Nightmare Fuel / Vanity Plate

The ВИD death mask, a good reason why this logo is one of the big three scary logos in the community. Sleep tight, Russian kids!

You would think that the little logos at the end of TV shows and the start of movies and video games wouldn't have the potential to scare anyone. These examples prove otherwise.

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• When bringing up the topic of "Scary Logos" it is guaranteed that someone will bring up Viacom's 1976 logo, nicknamed the V of Doom. It is one of the most popular examples of a "scary" logo within the closing logo community, thanks to that giant V coming right at you along with the downright unnerving synth fanfare and ominous drumroll.
  • Variants of this logo are (unsurprisingly) much worse. The lack of color in the Black and White version gives the logo a much more gloomy and sinister vibe.
  • A warp speed version also exists. As if the original logo wasn't scary enough, we now have the V zooming in even faster with the music sped up.
  • There is also a "vinegar syndrome" variant that is just an eyesore to look at.
• The infamous Screen Gems logo from the 1960s, nicknamed the "S from Hell". The heavily synthesized music, composed by Eric Siday, and abstract shapes have scared quite a few people and can startle anyone who isn't prepared.
• THX, period. Its infamous logo sound effect, the "Deep Note," which to many young filmgoers and film viewers on VHS in the '80s and '90s, was very much a Brown Note. Sure, there are plenty of funny trailers (such as the ones starring Tex), but between those are some... scary ones for this sound system phenomenon.
  • Perhaps the most infamous one is the Broadway trailer. Especially the VHS version where the deep note is at an even higher pitch. It made children fear watching anything with the THX logo on the box (even if it a was harmless Disney film or an Epic Star Wars film). However, many people also enjoyed watching this (especially those who were fans of George Lucas' work).
  • Cimarron (at approximately 00:31) opens with a conductor flicking a baton, before opening a giant blue wormhole set to a noise that would break cinema speakers. Fortunately, the most widely available and remembered one uses a less harsh and different soundtrack by James Horner that debuted in the early 90s, the original audio track being lost media for years with how quickly it was pulled.
  • The Science of Sensation mostly due to the slow, dark atmosphere.
  • Cavalcade which depicts a blue ball exploding suddenly before forming the THX logo in a dark and stormy environment, with the THX logo being formed by the pieces of the blue ball being struck by lightning. It's especially creepy considering how the animation for the ball / THX logo seems to be inspired directly by the T-1000...in fact, it was originally produced as a tie-in for the film's Ultimate Edition DVD release.
  • Eclipse is a serious contender for the scariest THX trailer ever made. If the eerie space environment doesn't creep you out, the loudest version of the Deep Note most certainly will. It takes everything scary about the original Deep Note up to eleven. And if that wasn't enough, some variants are 45 seconds to even a minute long!
• Russian TV network ВИD (VID) has had some pretty creepy idents throughout its time.
  • The most infamous ident, used from 1990 to 2002, starts with a ball bouncing off a vibrating line. The ball zooms out far away from the screen, only for it to explode into a black background as a scary-looking mask fades in, accompanied by a fanfare of five loud and dramatic scare chords, ending with ominous synth whirring. The loud noises and especially the creepy-looking mask make this one of the most infamous logos in the community.
  • This one from 1994 to 1995 has a countdown from 3 to 0, with the number "0" morphing into a monochrome version of the mask while a more sinister version of the Scare Chords play.
  • The Oba-Na variant actually starts off pretty funny. But then you get to the part where the mask morphs into the head of Igor Ugolnikov, who says in an electronically distorted voice in Russian "VID, VID. Nothing is viewed from your view!".
• Boje Buck, which features a rabbit with a dead snake in its mouth, looking right at you with a "You're next" glance in its eyes.
• When the former UK satellite channel Bravo started becoming Darker and Edgier towards the end of The '90s, there was a campaign of bumpers that ran for a few months that were outright creepy. Not to mention the music in all of them. Here are some examples:
  • One features a man with pins on his head (a la Pinhead from the Hellraiser franchise) twitching while staring directly into the camera. They did another version in which the man speaks at the beginning, once again shaking his head around, but appearing right up close to the camera at some points.
  • Another shows a jar of pickled eyeballs, in which someone proceeds to take one out with a fork.
  • This one starts with a group of white rabbits hanging about, then a grenade falls, which promptly blows them up off-screen.
  • This one features an old lady getting her mugshot as the camera zooms in, allowing us to see her lovely Death Glare.
  • One features a girl licking a cheese grater (without her feeling any pain).
• Indian logos have a reputation for being eerie. These are no exceptions.
  • Ramsay Films. This logo is known to be infamous among the logo community for the off-putting statue^note "The Rape of Proserpina (Bernini)" and dark atmosphere, followed by an extremely loud roar that plays twice in the logo. The creepiness of this logo was likely intentional, as the company made horror films. It is recommended to turn down the volume before watching videos of this logo.
  • D.S Films. If the cheap animation doesn't bother you, the ear-piercing soundtrack definitely will.
  • Julibee Productions. Do you ever hear something that's depressing but also manages to creep you out? The synth theme in this logo is one of those things. The Christian Virgin Mary on an extremely dark background is chilling enough, but the theme is almost funeral-like. The trumpet theme near the end of the logo sounds like something you would hear in a 1960s horror movie.
  • Murghan Enterprise. The fire behind the statue makes it look like you're descending into hell, and the music sounds like it came from the deepest fiery depths of hell itself.
  • The National Arts logo is often classified as one of the scariest Indian logos, thanks in no small part to the dark atmosphere and ominous music, ending with three off-key trumpet blares.
• If you love panda bears and/or are planning to eat, we highly recommend steering clear of the Team Happy Rainbow Panda Bears logo, because, despite its name, it's far from happy, as it features a dead, mutilated panda bear in a dark room.
• Timpson Films' second logo is NSFL for a reason, as it features a man shitting out his organs.
• The first Horror Factory logo is bound to make people jump out of their seats. We are instantly taken to a rather familiar-looking environment (reminiscent of the opening of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare) when we see a strange, goblin-like creature in the distance. The creature slowly lifts his head. While this is happening, you can hear a heartbeat that gets louder and louder. The creature suddenly drops down, and the Horror Factory logo comes into the distance (which is a rectangle with a grey drawing of a screaming face with blood on its lower lip). Then the goblin creature jumps out of nowhere and shrieks loudly at the viewer. For those who have a heart condition, it is highly recommended not to watch this logo. For those of you who have seen it, sweet dreams.
• The Tigon Studios logo on Assault on Dark Athena can come off as a Jump Scare for people who don't expect it. It's like the evil twin of MGM, only this time the lion is replaced with a very angry, snarling tigon (a reverse liger essentially), and the tigon's face takes up the entire screen! What's even worse is that it appears after the familiar Universal logo, which would make one let their guard down. Again, refrain from watching if you have a heart condition.
• Starbreeze Studios has quite a disturbing logo concept. The logo depicts an infant getting a blood test by a mad scientist accompanied by a dramatic fanfare. As the scientist looks into his microscope and sees a blood cell resembling the company's logo, he gets his eyes out as the fanfare builds up into a climax with an abrupt stop. The evil smile on the sun's face is also creepy.
• Slaughterhouse Entertainment, which shows a spinning oval-like shape with a drawing of a skeleton behind a short cylinder with a drawing of a house, coming at you as ominous music plays in the background. The logo ends with a woman screaming loudly in terror, which could definitely make some people jump.
• It's basically the prime definition of a cheesy logo and may come off as Narm for a lot of people, but Zombastic Productions has a logo that's just foreboding and quite bizarre, to say the least. A skull with eyes turns around in a jittery manner, and a man's arm holding a syringe full of pink liquid appears from the left. He injects the liquid into the skull's left eye, causing him to scream out in pain, before cutting to the logo, and switching back to the skull, its face covered in the pink liquid. The skull turns white and suddenly zooms up close at breakneck speed, letting out a more anguished scream. It looks like something you would find on the dark web.
• A.K.A Cartoon Inc. The logo shows a drawing of a guy who is impaled by a pencil through his head, complete with drops of blood flying out. Mind you, this was for a kids' show.
  • The Boo Haw Haw variant is even more brutal. The whole thing is in a black-and-red color scheme and is now covered in more realistic blood, making the drawing seem much more violent. It is quite shocking that they would allow this to be shown after a show aimed at children. Granted, it was intentional because this variant came from a Halloween special, but still.
• Bloody Earth Films. The dark, ambient music definitely sets the logo's ominous and dreadful nature. The hand scratching the (now decrepit) earth doesn't help at all.
• Nextreme Film. The very dark, horror-like symbolism is surprising as this company sometimes produced films that weren't horror-related. The music itself sounds like something you would hear in a slasher film, it would fit a scene where the killer sneaks up on one of the victims and slaughters them.
• Many who grew up with the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games have not-too-fond memories of the logo for Neversoft, which consists of an impaled eyeball. The Neversoft logo from Tony Hawk's Underground has a man (admittedly, Eric Sparrow at least) skateboarding at night, only to get ambushed by a hideous monster that is totally not a C.H.U.D. and dragged down the sewer. His bones are seen flying back out onto the street and the abomination belches out the Neversoft eyeball.
• Rolling Thunder. Granted, it is Quentin Tarantino's company so of course it would be Nightmare Fuel. But the meat hook coming in and disfiguring the "A" is a little unexpected.
• Valve Corporation's logos are this to a lot of PC gamers.
  • The 1998-2006 logo, named "Open Your Eyes", has a photograph of a man with a valve lodged in his eye. Ouch.
  • The 2006-present logo, named "Open Your Mind" is even worse. It has a photograph of a back-facing bald man with a valve drilled into his head. And if that wasn't enough, there's a Portal 2 variant where the man turns his head towards you. It even got a remake in Half-Life: Alyx where the atmosphere is even more ominous. Try that one in VR for size.
• Terror Visio. This is a division of Horror Factory Entertainment (You know, the people who made that aforementioned logo with the goblin creature). And just by reading that, you know that their logo will be horrifying. But don't worry, there's something much more wholesome in this one: instead of a goblin, you have a skull that roars at the viewer. His roar sounds like it came straight from the deepest, fiery depths of hell.
• The MGM logo. A big lion on the screen roaring at you could send chills down a kid, at least if you're not the kind who finds all animals adorable. While all of the lions were scary to some degree, any of the pre-1957 lions have been especially frightening and off-putting to some who are used to seeing the current lion, "Leo", at the beginning of most MGM productions in the last 60 years.
  • Tanner is often regarded as the scariest of all, due to appearing especially angry. This may be why Tom replaced him on the Chuck Jones-era Tom and Jerry shorts, besides Rule of Funny^note Interestingly, MGM was already using a different lion (Leo) in their logo for most of their films by this time, so using Tanner came off as an odd choice.
  • The Greek theater mask below the lion is sort of creepy, as well.
• Wild Horse Productions. The creepy expression the horse makes, seizure-inducing animation, and weird sounds are likely gonna scare people. However, to some, this is a funny logo.
• The Klasky-Csupo logo from 1998, which has been known to scare many children, involves a sudden splat of ink bringing forth a creepy-looking face that looks like it just came out of a little kid's nightmare, with huge, bulgy, realistic looking eyes and a thick-lipped mouth on yellow construction paper. The ink splat is named, meaningfully, Splaat.
  • An unfortunate side effect of Nickelodeon's Credits Pushback was that sometimes, this logo would appear after the credits on a show it wasn't supposed to: SpongeBob SquarePants. This doesn't happen anymore, thankfully.
  • The Wild Thornberrys Movie closes with this ident, where, before fading to black, Splaat creepily looks and smiles at the viewer through the Klasky-Csupo logo.
  • For some, this logo getting overused for "logo edits" on YouTube a lot has led to it becoming Nightmare Retardant. Klasky-Csupo themselves took notice and ended up "spinning off" Splaat to his own web series called RoboSplaat, even having him discuss his "scary" legacy in the first episode.
• Asymmetrical Productions (epilepsy warning), a work of none other than David Lynch. There's a reason why this is on so many "Top 10 Scariest Logos" lists. Aside from the robot voice and the unusual subject matter, there is also a V Of Doom-style zoom-in along with some foreboding drone music. The whole thing looks like a fever dream and a nightmare combined into one.
• This logo from Films Incorporated. The epileptic animation combined with loud electronic warbling both create a rather unsettling experience.
• This ident from an obscure television network called Sumo.TV features Santa Claus as a long snake with glowing red eyes and a demonic voice, who vomits up the logo and lots of presents, accompanied by an eerie music box with moaning. Just the mere thought of something like that entering your chimney is terrifying. This ident was made by Cyriak, the creator of animations such as "Baaa" and "cows & cows & cows".
• The logo from PBS affiliate WGBH has scared many with its dark colors, eerie animation, and ear-splitting synth music.
• We recommend turning down the volume (and refraining from watching if you have epilepsy) before watching "Weird Al" Yankovic's Ear Booker Productions logo seen at the end of his short-lived TV series. The soundtrack is an edited version of "Bite Me," the hidden track from Al's 1992 album Off the Deep End.
• This BBC ident from the early 90s is best known for its piano piece. Which can either be blood-chilling or just morbidly sad, depending on your POV.
• MTM Enterprises is usually an adorable logo, with a kitten named Mimsie meowing in a parody of MGM, with a tendency for Logo Jokes on most productions. But this variant from the St. Elsewhere finale will send shivers down your spine (It's also a MASSIVE Tear Jerker). For those of you who haven't seen it, it shows Mimsie unconscious and on life support, hooked up to an IV, with a heart monitor beeping in the background eventually flatlining at the very end of the credits. It was so upsetting (especially to animal lovers) that later releases of the episode thankfully replaced it with the usual credit roll. The credits music playing over it doesn't help. Logo YouTuber JontyMaster intentionally didn't include this particular variant in his logo history of the company because of its horrifying nature. Watch at your own risk.
• Some MTV idents are weird and disturbing, especially the Halloween ones.
  • This one features a character named FrankenSkippy and boy, is he terrifying! He's an undead, zombie wolf hybrid who sings in a voice not unlike Frankenstein's monster; "FrankenSkippy, FrankenSkippy, FrankenSkippy's coming for YOOOOOU!". He even pulls out his heart at one point and near the end of the ident, he starts up a chainsaw and proceeds to cut the screen in half. Now that's Breaking the Fourth Wall!
  • If Frankenskippy wasn't cutesy enough for you, take a look at Microskippy. There's something odd about a creature that has a microscope for a body, and the way it's animated doesn't make it any less ghostly.
  • This one, titled Food for Thought feels like one very trippy nightmare. In outer space, we see an extreme close-up of a creature with two pairs of legs (one of the pairs is upside down) with an eye. Then it cuts to a close-up of another creature with lips in the center, sucking on a white, blue, and black striped straw. The camera zooms out to reveal the previous creature and it is depicted with two eyes. Both creatures are standing on a steel platform with eyeballs and bones on the ground. Off in the distance, we can see fossils on circular platforms, straws blowing on jacks, and Earth. The leg creature proceeds to suck on its fellow creatures' skin which is torn apart to reveal the rib cage bone inside, which includes an "M"-shaped heart (similar to the one from the "FrankenSkippy" ID). Once it's all done, the mouth opens up revealing the MTV logo. In other words, this ident portrays cannibalism in a bizarre and eerie manner. It's also very reminiscent of the stuff you would see on Adult Swim at midnight.
  • "Blowfly Heaven". This one, despite being 30 seconds, is a very uncomfortable experience from start to finish. After grainy footage of a wooden barrier with the words "Outback Dunny", we see a swarm of blowflies flying around a creature that looks similar to a human ear. A blowfly closes up on us and bites in front of the screen before going back into the swarm. The worst part is the audio, which is heavily distorted and well, buzzy, in a very overpowering manner. It's pretty unsettling, and by the end you just want it to be done and over with.
  • Things get much worse with this ID titled "Atama," which has a man being attacked by small, parasitic humanoids that enter his body and cause his head to gorily explode. The dark atmosphere of the location and the stop-motion movement make the already disturbing content extra nightmarish.
• The Air Programs International logo consists of a rapidly spinning black vortex wildly zooming in and out as the three letters "A", "P", and "I" show up, followed by three ear-piercing synth notes. The whole thing ends with an ominous drum roll.
• Ghost House Pictures. Sure, it's intentional, but the door slam is extremely startling even if you know it's coming. The skull appearing doesn't make things Lighter and Softer, and they made it look like the skull is staring at you through the keyhole.
  • Their second logo has the skull in full view because the first logo just wasn't scary enough.
• The PFFR logo is shown at the end of shows like The Shivering Truth or Wonder Showzen, and it features a crude drawing of a... thing spewing blood out of a face on its buttocks, with a voiceover groaning out the name of the production team.
• While the Gracie Films logo is usually laid-back and relaxing with an iconic tune, some of the variations used in Treehouse of Horror are another story. At the end of II and III, the music is a haunting, somewhat badass organ variant of the Gracie Films theme. In IV, the woman's shush is replaced by the bone-chilling scream of a woman. This variation has continued to be used in almost every Treehouse of Horror special since then.
  • There have been some other effective variations, the one used at the end of Treehouse of Horror VII being possibly the most frightening of all, in which a woman shrieks in a more shrill and realistic way.
• The rare Mad-Dog Production logo, only seen on shows like Outlaws. It features the close-up still picture and background sound of an angry Doberman with large, sharp teeth who barks and growls. There's also a variant that has the same imagery, only the dog is heard angrily snarling instead. Not helping matters is how it's often coupled with the infamous 1975-1991 Universal Television logo, which is known for its dramatic themes.
• Children's Television Workshop's 1983 "Sparks" logo has creeped out many children with its weird descending synthesizer notes, strange visual effects, otherworldly font, and dark background. They also did another variant (found on The Best of Elmo and Sesame Street: 25 Wonderful Years), which features ascending chimes that are incredibly eerie and ends with a loud clang.
• This Nintendo logo from Eternal Darkness, where a plume of smoke forms into a mirage of a red, skeletal zombie with glowing green eyes. It snarls at the viewers before being swept away, and the Nintendo logo forms afterward. Needless to say, it's especially creepy, even more so when combined with the Edgar Allen Poe quote that precedes the opening logos.
• The Bloody Disgusting logo which features a skull being split in half with a chainsaw in gratuitous detail.
• The 3-G Home Video ident, which was also used on children's videos, shows the logo trailing into the center in pitch black, accompanied by a scary whoosh sound.
• This ident for Irish TV channel Virgin Media Television depicts a band of four playing music together, only to take a turn for the worst. The guitarist attacks the lead singer with his guitar, causing her to shriek, holding her injured, bleeding neck, and a traumatizing battle ensues, ending with a member's head being sliced open with a cymbal, before the drummer sits down to casually play the drums with blood everywhere. Honestly, you'll never watch a band performance the same way again after that!
• When eerie Indian logos come to your mind, the first thing one would think of would be religious statues, creepy singing, and bone-chilling thunder footage. The "Horror" ident from Indian pay television channel Zee Aflam shows you don't need those visuals to be scary, instead using a Haunted House setting, a bunch of skulls spelling out "HORROR" and a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl peeking around the logo before disappearing back behind it.
• The Carlton Screen Advertising logo, which was shown in UK and Ireland cinemas in the 2000s before advertisements, is well-remembered by British and Irish cinemagoers for its startling, threatening tone. The advert consists of a star-shaped iron poker being placed into burning hot coals (with multiple somewhat eerie shots of the poker getting increasingly hot) before it is pulled back to a dramatic brass sound and then rapidly thrust into the screen with a startling, fiery crash, leaving a burning, red-hot mark of the Carlton star. It's almost as if the advert is taking place in the fires of hell. And then, once the adverts are finished and the trailers are next, the advert is briefly reprised - the logo re-appears with the red-hot mark of the poker still burning (the embers then quickly disappear) as a haunting brass note plays.