List RulesVote up the most terrifying music videos.
WARNING: NSFW content
Music videos can make us laugh, rock out, or reveal some cool dance moves we've never seen before. Of course, they can also creep the ever-loving crap out of us.
Creepy music videos can range from a little startling to deeply disturbing, whether they play on atmosphere, music, or gore, and it makes them hard not to watch.
So what makes a music video really, truly creepy? Does it have to depend on blood and violence, or does it just need to express a distressing message? Does it need supernatural elements, or is human nature disturbing enough on its own? Perhaps that depends on the individual viewer, and this list runs the gamut, so there's something to scare everyone.
So take a deep breath, turn off your lights, and check out some distressing subject matters set to music. Maybe then you can decide what aspects truly make a music video the most disturbing.
This Japanese-made concoction pushed the envelope of what is allowed to be seen in music videos internationally. From amputation, gore, sex, mutation, and senseless violence, all spliced with some harsh sounding music, this is a serious stomach-punching thrill ride from beginning to end. Be warned, this is a graphic video and not for the weak of stomach.
In truth, just about any video by Aphex Twin deserves to be on this list.
The recipe for creepiness is perfect here. Take a group of murderous and violent children who all bear the visage of one Richard James, the man behind AT, set it to jarring, arythmic electronic music, and and end with a bizarre, screaming James figure emerging from a television set, and bake for about six minutes.
The whole thing just feels so deeply disturbing on some primal level that you might have trouble sleeping after watching it..
The intro to this video may well be more distressing than the video itself. The sound of a small, deformed humanoid crying out for mama, then screaming as it is possibly abused is enough to make anyone feel uncomfortable. But the video goes further, the screeching and frantic pace of the music itself mixing with shots of a naked wheelchair-bound humanoid "dancing."
If the imagery doesn't creep you out, it will at least confound you.
You probably expected to see some Tool on this list, and you guessed right. For this video, weird creepy humanoid puppets presented in stop-motion animation are the driving force behind its disturbing nature. There's a sense of wanting to escape, of despair, of malice, and even torture in some parts.
While it's hard to always be sure what's going on, you can't help feeling sympathetic and desperately creeped out.
Laura Allan
