Scary Flashlight Face

When a character (typically a young one) wishes to scare their friends (ideally after reaching the end of a scary story) they'll shine a torch or other source of illumination upwards across their face. This will often be accompanied with a scare cord and have a dramatic musical buildup but it's almost always Played for Laughs.

The effect works in Real Life (as long as the room's relatively dark), as the light casts a shadow across parts of the face eyes and highlights others, making it look distorted (and skull-like). Despite this, the ubiquity of the trope means that no one's likely to be fooled.

Sometimes a character might just have their face lit that way to make them look creepy. This isn't quite as dead, but there's a significant risk of this trope being pointed out, leading to Narm.

Often delivered by a character giving the Cruel Twist Ending or Karmic Twist Ending to a Ghost Story. It serves as a Jump Scare in universe but is rarely expected to scare the audience. Compare Demon Head, for a similar prosoponic source of shock.

Examples of Scary Flashlight Face include:

Advertising

Jell-O Pudding used this in a commercial—the kids were camping on the lawn, Mom told a scary story about a creature that hunted down kids who stole pudding snacks (kicker being Mom was getting back at the kids for stealing her pudding snacks).

Anime and Manga

In One Piece: while telling the crew about the stories of the "ghosts" of the Florian Triangle, Sanji used a lit match to do this.
Azumanga Daioh did this- Osaka shone a flashlight under her face, and told a scary story.
Naruto does this repeatedly during the "what's under Kakashi's mask" episode. Sakura is unamused.
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Juudai does this to the Ojama Trio while rescuing them from the abandoned well in the second season.

Film

In Wayne's World, Wayne scares Garth by shinning a flashlight on his face and pretending to be the Leprechaun.
Done a lot in The Blair Witch Project.
The page picture is of Mitsuko Souma from the film version of Battle Royale when she enters the hut where poor Megumi is hiding out.

Literature

Played with in Septimus Heap, where Jenna is spooked by Septimus's face being illuminated by his Dragon Ring he's holding below his chin.

Live-Action TV

It has been used on The Rachel Maddow Show (more than once) to reference uses of fear in politics.
- A good example is from the 2/16/2012 show, opening a story on the 2012 GOP Presidential nomination campaign. Specifically both critiquing Rick Santorum's poor lighting at a campaign event and alluding to his rival Mitt Romney's worries about the former's underfunded yet oddly popular support.
Referenced in Svengoolie's makeup.
On Conan O'Brien's Late Night show, he would sometimes do a segment about predicting the future called "In the year 2000". (even well after the year 2000) To enhance the mood, the studio lights would be dimmed and he and his band leader would light up their faces.
Done by Mulder to Scully in the "How The Ghosts Stole Christmas" episode of The X Files.
Stephen Colbert has done this at least once.
An iconic image of Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Video Games

Persona 3: Junpei does this when telling a ghost story.

Web Comics

In Sluggy Freelance, one bad guy took advantage of his "Dramatic Lighting Shoes" to create this effect while monologuing. He was quite proud of them.

Web Original

JesuOtaku did this (and commented on how this doesn't seem to accomplish much other than blinding you and casting shadows on your nose) at the end of her Deliciously Evil Anime Villains Countdown.
Hewy does his review of Coraline with a flashlight face in Hewys Animated Movie Reviews.
Used frequently by Diamanda Hagan, especially during her Opening Credits.

Western Animation

The Simpsons: Bart tells a scary story to Homer. "...and that is how much college will cost for Maggie."
Baljeet tries this while the kids sit around the campfire in the Phineas and Ferb episode "Get That Bigfoot Outa My Face!" His story is less than terrifying.
Batman the Brave And The Bold: The creepy usher does it in "Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Cases!"
Near the end of Tom and Jerry: The Movie, the villain does this after revealing her presence.

"Daddy...IS DEAD!"

In Fairly Oddparents, Vicky does this once.

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