fits the mold.
• Batman: Arkham Series unsurprisingly most of Joker's themes are creepy circus tunes inspired by the Danny Elfman and Shirley Walker scores, Scarecrow's theme in Batman: Arkham Asylum has demented carnival music as well.
• Epic Mickey:
  • The Clock Tower's theme in the first game is a very dark version of "It's a Small World".
  • The music that is emitted from the run down floats in Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two's Floatyard, creatively named "Floats" in the soundtrack, definitely fits this trope, though the area itself is on par with Mickeyjunk Mountain for being both Down in the Dumps and creepily nostalgic.
• Killing Floor has a circus-themed map dubbed "Abusement Park", with slowed-down or creepified renditions of "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze", "The Entertainer", and "Entry of the Gladiators" to accompany the survival horror.
• Blood (1997) uses this sort of music, titled Dark Carnival on the soundtrack, for its circus levels. The sounds of barkers and children throughout make it even creepier.
• Trevor hears a distorted version of this in Grand Theft Auto V during the "Grass Roots" mission after smoking a joint and hallucinating a wave of Monster Clowns.
• From Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, the Circus Park night theme, Odd March— which itself is a remix of "Child's Song", the Speed Slider boss theme from Knuckles Chaotix. Both songs were created by Mariko Nanba, who also composed the "Circus Park" theme from Shadow the Hedgehog.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • In addition to the aforementioned "Child's Song", the series also has Mystic Cave Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Carnival Night Zone from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, which both also use the prototypical circus music "Entrance of the Gladiators". Doesn't sound so creepy, until you get to that Guide Dang It! part in Carnival Night where many players were trapped until they Game-Overed.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 4 uses a circus-esque theme for its boss music. It's not exactly creepy, but it certainly sounds deranged.
  • Shadow the Hedgehog uses an upbeat variation of this theme for Circus Park.
• Final Fantasy:
  • More or less played straight with Calobrena's intro theme in Final Fantasy IV.
  • In Final Fantasy VI, Kefka's theme, a sorta circus/militaristic march mix, actually averts this trope. Instead, the creepiness comes in when you see what Kefka gleefully will do while his theme is playing... Suffice to say, you will come to associate Kefka's theme with very, very bad things. No surprise, then, that his theme is present throughout the entirety of the final boss theme "Dancing Mad," particularly the fourth movement.
• The Big Bad's Leitmotif in Ace Attorney Investigations 2.
• The Circus of Fear level in TimeSplitters 2 features an appropriately worrying circus theme.
• The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask:
  • There is a music box house in Ikana Valley which constantly plays circus music to keep away the undead... successfully. This song is similar to the one in Super Mario 64.
  • Another possible example is the Song of Storms.
• Castlevania:
  • "Waltz of the Lazy Chair" from Castlevania: Curse of Darkness could be seen as an example.
  • Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin has two circus levels with creepy music.
• Silent Hill has its own amusement park with creepy carnival music, which is revisited in Silent Hill 3.
• The "Puzzles" room in Shivers (1995) has its own horrific music.
• The Makin' Magic expansion pack for The Sims has circus music as its musical theme, and it's also the spookiest expansion pack, though only at Defanged Horrors level.
• Gore's theme, "Madness Visitor" from Gore Screaming Show is this. Makes sense, considering what he is.
• One of the trainer encounter themes from Pokémon Gold and Silver; its version from the remakes HeartGold and SoulSilver sounds less circuslike though.
• Batman Doom: The "Scarecrow" track, which plays on the "House of Fear" level set in a haunted house attraction.
• The Kingdom Of Endless Dreams from Deathsmiles IIX. It's the Extra Field theme, the most terrifying Christmas carnival ever.
• Left 4 Dead 2's Dark Carnival campaign is set almost entirely in a carnival, and the overlying style of the music matches it accordingly.
  • Peanut Gallery Music while not exactly "creepy" It's just kinda weird.
  • When powering up a Merry-Go-Round (and alerting a horde of zombies) to get through to the other side of the carousel, the song that it starts playing is stereotypical creepy carnival music that's very slow-paced and ominous-sounding. Makes you question how well it did back when the carnival was still actually in operation.
• Team Fortress 2 has "Misfortune Teller", used in main menu startup music for the Scream Fortress 2014 update.
• Averted throughout the "Carny" stage of House of the Dead: OVERKILL, which instead uses the fun rockabilly number "One Night in Bayou". We do get a properly demented, carnival-flavored track during the boss fight, though.
• The Sims has circus music making up about half the soundtrack of the Makin' Magic expansion pack, which is the most spooky/gothic expansion and, as the title indicates, has a supernatural theme.
• Warcraft:
  • In the 5.x release time frame, World of Warcraft added a carousel to the Darkmoon Faire. The happy little circus tune that plays while you're riding it is eerily reminiscent of something Danny Elfman would write.
  • Then comes the trailer song for Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft about the same place...
• Little Clown's battle music in Mr. Nutz.
• Kirby:
  • Kirby Super Star: Marx's battle theme is a chaotic and frantic tune that keeps jumping between time signatures, played on circus-esque strings and brass. Fitting for such an evil and twisted jester.
  • Reflected Laughter from Kirby: Triple Deluxe, which plays in the Circus of Fear level. As if that wasn't scary enough, it is used again in the haunted mansion level.
  • It's back in Kirby and the Rainbow Curse
  • Necrodeus' Theme from Kirby Mass Attack also qualifies.
• Klonoa:
  • Facade & Blade, Joka's battle theme from Door To Phantomile starts out with this type of music, but quickly switches to dark, techno-ish music. This is symbolic of Joka going from being incompetent and buffoonish to being a full-fledged Monster Clown.
  • The boss theme for Leptio the Flower Clown from Lunatea's Veil also qualifies.
  • Creepy Circus Music plays in Empire of Dreams in the cutscene before each boss battle, except for the Final Boss.
• CarnEvil contains quite a bit of this, although this is to be expected, considering the game's setting. Some good examples include Select Your Doom and Ludwig von Tökkentäkker's Big Top.
• In the beginning of the arcade game Ninja Clowns, there is a shot of the main character standing on a building at night, surveying the city just like Batman. During this shot, the background music is a slow, eerie version of "Entry of the Gladiators"
• Considering that the main character is a circus performer and the Big Bad is a Monster Clown, it should come across as no surprise that Aero the Acro-Bat contains some examples of this. For example, see Circus 2 and the boss theme (the latter of which is a creepy-circus-themed remix of the classical tune "Flight of the Bumblebee".)
• Big Top Bop, the first boss theme from Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is an epic metal song that uses some very circusy sounding instruments in some parts. Although the effect is more empowering than creepy, it's still played in a minor key.
• Mary's Leitmotif in Ib is a sad-sounding waltz played on a music box, giving it this sound. One YouTube user made a remix that makes it sound even more like circus music.
• The Amusement Park of Doom level in Splatoon has some segments featuring circus music played as if it is was on a broken record.
• The entire soundtrack of Mystery Case Files: Madame Fate fits this trope.
• In Sam & Max Hit the Road, some of the carnival music has elements of this trope. Carnival of the Odd highlights how the carnival is a bit of a Crappy Carnival while still remaining somewhat pleasant, and Hall of Oddities sets the mood for the carnival's Freak Show.
• The Twisted Circus slot machine. The circus is less scary looking than you'd expect but the slowed down version of "Entry of the Gladiators" that plays throughout the game has a creepy sound.
• In Haunt the House: Terrortown, the Ghost Train level, which is basically a carnival on wheels, fittingly has creepy carnival music.
• The song "Coin-Op Bop" on Cuphead's soundtrack (the song was written for a minigame that was cut from the final game) is a fast-paced tune that sounds like it was played on a fairground organ. The song starts out cheerful, but eventually switches to a minor key, and then gets faster and much more frantic in tone.
• The mobile version of Fallen London has very distorted, very creepy circus music that plays in Mrs. Plenty's Carnival.
• Pac-Man World: The first game has a level called "Clown Prix" where you race some evil clowns. Fittingly, the level has some frantic, minor-key carnival music.
• Deltarune: An eerie waltz tune, simply titled "The Circus" plays during the buildup to the battle against Jevil, a twisted jester. His battle music itself is a frantic carnival-ish tune called "The World Revolving."
• Marble Madness has this in its third stage.
• Dead by Daylight plays suitably creepy music when you select the Clown as your killer in the main menu, to say nothing of the music that plays when he's chasing you.
• The Night of the Rabbit has "Zaroff's Show," a whimsical circus march tune that plays when Jerry finally meets the Great Zaroff, the only magician in the game who embraces the image of a Stage Magician, and also, being the Big Bad, the only evil magician.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage For The Future has "Death 13’s theme", that plays when you face the bonus boss Death Thirteen — a Monster Clown and Grim Reaper hybrid Stand — in an amusement park-like dream world. It's a whimsical but sinister and off-putting circus tune, that sounds almost like it's playing on a broken down Merry-Go-Round calliope.
• In The 7th Guest, stage magician Hamilton Temple has a circus organ leitmotif.
• Balan Wonderworld: Princess Marey, the boss of the Amusement Park-themed world, has a demented carnival waltz for her battle music.
• Scooby-Doo! First Frights: Naturally, can be heard throughout the Haunted Amusement Park in Episode 2.
• Mad Rat Dead: "Stilton," the song used for Stage 3-2: A Strange Full Moon, begins with this game's characteristic Electroswing but transitions into echoing calliope music in a minor key about halfway though. As it maintains a House Music beat, however, it is technically still Electroswing.
• In Captain Silver, the Pied Piper's leitmotif is a circus arrangement of Edvard Grieg's "In The Halls of the Mountain King".

Web Animation

• Bugbo: Circus organ waltz music plays when Bugbo and friends are looking around the underground circus in "Under the Oak." Although the music is in a major key, it falls under this category instead of Happy Circus Music due to the fact that the circus is dark, grimy, and run-down.
• Experiment 16 by ZekeySpaceyLizard

Webcomics

• Homestuck:
  • "Midnight Calliope," which is appropriate for a Monster Clown murderous Juggalo.
  • Harlequin, while a bit creepy, is the theme song for the nice Nannasprite.
  • The Carnival, a creepy-sounding remix of Harlequin that gets progressively faster and faster, is used in the 5x Showdown Combo page with great effect.

Web Original

• One of the case-files on the SCP Foundation website is SCP-823, an abandoned Amusement Park of Doom. One of the key indicators that bad things are about to go down is when creepy carnival music starts playing out of nowhere.
• Doctor Steel wrote some creepy themes for Heckles and Twitch's website.

Web Videos

• This rather disturbing parody of one of KFC's ads.
• In Brutalmoose's video on Bailey's Book House, Ian pokes fun at the "Three-Letter Carnival", which, when he actually goes there, just looks like an empty field with a bunch of objects laying around. He points out that even the music, which is a circus-esque waltz tune, sounds kind of sad, and jokingly names the song "It's Time to Die, Children."
• Call Me Kevin: Invoked and Played for Laughs in "How EVIL can you be in Bitlife?" Shortly after Kevin's character Eve Hill gets a job as a clown, he adopts a child and then promptly abandons them. Kevin hums "Entry of the Gladiators," the standard circus tune, while preparing to click the option to abandon the child.
• Candle Cove Calliope Music, allegedly what the music in Candle Cove sounded like. This is one of many songs in a series of songs that this person made in 2011 that get progressively darker and creepier as the year goes on. Some of his songs from later in the year feature a Dark Reprise of this song.

Western Animation

• In The Batman, Joker's Leitmotif is an eerie tune played on a distorted circusy-sounding organ. In some parts, it even sounds a bit like Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor!
• The Joker's theme from Batman: The Animated Series (written by Shirley Walker, longtime collaborator with Danny Elfman in the style of the Burton film), which was incorporated into several different music pieces that involved him. The Joker even whistles it to himself at one point.
• The theme from The Magic Roundabout has a certain haunting aspect, noted by Bill Bailey in one of his stand-up routines in which he "re-inserts" the "lost middle eight" which features Zebedee in a maniacal rant.
• Mighty Max: Shows up in the beginning of the "Clown Without Pity" episode.
• My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic:
  • The episode "Party of One" has snippets of ominous circus music playing during Pinkie Pie's titular party, when she starts talking to inanimate objects...and they start talking back. Yikes.
  • Discord has an especially sinister version of this trope as his leitmotif.
    • To top it all off, they sound almost exactly alike in places.
• The theme for the Courage the Cowardly Dog episode "The Great Fusilli" is a fine example.
• Gargamel's Ghoulliope, which shows up at Laconia and Woody's wedding in The Smurfs (1981) cartoon special "Smurfily Ever After".
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "Mime for a Change" makes great use of this when Rainbow the Clown loses his color and is turning all of Townsville grey and silent.
• The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police: In the episode "The Friend For Life", this type of music is heard multiple times. The first time it's heard is a scene where Sam and Max are at a creepy amusement park at night, standing in front of a funhouse. All of a sudden, the funhouse's lights turn on, the ride comes to life, and the ominous music begins playing.
• The Simpsons:
  • When young Bart is scared by Homer's accidental Monster Clown bed decoration, a sinister carnival dirge builds up until Bart imagines the bed coming to life to tell him: "If you should die before you wake... HHHEHEHHEHEHEHEEH!!!"
  • When their house is getting gassed for bugs with a big striped tent covering it. Nelson and his bully pals think it's a circus and sneak in - then stagger out slurring the standard circus theme music.
• Parodied in the Family Guy episode "Stewie Loves Lois", in which Peter, who thinks he's been raped by Dr. Hartman after simply being given a prostate exam, embellishes his recollection of the exam in question to include the doctor laughing in a pitched-down voice and riding a carousel with a calliope playing "Over The Waves" slowed down.
• The Adventures of Figaro Pho:
  • Used throughout the "Coulrophobia" episode, especially in scenes where the Monster Clown is pulling his cruel pranks.
  • In the episode "Myth or Pho", Figaro, dressed up as a monster, has been captured by a nature photographer who puts Figaro on display, like a circus attraction, while creepy circus music plays in the background.
• In League of Super Evil, this type of music serves as the Leitmotif for Chuckles, a deranged Robot Clown who tortures people on their birthdays. It sounds pretty unnerving with his high-pitched voice and constant laughter.
• The Wander over Yonder episode "The Heebie Jeebies" makes liberal use of spooky-sounding calliope music due to the Monster of the Week being a troupe of Phantom Mimes, and it livens the genre up with threatening and booming drumbeats during more intense moments.
• The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar: Invoked in "Tonight We Strike," the hyenas' Villain Song. It's set to a demented, bouncy brass tune, contains frequent laughter (including a few bits where they laugh along with the melody), and includes imagery such as the hyenas leaping through the air and running around in a circle^note And in a deleted alternate ending, stacked on top of each other in triangle formation with either spotlights or harsh, brightly colored lighting, invoking the image of a Circus of Fear as Janja sings about his plan to disrupt order in the Pridelands.

Real Life

• If you're at a circus show, you hear the band suddenly strike up "The Stars and Stripes Forever" and it's not the 4th of July, expect to be ushered outside as fast as possible. Circus tradition is that this music is played only in the event of a major life-threatening emergency during a show as a signal for the staff to begin evacuation procedures, and it's for this reason that it's nicknamed "The Disaster March". One of its most notable occurances was during the Hartford Circus Fire of July 6, 1944.

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