Many horror movies (and not a few action or suspense ones no doubt) use a previously cheerful song and make it darker in order to up the creep factor. There is, of course, a trope about it.. What’s a song or little rhyme that you find particularly chilling?
A similar thread from a few years back, just for interest.
My father sang this one to me:
There was a boy named Fred
Who always stayed in bed
And by and by they wondered why
Til they found out he was dead.
He also loved to sing about grandma’s lye soap:
Do you remember Grandma’s Lye Soap?
Good for everything, everything in the home
And the secret was in the scrubbin’
It wouldn’t suds; It wouldn’t foam.
Mrs. O’Mally, Down in the valley
Suffered from ulcers, I understand
She swallowed a cake, of Grandma’s Lye Soap
Now she’s got the cleanest ulcers in the land!
Little Herman and Brother Thurman
Had an aversion to washing their ears
Grandma scrubbed them with the Lye Soap
And they haven’t heard a word in years.
So sing right out for grandma’s Lye Soap
Good for everything in the home
And the secret was in the scrubbin’
'Cause it didn’t suds or foam.
So sing right out for Gramdma’s Lye Soap
(Sing it loud and clear)
Good for everything, everything in the place
The pots and kettles, the dirty dishes
And for the hands and for the face.
So I ended up fearing dying in bed, along with soap
“There was an old woman all skin and bones.” SKIN AND BONES.wmv - YouTube
I learned this from my kindergarten teacher. Still the scariest song I know.
I don’t remember where I heard this chemistry-related rhyme from. It goes something like:
Little Johnny took a drink
And then he was no more;
For what he thought was H2O
Was H2SO4.
The worms go in, the worms go out
Through your stomach and out your mouth. . .
As a child I saw a movie starring Lucy Van Pelt’s voice actress as a ghost who said this rhyme and it still haunts me to this day.
Tubular Bells was a regular-ass modern classical piece until The Exorcist.
I’m surprised this one wasn’t used for the Invisible Man.
Which part is most classical? The caveman mumbling? The distorted guitars? 
That song is much worse than I remember! The nursery rhyme I remember went
The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out
Through your stomach and out your mouth
If you should see a worm go by
Be aware! It should die.
I always heard that the worms play pinochle on your snout.
My favorite rhyme is The Gashlycrum Tinies by Edward Gorey
In my limited experience children rather enjoy singing ‘horrid’ rhymes.
Nobody likes me
Everybody hates me
Guess I’ll go eat worms
Big fat juicy ones
Long thin slimy ones
Itsy bitsy, fuzzy wuzzy worms
Down goes the first one
Down goes the second one
Oh how they wiggle and squirm
Big fat juicy ones
Long thin slimy ones
Itsy bitsy, fuzzy wuzzy worms
Up comes the first one
Up comes the second one
Oh how they wiggle and squirm
Big fat juicy ones
Long thin slimy ones
Itsy bitsy, fuzzy wuzzy worms
Nobody likes me
Everybody hates me
Guess I’ll go eat worms
Today’s the day they give babies away with every pound of tea
You open the lid and out pops a kid with a lifetime guarantee
Today’s the day they give babies away with every pound of tea
So if you know any ladies who want any babies, send them on to me
Ooey-Gooey was a worm,
A little worm was he.
He sat upon the railroad track
The train he did not see.
OOEY_GOOEY!
To the tune of Chopin’s Funeral March:
Pray for the dead, and the dead will pray for you
Simply because they have nothing else to do
Our 6th-grade teacher had us memorize this poem. I still remember some of the lines. It’s kind of creepy and probably very inappropriate for these days.
My mother sang that to me – along with a verse she made up, in which the mother caught the baby and the father then repaired the cradle attachments so it wouldn’t fall down again.
I heard the worms song in summer camp, and hated it.
My mother tolde me about a German kids book called Struwwelpeter and the one rhyme we both remembered (English translate) was about a boy named Augustus who refused to eat soup, wasted away, and died. Both I and my mom found that hilarious.
Wiki here: Struwwelpeter - Wikipedia - lots of other scary little moralistic tales
This is the one that creeped me out as a kid:
Solomon Grundy,
Born on a Monday,
Christened on Tuesday,
Married on Wednesday,
Took ill on Thursday,
Grew worse on Friday,
Died on Saturday,
Buried on Sunday,
That was the end,
Of Solomon Grundy.
It made life seem precarious indeed. Although I suppose it was a good way to teach kids the days of the week.