Cat Scare: Difference between revisions

 

 

 

 

 

If there is an avalanche during the fight with the actual menace, [[That Poor Cat|expect the cat to get hurt]].

 

Also see [[Hope Spot]] (a false sense of tidy resolution before heading into an ugly one instead), [[Hey, Wait!]] (a false sense of discovery of subterfuge) and [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle]] (a false sense of resolution quite early in a story). When you want a fake scare without launching a feline, you deploy the [[Scare Chord]].

{{examples}}

* Pops up in the very first episode of ''[[Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok]]'', when Mayura goes to investigate a haunted clocktower. Even though she was nowhere near the cat, and though it was apparently asleep when she entered, it just HAD to leap up and scream at her. Really, these cats ought to just switch to decaf, or something...

* Taken literally in the first episode of ''[[Inuyasha]]'', when Kagome goes down to the well to search for her cat. She hears noises coming from the well, and is frightened when her cat brushes up against her leg. After realizing her error, she faces away from the well with the cat as the Centipede Woman shows up to drag her back in time. Her brother, of course, sees it all, and tries to warn her. No luck.

* ''[[Naruto]]''. Although it doesn't use cats. Twice in the story a bunny is seen in the bushes and then someone paranoid throws a kunai or shuriken and the rabbit leaves but a bad guy comes. First time Zabuza came and the second time was Orochimaru.

 

 

* Weirdly inverted in ''[[The Secret of NIMH]]'', where the cat itself is the monster, and its arrival is preceded by a rabbit.

* In ''[[Tangled]]'', shortly after Rapunzel leaves the tower with Flynn, she's startled by something in the bushes. Much to her embarrassment, it turns out to be not thugs or ruffians, but a harmless bunny rabbit.

* In Disney's ''[[Brother Bear]]'', Kenai is spooked by a rodent before the bear comes along. In the DVD Gag Commentary, the moose comment on how squirrels/chipmunks/etc. always appear before something bad happens, and [[Wrong Genre Savvy|falsely interpret every rodent afterwards as a sign of trouble]].

* A particularly notable example in [[Disney]]'s adaptation of ''[[The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad|The Legend of Sleepy Hollow]]''. Ichabod Crane is wandering through some [[Nightmare Fuel|genuinely terrifying]] woods just after midnight, trying to get home on a painfully slow horse after a town get-together. He hears a variety of spooky sounds, such as owls and frogs croaking his name. The cat scare appears as Ichabod and his horse are suddenly brought to the ground... but Ichabod can still hear hoofbeats! Trembling, he turns to the side and realises it's just the wind blowing a set of cat tails against a hollow log. He and his horse start giggling in relief... and are soon joined by [[Big Bad|someone else's]] [[Evil Laugh|cackling]].

* In ''[[Alien (franchise)|Alien]]'', the cat scare precedes the absolutely terrifying first appearance of the adult alien. Since the cat wasn't being tossed through the air, the film crew got it to hiss on cue by suddenly putting it nose to nose with a dog.

* In ''[[Aliens]]'' we have a rare human example. While in Medlab the Marines detect something moving and hunt it down. It finally bursts out of cover and is almost shot, whereupon they discover that it's Newt, a little girl who's the only survivor of the xenomorph attack.

* Parodied in the ''[[Scary Movie]]'' films.

** In the first one, the victim is investigating a noise in a closed garage and finds a cat. Then a dog. Then a horse.{{spoiler|... Then the killer. The dog and cat vacate through a doggie door. The horse gets out via a larger opening. The victim? Follows the cat out. Did we mention she's slightly overweight?}}

* Parodied repeatedly and beaten to death with a stick in the horror movie parody film ''[[Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth]]'', where characters keep being scared by cats with tell tale names, like "Cheap Shot" and "Lame Gag". The final cat annoys a cast member so much that he tries to hit it, only to be told "No, don't beat [[Dead Horse Trope]]."

* ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan]]'': While searching the abandoned space station ''Regula 1'', Bones is startled by a rat. He then walks straight into a dead body.

* In ''[[Dog Soldiers]]'' there's an incident with a spring-loaded ''dog'' when the soldiers are investigating a potentially hazardous closet. By all appearances the border collie who startles Cooper must have been sitting on one of the closet shelves waiting for the chance to jump straight forward.

* In ''[[A View to a Kill]]'' there's a very good cat scare when [[James Bond]] is creeping up the broad stairway of Stacey's house.

* ''[[The Amityville Horror]]'' has one of these, with an actual cat.

* In ''House II: The Second Story'', someone in a haunted house full of portals thinks he hears something ominous, but it's just a harmless dogerpillar.

* Steven Spielberg felt that there weren't enough scary moments in the first half of ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]'', before audiences had seen the shark for the first time. He went back and edited in a plotless scare when a diver (Hooper) is exploring a derelict wrecked boat. Heralded by scary music and accompanied by a [[Scare Chord]], they spot a corpse looking through a hole in the wreck. While it got a shriek from audiences, Spielberg always regretted adding it in because it ultimately [[Nothing Is Scarier|sapped tension]] that would have paid off better when the shark finally appeared.

* In ''[[Darkness Falls]]'', a woman sits in a car and a cat quickly runs across the hood, which scares both the woman and the audience. ''Darkness Falls'' has a ''lot'' of cat scares even at the very end.

* ''Cat People'' producer Val Lewton seemed to like this trope, he used it in his next film, ''I Walked With a Zombie,'' although in that case the animal responsible for the scare was an owl.

* In Lewton's film ''Body Snatcher'' there is a scare with a horse and in his ''The Leopard Man'' a tumbleweed and a train are used at certain points in the movie.

* Averted in ''[[A Nightmare on Elm Street]]'', when Glen goes outside to investigate a noise and calls "Kitty kitty?" in hopes that it ''is'' this trope at work. It's actually the film's [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]] who jumps out and scares him.

* Played straight in the [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]] film ''[[End of Days]]'', as pictured above. [[The Nostalgia Critic]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLLW9EsCFoQ has fun with this], making several jokes about the ''[[Large Ham|CAAAAAAAAAT]]!!''

* Subverted for laughs in ''The [[Kids in The Hall]]: Brain Candy''. The plot of the movie revolves around a new (untested) wonder drug that cures depression. When the primary researcher who developed the drug realizes one of the laboratory test animals has entered a catatonic state, he becomes concerned and goes to check on the drug's first human test subject, an elderly widow who lives alone. He finds her home seemingly deserted and eerily silent. As he gingerly makes his way through the house, calling out for the woman, a cat {{spoiler|suddenly falls on his head from out of nowhere,}} startling him and the audience before it runs away. When the researcher looks up, {{spoiler|he sees half a dozen cats hanging from the ceiling by their claws.}}

* In ''[[Halloween (film)|Halloween]] II'', a bumbling security guard stumbles around outside the hospital checking for a disturbance. He gets startled by a spring-loaded cat, sighs and relaxes. Three guesses who he encounters next...

* In ''[[Demon Knight]]'' this tactic is used a few times, the cat in question belongs to the heroine Jeryline.

* A nicely done ''Fake Cat Scare'' can be seen in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQkos7WTHjg this trailer] for ''[[Lovecraft on Film|The Whisperer in Darkness]]''. {{spoiler|As a man stands close to a window at night, lightning strikes and the flash reveals a shadow behind the curtain. The second flash allows the viewer to identify the shape as some vines growing next to the window. And at the third flash it moves it's head.}}

* ''[[Battle: Los Angeles]]'': The soldiers enter their first combat situation walking down a smoke covered street. They stop and take aim when they hear movement coming toward them. Turns out, it's just a dog with a weird name and [[Blatant Lies|it's totally okay to let their guard down]].

* ''[[Drag Me to Hell]]'' might as well have been called Cat Scares: The Movie. A good majority of the spooks are Lamia making jump scares to tell Christine it's coming to get her.

* Played with hillariously in ''[[Horrible Bosses]]'', when the protagonists are breaking into the home of one of the titles bosses (the one labelled as the "Psycho" by the previews). The boss's cat startles the protagonists ''several'' times, but the audience always sees the cat long before they do... sitting extremely still waiting for the perfect moment to suddenly jump out and startle them, as if this trope is that cat's favorite thing in the world. The description here really doesn't do the gag justice, though.

* ''[[Below]]'' is set on a WWII submarine, and pulls off a ''manta ray'' scare on a repair-crew of divers.

 

* Done straight in ''[[Shade's Children]]''.

* ''[[Goosebumps]]'' does this at the end of ''every first chapter'', enough to be Lampshaded by [[Mad Magazine]]. It does this with very stupid things some of the times like a ghost just being a pile of clothes or a monster not actually being anything at all. It is pretty ridiculous.

* The book ''[[Friday the 13th]]: Church of the Divine Psychopath'' has a scene where the soldiers hunting Jason in the dark woods are all startled by a raccoon, right before Jason comes out of nowhere and attacks.

* [[Robert Westall]]'s ''Blackham's Wimpy'', in the ''[[Break of Dark]]'' anthology sees Gary, a Wellington bomber radio operator, boards a haunted plane at night with the intent of setting fire to it. He hears someone whispering in German and there's a hunched figure in the cockpit in flight crew gear... {{spoiler|turns out to be his own Captain, engaged in a [[Hollywood Exorcism]] attempt.}}

 

'''Troy:''' Is someone throwing it? }}

:: It eventually gets to the point, after the third or fourth time, where Jeff is actually ''more'' worried about the manic flying cat than he is about the [[Zombie Apocalypse]] waiting outside.

* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''

** After getting a lead on what might be a monster which hid under its victim's car, Sam responds to a sound from under a car, ducks down, and finds... a frightened cat.

* ''[[The X-Files]]''

** "Grotesque". A clunking cliché, but it does allow Scully a nice line about thinking that one of the pictures on the wall had come to life. ** In "Teso dos Bichos", the cat scare is the actual plot (they might be possessed by a jaguar spirit, you see).

* Played straight in an episode of ''[[Profit]]''.

* ''[[Lost]]'' has had many a Dog Scare, thanks to Vincent. For instance, in "Homecoming," Vincent surprises Boone, who is waiting for Ethan to attack. While Vincent is licking Boone's face, Ethan comes up ''from the ocean'' to kill Scott ([[Running Gag|or was it Steve]]?)

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''

** There's one in the early episode "The Witch". Notable only because it was used in the credits sequence for quite a while.

* Happens in ''[[The Bionic Woman]]'' (the original series) in the episode, "In This Corner, Jamie Somers". Jamie's walking into an empty arena and is startled when a cat meows and runs in front of her.

 

 

 

* The original black box edition of the ''[[Ravenloft]]'' game rules actually included a ''random-encounter table'' for this trope, on which DMs could roll up what species of inoffensive furry animal might be rustling about in the bushes, scaring the pants off unsuspecting player characters with false alarms.

 

* ''[[Silent Hill]]''

** In the monster-filled Midwich elementary school, Harry sees that there's something in one of the lockers; of course, when he opens it, it turns out to be a cat. However, once it's off screen, something decidedly ''not'' a cat can be heard devouring it.

* ''[[F.E.A.R.|First Encounter Assault Recon]]'': In the Exeunt Omnes level, something resembling the Assassins from later in the game jumps into the water in front of you, then vanishes. Many other variations of this trope abound.

* ''[[Dead Space 2]]'' lots of these. The most embarrassing is {{spoiler|cartoon sun prop falling from the ceiling}}.

* The point and click adventure game ''[[Broken Sword]]'' has this early on in ''Shadow of the Templars'' if you examine the trash bins in the alley. Two of the bins are empty, but opening the third and final bin produces a [[Scare Chord]] and a yowling black cat who startles George. Trying to click the bins after opening the cat's bin will prompt George to shrug and say "I'd had it with sticking my nose into French trash cans."

 

* [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2002-05-16 Happens] [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2002-07-17 twice] in ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', parodied and justified at once -- [http://www.egscomics.com/sketchbook/?date=2002-07-04 Jeremy] is not a kitty to be trifled with. Especially the second time, when he was defending his territory. And [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2011-12-22 again, with another hedgecat].

* Lampshaded during ''[[Schlock Mercenary|Schlocktoberfest]]'' [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20071013.html 2007].

 

* [[Evil Overlord List Cellblock A]] #139: If I'm sitting in my camp, hear a twig snap, start to investigate, then encounter a small woodland creature, I will send out some scouts anyway just to be on the safe side. (If they disappear into the foliage, I will not send out another patrol; I will break out the napalm.)

* Parodied by the first winner of [[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony's]] ''Grass Battle Contest''. When the hero opens the locker he finds a picture of a cat and jumps as though it were a proper Cat Scare.

* As noted in Film, mocked repeatedly by [[The Nostalgia Critic]] starting from the ''[[End of Days]]'' review, with ''' ''[[Running Gag|"CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!"]]'' '''.

 

* Lampshaded in ''[[Arthur (animation)|Arthur]]'':

'''Brain:''' No, but it's a [[Genre Savvy|horror movie]]- and they're ''very'' predictable. }}

* When the Gaang first sees Momo in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''.

* [[Parodied]] and [[Double Subverted]] in the ''[[Thundercats 2011]]'' episode "The Forest of Magi Oar" when cat-creature Snarf nervously reacts to noises in a supposedly [[The Lost Woods|haunted forest]], but its only his tricksy [[Catfolk]] friends the Thunderkittens who jump out and yell "Boo!" Later on, the menacing spirits show up for real.

[[Category:Horror Tropes]]

[[Category:Cat Scare]]