This is related to The Conjuring. The music box seems to be a staple of the horror genre. Off the top of my head, there’s The Woman In Black, The Cabin In The Woods, The Watcher In The Woods.
If a music box appears, things go bad.
Are there any movies that have music boxes that aren’t horror or evil? The closest I can think of is Pirates of the Caribbean 2, which is partly horror, because it deals with undead pirates.
Can any of you come up with any?
Oz the great and powerful. He apparently has a closet full of music boxes!
Not technically a box, but Mister Freeze made one in Batman and Robin.
Unsurprisingly, the movie Music Box is a movie containing a music box.
“For a Few Dollars More” prominently features a music-playing pocket watch.
In White Christmas, Bob Hope sings the title song with music box accompaniment.
Granted, the town gets shelled shortly thereafter…
It’s animated, but the plot for “Anastasia” revolves heavily around a music box.
It’s titled The Music Box, but we know it’s a player piano, so no points to the Laurel and Hardy fans.
The movie version of the Broadway musical Phantom of the Opera features, as the stage show did, a music box. The film really isn’t horror, but a twisted romance.
Fantasia 2000, in the Steadfast Tin Soldier segment. The ballerina the soldier falls in love with is from a music box.
It’s a fantastic film, but not exactly horror – Mighty Joe Young features a music box that plays Stephen Foster’s “Beautiful Dreamer”, which becomes his signature tune, It’s not used in any creepy way. I actually love the “Reveal” scene where Joe is introduced to the nightclub audience by his mistress Jill playing the song on a piano. Beautifully done scene.
Seven Years in Tibet has a music box that was a gift from the Dalai Lama.
It is an adventure/biography and not scary or a horror film.
In Dirty Rotten Scoundrels there is some dancing to a fancy music box.
In Gangs of New York, I seem to recall that they steal a music box with other loot from a burning building, then the cop breaks it when he takes what he perceives as his cut of the loot.
The movie Speakeasy, with David Strathairn, involves a guy who teaches the main character how to build a music box (and how to love life and other whimsical things). You see Strathairn working on the music box throughout the film and in the end he gives it to his wife, and no demons are summoned or hellmouths opened at any point in the film.
Somewhere In Time
Ariel give Ren one (or vice-versa) in Footloose. It’s playing on the roof of his car in the scene after she gets beaten up by her boyfriend.
Brazil features a music box in this scene.
In Labyrinth there’s a music box on Sarah’s desk. Later, during the ballroom scene, she’s dressed as the ballerina from the box.
There’s Sally Ann Howes as a doll on a music box in Chitty[sup]2[/sup] Bang[sup]2[/sup]. Not really scary, but the Child Catcher gave me a bad case of the willies when I was a kid.
Land of the Giants seemed to feature one every couple of episodes or so. Giant captures lady, wants her to be a live music box ballerina etc. hilarity ensues.
Does Labyrinth count as scary? It was scary when I first saw it as a kid, but it’s more of a straight fantasy movie with some scarier elements.