1984 by George Orwell uses Winston’s vague memory of a nursery rhyme about the bells of London to great creepy effect. “Oranges and lemons”, say the bells of St. Clement’s" seemed innocent enough to me, but I am sure that it foreshadowed doom for those familiar with it.
It’s the way M (1931) starts.
The children aren’t as creepy as their casual incorporation (and re-enaction) of real world events in the rhyme. A perfectly typical thing for kids to do, and one which immediately places you in a world in which all is not right. :eek:
To be fair, that rhyme does end with a stage-whispered:
Here comes a chopper to chop off your head
Here comes a candle to light you to bed
With hands going over your head as you dash under them, then, with rising tone:
The last man’s head is OFF!
And you’re caught.
It was never meant to not be creepy.
Same goes for many nursery rhymes, I guess. Yay! Let’s hold hands and sing a merry song about the plague! Ring-a-ring-a-.
Etc.
It wasn’t the movies that made those rhymes creepy.
Actually, if you take any Golden Oldie, slow it down a bit, and put it in a scene that’s even slightly morbid, it works just the way that those nursery rhymes do. I will never hear ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ without thinking of the X-Files.
Those tunes generally include minor chords.
The 1979 Amityville Horror used child-chants to good effect.
Not sure about any sequels, though.
Can you explain what in God’s name is going on in that clip?
I want to be creeped out, but lack of context prevents it.
“Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane” features Baa Baa Black Sheep. And an absolutely chilling performance by an adolescent Jodie Foster.
The song inHush Hush Sweet Charlotte is good, creepy fun.
That’s the end of last week’s Sarah Connor Chronicles. [spoiler]The guy singing is a rebuilt 800-series Terminator, the woman being arrested is Sarah Connor, and the girl singing had been taken by Sarah earlier in the episode to get her away from an opposing 800-series Terminator. The girl’s mother had been replaced by a 1000-series Terminator who used the woman’s company to rebuild the singing 800-series.
The box being buried contains the remains of Derek Reese, brother of Kyle Reese from the first movie and John Connor’s uncle.[/spoiler]
Okay, but, why’s he singing?
She misses her daddy, who taught her the song, and she spent much of that episode teaching it to her friend.
I’m not sure if it’s in the movie (never got around to watching it), but the play version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest uses the rhyme the title is based off of quite creepily
“Huffity, puffity, Ringstone Round,
If you lose your hat it will never be found…” from Quatermass.
In Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, the narrator and her sister were taunted by other kids in town:
*Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea?
Oh no, said Merricat, you’ll poison me.
Merricat, said Connie, would you like to go to sleep?
Down in the boneyard ten feet deep! *
Do you know the Muffin Man?
I think it was The Amazing Mr. Blunden, and I can’t remember the whole thing, but the line in the rhyme about “…all the little children, they are born to die…” has always stuck with me.