History Main / DarkReprise

[[folder:Music]]
* Music/{{Nena}}'s hit "99 Red Balloons" is a song about 99 red balloons being mistaken for a threat on radar and the nuclear holocaust starting. It's not exactly a sunshine song, but it's rather upbeat. Then the melody and lyrics turn soft and wistful for the final verse:
-->99 dreams I have had
-->And every one a red balloon.
-->It's all over and I'm standing pretty
-->In this dust that was a city.
-->If I could find a souvenir
-->Just to prove the world was here...
-->And here is a red balloon
-->I think of you and let it go...
* Music/TheWho's ''The Kids Are Alright'' from ''Music/MyGeneration'': The middle two sentences [[spoiler:("I know, if I go, things will be a lot better for her. I had things planned, but her folks wouldn't let her.")]] change the meaning of repeated verse.
* In ''Music/TheProtomen'', Mega Man declares "As I live, there is no evil that will stand, and I will finish what was started - the fight of Protoman", when he first decides to avenge his brother. He repeats the line near the end of the opera, only this time, he's referring to [[spoiler: trying to force humanity to fight for itself by allowing Dr. Wily to slaughter it]].
* Music/ArcadeFire's album ''Music/TheSuburbs'', about the appeal and dream-crushing nature of the aforementioned place, ends with a dark reprise of the titular song, representing (in one interpretation) the overwhelming nature of the suburbs. It ends with a slow fadeout of the words "Sometimes I can't believe it/I'm moving past the feeling", implying that while the protagonist once railed against the suburbs vociferously, he has given up his fight as futile.
* Music/{{Muse}} has the song Hyper Music which is an upbeat noise rock song... and also Hyper Chondriac Music, which is the same song but done in a mournful acoustic style. The lyrics were about someone going through a breakup and the stages of anger and depression respectively.
* Music/SkinnyPuppy's ''Remission'' has "Glass Houses", and its more sinister reprise, "Glass Out".
* Cord Lund's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1V3JW4HeBs I Wanna Be in the Cavalry]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVRbEGlB4sc its reprise:]] The [[WarIsGlorious first song]] is an upbeat country song about a young recruit, full of eagerness and enthusiasm who wants to join the cavalry. [[WarIsHell The reprise is a song about the hardships of being of a cavalryman in the 19th century]], disease, starvation, and the elements and all. To add to the bleakness, the narrator is a soldier [[HopelessWar in an army fighting]] [[DespairEventHorizon a losing war]].
* In Music/JoannaNewsom's album Have One On Me, the final song, [[http://youtu.be/-LgQhfusf_E Does Not Suffice]], is a Dark Reprise of the central [[http://youtu.be/ZOFbj3Fk4fw In California]]. Whilst In California is about the evaluation of a relationship, which is threatened by distance, homesickness and a fear of commitment, Does Not Suffice is a definite break-up, as the voice describes packing her belongings and leaving her lover, stating that "everywhere I tried to love you is yours again and only yours". The "chorus" of In California, which focused entirely on a sense of indecision, is echoed in Does Not Suffice by a series of resigned, defeated lalala's, which fade away as they are overwhelmed by strings and a burgeoning, crashing electronic drone (a stark mechanical presence in an album full of pastoral imagery). Definitely darker.
* In "Leave The Bourbon On The Shelf" by Music/TheKillers, it's the line, "And I love you endlessly, darling, don't you see, I'm not satisfied." The line isn't as noticeable at first, because it goes by quickly and the music is still playing, but when the music fades out and the song puts special emphasis on it by making it the last line in the entire song, it seems like they are trying to tell you something. [[spoiler: And they are: The next song in the trilogy, "Midnight Show", has the narrator killing his ex-girlfriend, whom the first song was also for.]]
* ''Music/EvilliousChronicles'':
** "Daughter of Evil", begins with the line, "There was, once upon a time, an evil kingdom that no one dared to face, and the ruler was a girl so mean, a little princess of only age fourteen". This line is repeated at the end, right before [[spoiler: the princess is about to be executed- though it is really her twin brother taking her place.]]
** In "Drug of Gold", the line "The two of us going won't be so bad" is repeated twice. The first time, it refers to the singer learning that his [[ArrangedMarriage fiancée's]] dream is to travel around the world. The engagement is broken off, and the singer later starts working as his former fiancée's chef, under a false identity, becoming increasingly horrified by just [[ImAHumanitarian what]] she has become. The second time the line refers to him resolving to [[KillTheOnesYouLove poison her]] [[MurderSuicide and himself]].
* In the Music/{{Vocaloid}} song "Kagome, Kagome" (Circle You, Circle You), Miku and Luka singing the words to the game (which is a real game, by the way) starts out already being extremely creepy. But when you find out their reasons for being in the abandoned orphanage and the things that happened in the orphanage before it was deserted, you realize that they are very likely [[spoiler: murderous ghosts]]. The line gets even darker when they sing it a second time.
* Music/NeYo's album ''Libra Scale'' opens with "Champagne Life", which is an easygoing, upbeat party tune, full of vitality and celebratory swagger. The album closes with "What Have I Done", a regretful look back at past mistakes and broken love whose backing track echoes the carefree tune of "Champagne Life" with piercing guilt.
* Lit's "Miserable" has this happen all within the chorus: "[[IntercourseWithYou You make me cum]]/You make me complete/You make me completely miserable."
* Music/GreenDay's "¿Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl)" from their RockOpera ''Music/TwentyFirstCenturyBreakdown'' is a Dark Reprise of one of the earlier songs, "¡Viva La Gloria!" While the latter is that of one of the main characters, Christian, praising and encouraging Gloria to "start a war", the former is that of Christian accusing her of being a useless "dirty liar".
* In the ''Domain'' concept album The Last Days of Utopia, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7CoAw_ZBsg this song]] is played when the main character is washed up on the shores of the titular city, and is breathtaken at its majesty. Later on, after the destruction of the island and with the main character floating alone lost at sea, we get [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70RplPqHwzs this]].
* Happens within a single song for Music/TheDarkestOfTheHillsideThickets' concept album ''The Shadow Out of Tim''. The song is called "Operation: Get the Hell Out of Here," and the chorus goes "Take your time, take your toll, everything's under control/Execute Operation: Get the Hell Out of Here" until after the last verse of the song, where the protagonists accidentally unleash an EldritchAbomination, it's changed to "Take your life, take your soul, everything's out of control/Execute Operation: Get the Hell Out of Here".
* The last song of Caamora's opera based on the novel ''She'', The Fire of Life, is full of these.
** Partway through the song, Leo reprises part of a much earlier song, Covenant of Faith. But instead of hopeful and optimistic, it's now full of despair. The line "But I won't turn back from this journey that I take" in Covenant refers to his exploration of the lost island they've washed up on, whereas in Fire he's referring to his decision to bathe in the Fire of Life and rule the island as its immortal king.
** Shortly after, Ayesha's "Wait for me" chorus has the same melody as the instrumental introduction to the song, but with a quiet, almost ethereal quality to it.
** Finally, the ending chant of "She Ayesha, She Immortal" is the same as the one in the prologue of the entire opera, except now it sounds hectic and desparate as the volcano erupts around the protagonists.
* "The Princess Who Sleeps In A Glass Coffin" from Music/SoundHorizon's ''Märchen'', Snow White sings a darker, more vindictive version of the song's first verse once she's revived.
-->With skin white as sorcery, hair black as obsidian,
-->And lips red as the flame, I have been reborn.
-->If your burning envy has made you sin, then with burning shoes,
-->You shall dance until you die!
* Music/Front242's ''Front By Front'' reprises "Until Death (Do Us Part)" as "Agony (Until Death)".
* The fourth (and final) movement of Music/PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky's ''Symphony No. 4 in F Minor'' (Op. 36) can qualify as this. Right after the fast, energetic melody at the very start, a fairly light and upbeat version of a Russian melody "In the Field Stood a Birch Tree" follows, played by flute and oboe. The melody returns later in the movement, much more melancholy, and slower in tempo. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLHj-eekdNU Listen to this for an example, and particularly, listen to 0:15, 1:35, and 4:05.]] This is perhaps even more pronounced in his ''Symphony No. 6 in B Minor"" (Op. 74). Light and joyful second theme of the first movement is used in a minor key in a unusually slow, depressive and hopeless fourth (and final) movement. Moreover, some parts of a similarly light second movement appear as a coda of the fourth movement, but now they transform into a shape of a funeral march. The fact that the author has died only nine days after the first performance of this symphony cannot make symbolism any stronger.
* Music/MauriceRavel's ''La Valse'' can be considered as a deconstructed variation. The piece itself can be considered as a homage to Johann Strauss, but with nasty twists. The first half of the piece starts with a set of melodies; some are sweet, others are exciting, all are generally benign. The second half shows fragments of the melodies arranged differently, becoming progressively more jerk-y and dissonant. The piece tries to bring itself together back again at the end (with a repeat of the first melody), but utterly fails, resulting in an atonal, dissonant, and savage ''danse macabre'' ending. All of this alludes to the rise and decline of 19th-Century Vienna, and eventual destruction by UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_valse Read this Other Wiki page for more info.]]
* Music/PinkFloyd's ''Music/TheWall'' has a couple:
** "In the Flesh?" opens the album with Pink discussing his vaguely defined issues: "''If you wanna find out / What's behind these cold eyes / You'll just have to claw your way through this disguise.''" When it repeats on the fourth side, it's about his (perhaps imagined) descent into fascism ("''If I had my way, I'd have all of you shot!''")
*** The film adaptation takes it further, where "In the Flesh" is redone in an orchestral format in order to fit with Pink's hallucination of him speaking at a Neo-Nazi rally instead of performing at a concert.
** "Another Brick in the Wall"'s three versions go from laments about Pink's childhood and education to a violent rejection of all human contact as he retreats behind his self-built Wall.
** At the very beginning of "In The Flesh?" we hear very soft, calm music which is pretty easy to not notice and the first couple words we hear are "...we came in?" At the end of the album in "Outside the Wall" is the exact same music and in the closing seconds of the album we hear "Isn't this where-". It's worth nothing that "Outside the Wall" is about Pink finally escaping from behind the emotional wall he's built between himself and everyone else, so "Outside the Wall" leading back into the very beginning (which after the soft part turns into the same music as in the later "In the Flesh" when he's at the height of his troubles). In case you haven't put it together yet, he's right back where he started.
* The Cruxshadows' ''Ethernaut'' gives "Winter Born" a dark reprise with "A Stranger Moment", which uses the same progression as the former's main riff and verse. The formers' lyrics speak of a hero's LastStand in a DarkestHour, while the latter appears to be about the character's ApocalypticLog or a MessageInABottle to his loved ones.
* In ''[[Music/{{Hero}} !HERO: The Rock Opera]]'', there's a Dark RepriseMedley. Right after "Execute" on the same track, there's the reprise to "Intentions" where Jude is DrivenToSuicide for betraying Hero, and then immediately after that there's the reprise to "Hero" and "Lose My Life With You" as the characters singing it realize that Hero is dead.
* The Frozen Autumn's ''Fragments of Memories'' includes an instrumental [[LonelyPianoPiece lonely piano]] and [[PlayingTheHeartstrings strings]] reprise of the already gloomy "Winter" from ''Pale Awakening''.
* Music/{{Jason Webley}}'s [[https://jasonwebley.bandcamp.com/track/against-the-night Against the Night]] has a Dark Reprise in the form of [[https://jasonwebley.bandcamp.com/track/again-the-night Again the Night]], which drops the guitar and percussion, turns the accordion up to a mourning roar, changes Jason's voice from smooth to gravelly, and makes the lyrics even MORE melancholy than the original.
* Interface's ''The Perfect World'' album zigzags this trope with "Square One", a [[DespairEventHorizon desperate]] reprise of "It Begins Today", which segues into the TriumphantReprise "Back To the Beginning".
* Bumblefoot's song "Normal" received two different Dark Reprises. The first, on the same album as "Normal" (aptly titled "Normal") is "Shadow" and is about how he starts to fall back into his depression after finally having been normal for a short time. The second is more of a SpiritualSuccessor, though. On the album released after "Normal", titled "Abnormal", we get the title-track, "Abnormal", which is where he's completely crazy and depressed again. Also, "Shadow" is the second-to-last track on "Normal", followed by "Thank You". "Abnormal" is the first track on "Abnormal", making the connection a bit clearer.
* On Music/DJShadow's album ''Music/{{Endtroducing}}'', the already eerie "Transmission 1" which appears near the start of the album is made even more [[NightmareFuel haunting]] in "Transmission 3", the album's finale. This track is fuzzier and more distorted than the original, and ends with a spine-chilling ''Series/TwinPeaks'' sample.
* ''[[Music/GentleGiant Gentle Giant's]]'' album begins with "Proclamation", a song narrated by the oppressive ruler of a kingdom. [[BookEnds At the end of the album,]] the song "Valedictory", which uses the same melody as "Proclamation", is instead narrated by the man who took control and tried to make the country a better place, [[HeWhoFightsMonsters having become just as oppressive and tyrannical as the ruler before him.]]
* ''Music/InTheAeroplaneOverTheSea'', Neutral Milk Hotel's holocaust-themed concept album, has a few of these:
** ''The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1'' is immediately followed by ''The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 2 & 3'', which has a much darker, heavier sound than the original track (which is largely acoustic), though the subject matter is a bit lighter, since the first song dealt largely with [[{{Squick}} abuse and incest]] while the second one talks about spiritual reverence.
** ''Two-Headed Boy'' receives a more standard Dark Reprise in ''Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2'', which is much slower than the original and ties together the original song's ideas about intimacy and identity with the album as a whole's themes of grief, perversion and tragedy.
--->''And when we break, we'll wait for our miracle\\
God is a place where some holy spectacle lies''
* Music/VNVNation's ''Empires'' album reprises the upbeat "Rubicon" as the melancholy "Distant(Rubicon II)".
* ''Music/{{Amnesiac}}'' by Music/{{Radiohead}} features a darker, more orchestral-sounding reprise of "Morning Bell" from Music/KidA in the form of "Morning Bell/Amnesiac".
* Music/{{Ween}}: Music/TheMollusk has a distorted version of the opening track, "I'm Dancing In The Show Tonight", as a hidden track following a few seconds of silence (and then ambience) on "She Wanted To Leave".
* Music/TheCaretaker's ''Everywhere At The End of Time'' album series, an auditory depiction of the progression of dementia, invokes this with its samples of classical and ballroom jazz tunes, several of which were used on the project's prior albums. For example, the "[[HellIsThatNoise Hell Sirens]]" section of ''Stage 4'' is a heavily slowed down and degraded version of the intro to "Granada" by Mantovani and His Orchestra, previously sampled on ''Theoretically Pure Anterograde Amnesia''; and "Place In The World Fades Away", the final track of the series and project as a whole, representing a moment of terminal lucidity before the protagonist's death, resamples the choral piece "St. Luke Passion, BWV 246", which first appeared in "Friends Past Reunited", the closer of The Caretaker's debut album ''Selected Memories From the Haunted Ballroom''.
* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SrDXjsol2U&ab_channel=JonathanYoung Answer the Call'', a ''VideoGame/BaldursGate3'' {{Filk}} song by Music/JonathanYoung, Colm McGuinness, and Rachel Hardy, starts off as a fairly upbeat, triumphant song about the call to adventure and heroism. Then Rachel Hardy takes over for the final verse, which is slower and much more sinister, encouraging the listener to given in to the tadpole's influence and become a mind flayer. She even corrupts the final rendition of the chorus.
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* In the final episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/SixTeen 6teen]]'', the peppy and happy main theme gets a dark, melancholy remake, courtesy of Brian Melo, which serves to drive home the point that yes, the series ''is'' [[BittersweetEnding ending]].
* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': The episode "[[Recap/AdventureTimeS5E14SimonAndMarcy Simon and Marcy]]" has Simon sing the ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' theme song to entertain a young Marceline. When the two are beset by Ooze Zombies, Simon is forced to wear [[ArtifactOfDoom the crown]] to protect themselves and he sings the song in a desperate attempt to hang onto his sanity.
* The [[BolivianArmyCliffhanger final episode]] of ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' begins and ends with a somber version of the show's ending theme.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': [[DayInTheLife The Tale of Iroh]] once has Iroh singing [[http://audio.avatarspiritmedia.net/atla/ATLA%20215%20-%20Little%20Soldier%20Boy.mp3 a fairly happy song]] to cheer up a crying child. He [[http://audio.avatarspiritmedia.net/atla/ATLA%20215%20-%20Little%20Soldier%20Boy%20(Reprise).mp3 later sings it while breaking into tears]] as [[spoiler:he sets up a memorial for his dead son]].
** Only made worse in that the song is about a soldier coming home. [[spoiler:Iroh's son]] was a soldier who died in battle.
*** Not to mention that the whole mini-episode doubles as a [[spoiler:memorial for the actor voicing Iroh up to that point]].
** Even more interesting since the first time the song sends the message that WarIsGlorious. The Dark Reprise instead sends the opposite message that WarIsHell.
** Done to comic effect in another episode, where the leitmotif of the imitation Avatars is the normally awe-inspiring Avatar music played on an off-key tuba.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQOvCOza6Gw The soundtrack to]] the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE22JokersFavor "Joker's Favor"]] has the cheery "Sub Main Title's" melody as Charlie Collins {{Leitmotif}}. The Second song, "Cussing Out the Joker" is a happy variation of the Leitmotif that plays while Charlie Collins is [[MuggingTheMonster Mugging the Joker]]. The third melody, ''I had a bad day'', is a very Dark Reprise of the Leitmotif that plays while Charlie Collins makes a [[DealWithTheDevil Deal with the Joker]].
* A ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' episode does this to the ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' theme when [[spoiler: mind-controlled]] Superman is chasing Terry. Its most notable changes are altering the tempo and reversing the recurring three-note riff. It's very effective at conveying the message that Terry is well and truly boned if he doesn't do something.
* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' - on a field trip, HippieTeacher Mr. Van Driessen stands at the front of the bus strumming his guitar and singing his gentle song "Touch a Mountain" - then the driver slams on the brakes missing a turn, and he plummets out the windshield and down a canyon. The song is replayed in a dark minor key as an emergency medical team airlifts him out.
* ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'': In the ChristmasEpisode, "If I Can't Have Christmas" serves as a dark parallel to "Good Deeds are Good Indeed" played earlier. While the former song is light, bouncy and upbeat and shows how Cricket is willing to prove to Santa that he should be on the nice list, the latter is a more sinister and malevolent melody as Cricket decides to resort to naughty pranks after believing Santa thinks he's just that. Cricket's MelancholyMusicalNumber, "No Christmas At All", also includes a brief somber reprise of the opening song "The Best Part of Christmas", and seems to combine elements of both "Good Deeds" and "If I Can't Have Christmas", making it an extreme mash-up of his thoughts as he begins to realize it was indeed all his fault for almost ruining the holiday for everyone.
* ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'': In "The Old Sugarman Place", one of the flashbacks shows Honey and Crackerjack singing a song together. Later on, Honey duets a somber and melancholic version of the same song with Eddie, as they both [[spoiler:mourn their loved ones, Honey's son and Eddie's wife]].
* ''WesternAnimation/CatDog'':
** In the three-part episode "The Great Parent Mystery", the titular ConjoinedTwins [=CatDog=] at one point find themselves at Yokelburg, a town inhabited by a dog family named [=McDog=] and a family of cats called the Catfields who manage to live in harmony. When [=CatDog=] first encounters the two families, the [=McDog=] patriarch and the Catfield matriarch are singing a song called "Ain't No More", where they list the violent and hurtful things they used to do to each other before they started setting aside their differences. Later, Cat angers the yokels by refusing to marry a girl he burped in front of, which causes the [=McDogs=] and the Catfields to resume their feud and sing a reprise of "Ain't No More" that's now about how the [=McDogs=] and the Catfields living in harmony is no longer the case.
** Played for laughs in the episode "[=CatDog=] Doesn't Live Here Anymore": after [=CatDog=] leave home, Winslow and the greasers realize they miss them and set up a bonfire in [=CatDog's=] backyard, where they sing a sad reprise of the theme song. [=CatDog=], of course, return right as they start singing.
-->'''Winslow:''' One fine day with a whimper and a tear, a beloved [=CatDog=] ran away from here. Our eyes are moist, they're downright soggy, without our precious little cat-doggy!
* ''WesternAnimation/CentralPark'':
** In "[[Recap/CentralParkS1E1EpisodeOne Episode One]]":
*** "Shampagne Was My Best Friend" is one for "Poops I'll Pick It Up", in which Cole mourns no longer being with Shampagne and is consoled by his father.
*** "Central To My Plot" is Bitsy singing about their plot for Central Park, to the tune of "Central In My Heart".
** In "[[Recap/CentralParkS1E5DogSprayAfternoon Dog Spray Afternoon]]", while "If There's A Will" already dealt with Helen's grievances and desire to kill Shampagne for the will, the reprise has Helen even angrier and more focused on killing Shampagne.
** In "[[Recap/CentralParkS1E7SquirrelInterrupted Squirrel, Interrupted]]", Paige sings a reprise of "Can We Do Today Again?", after she feels horrible for allowing Molly to play against a chess master and losing to him. She thinks that Molly's loss will turn her off the game of chess for good.
* ''WesternAnimation/DCSuperheroGirls2019'': "[=#HappyBirthdayZee=]" begins with Zee Zatara singing about how much she looks forward to her birthday. After overhearing her friends complain about how demanding she is with what presents she'd like them to get her, she then sings a dark reprise where she complains about her friends not appearing to care (and unintentionally casts a spell that makes her friends blindly obedient zombies obsessed with giving her a good birthday celebration).
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': The credits music at the end of "Dreamscapers" is a haunting, slow version of the normally upbeat theme song reflecting the jarring mood change brought about by the season finale.
** The final scene of the following episode and season finale, "Gideon Rises", features a slow, mysterious version of the main theme, slowly building up a crescendo to an epic flourish for the [[CliffHanger final moment.]]
** The theme song for all parts of the 3-part finale is a distorted and warped version of the regular one [[HostileShowTakeover that features different characters than usual.]]
** The music for the ending of "Weirdmageddon Part 3: Take Back The Falls" transitions from a piano tune to a slow and acoustic version of the theme. Unlike the other examples, it's a more bittersweet moment, as while it is [[spoiler:the end of the series, it also shows several members of the cast going in new directions of their lives and Dipper and Mabel hopeful for the future]].
** On a lighter note (by comparison), in "Boss Mabel", as Mabel's running herself ragged from dealing with Wendy's slacking off, Soos's antics and the MonsterOfTheWeek, a grim/frantic instrumental version of "Mabel's the Boss" plays in the background.
* ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'': In Book 3, Tuba sings Hazel a cheerful and upbeat lullaby. [[spoiler:It gets a ''gut wrenching'' full version at Tuba's funeral.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'' has an example where the song is exactly the same, but played in a different context. "Take It or Leave It" by The Stingers was originally an egotistical song of disrespect towards the Starlight Girls, who were not happy with The Stingers' attitude. In the later episode "Riot's Hope", however, the song is played as he thinks about his troubled relationship with his father, [[CerebusRetcon which may even be what the song is actually about]].
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' gives us one in "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS2E12DividedWeFall Divided We Fall]]" when Luthor/Brainiac modifies the Brainiac droids into Justice Lord versions to fight the Justice League, playing a dark version of the series opening theme.
* In ''WesternAnimation/KipoAndTheAgeOfWonderbeasts'', Yumyan Hammerpaw's BraggingThemeTune gets a sad piano reprise during [[spoiler: his final moments before he undergoes a permanent DeathOfPersonality]].
* Scar gives the song "Sisi Na Sawa" one of these in ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard''. It's sung by Jaziri in the first regular episode as an upbeat happy song, and in the season 3 opener, Scar sings it to convince a now scarred Kion that he's going to turn evil. "Sisi na sawa means we're the same... though you're made of flesh and I'm made of flame!" Kion denies it, but the venom in his system starts him questioning for a while. When Scar substitutes the "water and rain" part as "fire and flame", [[NiceJobFixingItVillain this causes Kion to remember Mufasa's advice to not fight fire with fire]], and with that, Kion forgives Scar and uses a calmer version of the Roar to destroy his essence for good.
* In ''WesternAnimation/MetalocalypseTheDoomstarRequiem'', "[[VillainSong Magnus and The Assassin]]" has parts of Dethklok's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDggqnnNuDo "Go into the Water"]] and possibly "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNN9MH6UQ3c The Hammer"]] incorporated into it.
* In the [[AnimatedAdaptation TV Special]] of Creator/DrSeuss' ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lorax|1972}}'' all the creatures have a reprise of their introduction song in a minor key as [[spoiler: they each in turn leave the land]], the last one being a reprise of "For He's a Jolly Good Once-ler" after [[spoiler: the Thneed factory shuts down since there are no more Truffula trees]].
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTales'' has Starlight sing about her crush on [[TheAce Ace]] while [[ImagineSpot picturing the two of them]] as a "Perfect Pair". She then joins the soccer team, only to discover Ace is a JerkJock who goes out of his way to humiliate her [[ForTheEvulz just because he can]]. Cue a weepy reprise where she admits "We're... not a perfect pair."
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' had an absolute bombshell of one of these. The Season 2 Finale, A Canterlot Wedding, introduces Twilight Sparkle's brother Shining Armor as the groom. However, his bride [[spoiler:who is actually a fake]] and [[spoiler:the real Princess Cadence]] engage in a DistantDuet entitled "This Day Aria." A few scenes later, the villain, [[spoiler:who reveals herself as the fake Cadence]], reprises the song, and the scenes of carnage and war play while she sings. All in all, it encompasses both types of Dark Reprise.
** The episode also features this with the song "My Big Brother Best Friend". The original upbeat version is about Twilight singing about how she and her brother were so close; the mournful reprise is about how she's managed to ruin their relationship.
--> '''Twilight''': He was my big brother best friend, forever/ And now we'll never do ''anything'' together.
** The episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E14SuitedForSuccess Suited for Success]]" has Rarity singing a song while she makes dresses for her friends. After the other ponies pile on the demands for modifications, she sings a reprise to the same music, but sounds stressed out, and the lyrics have a distinctly embittered tone.
** Rarity gets another one in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E8RarityTakesManehattan Rarity Takes Manehattan]]". After arriving in Manehattan she sings about the joys of being generous, but after [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone she thinks she has destroyed her chances at the fashion show and driven her friends away]] she performs a sad reprise [[GrayRainOfDepression in the rain]].
** Pinkie Pie has one of these in "The Best Night Ever":
---> I'm at the Grand Galloping Gala, and it's ''not'' what I dreamed.
** The beginning of [[BSODSong "Pinkie's Lament"]] from ''Pinkie Pride'' sounds like a sad reprise of the [[ThemeTuneRollCall roll call]] section from the ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyG3 MLP G3]]'' opening theme, whose first verse started with "We'll plan a party with Pinkie Pie...".
** ''Canterlot Boutique'' zigzags this trope with "The Rules of Rarity". First, Rarity sings a dark reprise after Sassy forces her to make and sell only the Princess Dress at Canterlot Carousel, at the cost of her creativity. Then at the end, it has a TriumphantReprise after Rarity's own designs featured in the "going out of business sale" prove to be a success and they are able to keep the boutique running.
* In ''WesternAnimation/OverTheGardenWall'' has "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6vSpUT2K-o Potatus et Molassus]]," an eerie, [[OminousLatinChanting Latin]] version of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4vryZTr6MA&t=31s Potatoes and Molasses]]" that plays while [[spoiler:[[CheerfulChild Greg]] is dying]].
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePatrickStarShow'': In "[[Recap/ThePatrickStarShowS2E9BestServedColdTattooHullabaloo Best Served Cold]]", when the ice cream man chases down Patrick, an ominous, minor-key rendition of the ice cream truck jingle heard earlier plays.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}'': On his birthday, Popeye befriends a lonely little schnook who slowly but surely drives him nuts with his manic accident-prone cheer, singing "Happy Birthday to my pal" right up to the last straw when Popeye ''shoots'' him, and the cartoon ends the song on a somber chord.
* The ''WesternAnimation/PoundPuppies1980s'' MusicalEpisode "Garbage Night: The Musical" featured this in a scene where Howler used an invention to show what happened inside Bright Eyes' body after she ate a piece of meat and Scrounger's body after he ate a piece of cake. Bright Eyes' body is shown to fill up with muscular personifications of vitamins called Vita-Men, and they are given an upbeat song about how vitamins make your body healthy and fight off germs to prevent you from getting sick. Scrounger's body instead fills up with lethargic Blobs, who are given a reprise of the song at a slower tempo that explains how a lack of vitamins makes your body unhealthy and leaves nothing to stop germs from infecting you and making you sick.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'' had this occur on a few occasions, typically when the end shot comes up.
** "The Powerpuff Girls' Best Rainy Day Adventure Ever" had the end shot theme playing in a very slow tone when the girls are called to stop a giant alligator Mojo Jojo released on Townsville after the rain stopped. Having already play-acted this adventure during the storm, needless to say, the girls are not looking forward to having to tackle this job. Even the narrator is annoyed by this.
** "Twisted Sister" [[DownerEnding ends with the girls' fourth sister, Bunny, dying in an explosion]] due to her being unstable and being broken down into her original ingredients. As the girls, and even [[ManlyTears the]] ''[[ManlyTears narrator]]'', are mourning Bunny's death, a very melancholy version of the background music for the end shot plays.
* The last song in the ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' MusicalEpisode "Zanzibar" is Ed Bighead's mocking rendition of "RECYCLE".
* The ''WesternAnimation/SevenLittleMonsters'' episode "It's a Wonder-Four Life" has Four get so annoyed by his siblings' antics that he sings a song of how great it would be if he were an only child and four was the only number that mattered. After he ends up wishing the other six monsters weren't his siblings, he finds the new world to not be as exciting and pleasant as he thought it would be and sings a more somber reprise of the song before wishing things back to normal.
* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'': The [[https://ew.com/tv/she-ra-netflix-final-season-trailer/?utm_term=F42E2432-8AFB-11EA-B24A-FC0E933C408C&utm_campaign=entertainmentweekly_ew&utm_content=link&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&__twitter_impression=true fifth season trailer]] uses a sad reprise of the usually triumphant opening theme, since this is the DarkestHour.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E21BlackWidower Black Widower]]", there's a scene where Selma and the seemingly-reformed Sideshow Bob sing "Somethin' Stupid" together as a duet. At the climax of the episode, after Selma's hotel room blows up and Bob believes his plan is successful, he sings a rather morbid version:
--->'''Sideshow Bob''': ...and then I went and spoiled it all by doing something stupid like explode you!
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E13HomerAndApu Homer and Apu]]", after Apu loses his job, he sings the upbeat song "Who needs the Kwik-E-Mart?", later with the dark reprise: "Who needs the Kwik-E-Mart?...[[IWantSong I dooooooooo]]!"
--->'''Homer:''' He lied to us through song! I ''hate'' when people do that!
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS22E1ElementarySchoolMusical Elementary School Musical]]", the Art Camp counselors (who are actually Music/FlightOfTheConchords) sing Lisa and the other kids a song about how exciting being an artist is. When Lisa travels to Sprooklyn to become an artist, however, they decide to "sing her the truth"; a dark reprise about how [[StarvingArtist being an artist means taking demeaning jobs and living off sandwiches that dropped on the floor]].
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'':
** In "Steven and the Stevens", Steven uses a timeshifting device and starts a band with three alternate-timeline Stevens. They compose and perform a very upbeat song but the band falls apart immediately afterwards due to CreativeDifferences. A massive melee involving dozens of alternate Stevens ensues, and in the end they paradox themselves out of existence. Only one of the Stevens survives, and he performs a Dark Reprise of the original song. The reprise keeps the upbeat mood of the original but has [[LyricalDissonance new verses about learning to be true to yourself by watching yourself die]].
** Also in Steven and the same episode, the other Stevens end up writing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wID__MQ3BvM Big Fat Zuccini]] about how the original Steven is being a jerk. Later in the episode when all the Stevens converge on the point in time where Steven first got his hands on the [[BuffySpeak time thingie]] and start a huge brawl, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSbzna_ottY the background music is an instrumental reprise of Big Fat Zuccini]] that takes a more desperate and downbeat tone compared to the loud angry tone of the original to help convey that [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness the Stevens have completely lost the plot and are seriously trying to hurt and kill one another.]]
** The song [[https://youtu.be/_24rJEKuGaE?t=1m48s "Night Drive 2"]] contains a Dark Reprise of [[https://youtu.be/XnwQQCs1Y7Y "Rose's Theme"]], playing as Greg explains [[GreatOffscreenWar the Gems' dark past]] to Steven in "The Return".
** In the lead-up to "Who We Are" from ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseTheMovie'', Steven laments [[spoiler: the Gems' wiped memories]] by singing "Happily Ever After", but about how the future is wrong.
** In the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture'' we're given the theme [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lT2r022c1o Pink Steven]], a fast paced, soaring tune that plays over the top of Steven tapping into the true depths of his [[spoiler: Diamond]] powers for the first time and giving Jasper a taste of humble pie in the process. Much later into the series, we get [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8a-jvdQlzY Steven VS Jasper Rematch]] during a second sparring match between Jasper and a VERY unwell Steven with the Pink Steven theme taking on a progressively more chaotic and sinister tone to match Steven's unhinged mental state before reaching a panicked, fearful climax as Steven [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill prepares his coup de grace attack]] [[spoiler: and shatters Jasper]].
** Played for [[BlackComedy dark laughs]] in the GrandFinale; the Crystal Gems sing a reprise of the [[TrademarkFavoriteFood Cookie Cat]] {{Jingle}} from [[BookEnds the very first episode]]... and find the lyrics are a lot darker than they remember, not to mention [[HarsherInHindsight creepily applicable to all the horrible stuff they've learned and experienced over the course of the show]]:
---> He's a frozen treat with a whole new taste\\
'Cause [[AlienInvasion he came to this planet from outer space]]\\
[[TheRunaway A refugee]] from [[GreatOffscreenWar an interstellar war]]\\
[[DefectorFromDecadence But now he's at your local grocery store]]!\\
Cookie Cat! He's a pet for your tummy;\\
Cookie Cat! He's super duper yummy!\\
Cookie Cat! [[DarkAndTroubledPast He left his family behind]]!\\
Cookie Caaaat!
* ''WesternAnimation/TangledTheSeries'':
** At the end of the PilotMovie ''Before Ever After'', Rapunzel sings a brief melancholic reprise of "Life After Happily Ever After" as she is forced to be confined within the kingdom walls by her father, feeling locked inside all over again. It then transitions to a TriumphantReprise of "Wind in My Hair" as she vows to face whatever lays ahead of her.
** The special "Queen For a Day" features ArcVillain Varian singing "Let Me Make You Proud" while journeying to Corona to get help from Rapunzel to save his father from the black rocks he was experimenting with. After Rapunzel denied him help because she's swamped with an even worse disaster at hand (Corona is being destroyed by a deadly blizzard curse based on the legend of Zhan Tiri and her own parents are missing), and he was forcefully ejected from the palace, he returns home to find it's too late to help his father. He sings a reprise of this song, which signals his DescentIntoDarknessSong.
---> '''Varian''': Anybody who stands or has stood in my path, they are going to pay! ''They. Will. Pay.''
** The Moonstone's Decaying Incantation as learned in "Rapunzel and the Great Tree" is the complete opposite of the Sundrop's Healing Incantation. Unlike the latter which heals anything making contact, the former is dangerous and destructive, and can harm and kill anything in its path. It even burnt Cassandra's hand. And once Rapunzel starts chanting, she cannot stop unless someone brings her to her senses.
--->''Wither and decay,\\
''End this destiny.\\
''Break these earthy chains,\\
''And set the spirit free.''
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Underdog}}'': In "Riffraffville", when he's running out of energy, a sad SpaghettiWestern style version of the title theme plays.
--> "Once he was lightning, once he was thunder, now this could end him, if he should blunder, Underdog. ''Without his super energy pill, he gets weaker and weaker and weaker still'' ".
** Then subverted when he gets his powers back, and the heroic lyrics return, but still sung in the same SpaghettiWestern style.
* A non-musical example would be Waspinator's catchphrase, "Waspinator has plans..." In the show ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', it's said in a comical tone of voice, but in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'', it more creepy-sounding.
* ''Franchise/{{Shrek}}'': The LyricalDissonance singing info booth from the [[WesternAnimation/Shrek1 first film]] returns in the Halloween special ''WesternAnimation/ScaredShrekless'' with a nightmarish rendition of "Duloc is a Creepy Place", with ominous lyrics and the aftermath of a SugarApocalypse. Some might find it ''less'' creepy than the Stepford-style CrapsaccharineWorld version, but the way the dolls' ''eyes pop out''...

!!Sarcastic Echo

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* Two versions of the song "Aura" in ''Anime/DotHackSign''. One showing the majesty of The World, and the other the horror. Lyrically, however, both versions sound like a VillainSong.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* ''Frosty Returns'' has one called "Let There Be Snow", but it's unique in that it gets ''two'' sarcastic echoes. In the first time the song was sung, the school children are playing and singing about how much they love the snow, while the snow-shovelling adults voice their complaints through song. Later in the special, the song is reprised as the protagonists explore a landscape filled with snow, singing about the benefits of snow. At one point, it cuts to the BigBad CorruptCorporateExecutive sitting in his limousine elsewhere, and the music takes on an industrial arrangement as he extolls his plans on becoming king now that his patented method of getting rid of snow has gone mainstream.
* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda3'': In a meta-example, "Kai's Theme" is a dark remix of "I'm So Sorry" by Imagine Dragons. Hint: He isn't. At all.
* Similar to the above is the song "On the Open Road" from ''WesternAnimation/AGoofyMovie''. Goofy is excited and happy about his road trip with his son, who is inversely angry and depressed about leaving his new girlfriend behind.
* "I Won't Say I'm in Love" from ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'' is one of the lighter forms of the sarcastic echo, with Meg singing and the Muses responding.
* "Welcome To the Show" from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks'' begins with a sinister reprise of the Dazzlings' VillainSong, switches to the Rainbooms for their song, back to the Dazzlings as they employ the avatars of their true forms and begin to overpower the Rainbooms, then finally Sunset Shimmer joins in, leading to a TriumphantReprise of the Rainbooms' song. After being {{depower}}ed, the Dazzlings sing an out-of-tune reprise of their song before being booed off the stage.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGoToTheMovies'', Robin sings "My Superhero Movie" about how his movie needs to be the coolest one ever and have all the superhero movie mod-cons. Slade throws it back in his face in the climax, [[spoiler:while tricking him into being brainwashed by the subliminals in ''Robin: The Movie'']].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/TheProducers'':
** The song "We Can Do It" has Bialystock and Bloom alternately singing about how their plan cannot and is sure to fail, respectively.
** Also, Max's song "Betrayed" is practically the entire show abridged, and includes mocking Leo.
* ''Film/SongOfTheSouth'': Br'er Rabbit is singing a cheerful song called "How Do You Do?" when he happens across the tar baby. When he doesn't get a response from the dummy he picks a fight with it and [[StickySituation gets himself trapped]], whereupon Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear emerge from hiding and sing a brief, mocking reprise.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* During the climactic "Walk Through The Fire" in the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' musical episode "Once More, With Feeling", quotes from the earlier, more positive "If we're together" appear as sarcastic echoes.
* The theme song of the show ''Series/GreenAcres'' is similar to, but lighter than the ''Candide example'', where husband and wife protagonists give radically different versions of the perfect life to the same melody.
* ''Series/KamenRiderKiva'' - The promotional band for the series, TETRA-FANG, did a cover for [[TheRival Nago Keisuke]] a.k.a [[GoodIsNotNice Kamen]] [[AntiHero Rider]] [[KnightTemplar IXA]] called Individual System. He then does his own version of it with the lyrics changed to support his twisted Black and White view of the world called Fight For Justice. He then does it again with his more [[CharacterDevelopment lighter mindset]] called Don't Lose Yourself
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* Used in Lupe Fiasco's already somewhat dark song 'The Die.' The second verse consists of the character's friend trying to convince him that he's safe, while the killer repeats the laundry-list of 'hidden' guns, and the two's plans for the evening and replaces the last line ('Go and get some grub') with 'Catch a few slugs'
** A lot of Fiasco's songs have a darker meaning in them. He can be extremely dark when he wants to be. For example, his smash hit Superstar can sounds cool, smooth and joyful at first, but if you know Lu's music, and know how he sometimes calls out other rappers for the content of their music and all that, the chorus will sound a little scary. If you are what you say you are, a superstar, have no fear.
* The Music/BlueOysterCult and Patti Smith recorded ''The Revenge of Vera Gemini'', where Patti comes in towards the end of the male singer's lines with a sarcastically mocking echo of his words.
* Music/{{Genesis|Band}} used this fairly often, with ''Music/TheLambLiesDownOnBroadway'' in particular containing the example of "The Light Dies Down on Broadway", a Dark Reprise of themes from the album's title track and "The Lamia". Another example is "Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers in That Quiet Earth", which reprises themes from "Eleventh Earl of Mar" in a substantially more sinister fashion.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
* During a famous angle in which his career was almost [[TenMinuteRetirement ended]] [[note]](in {{kayfabe}}, as Hogan was taking time off to heal from legit injuries and to film ''Suburban Commando'')[[/note]] by [[Wrestling/JohnTenta Earthquake]], a video shown on Wrestling/{{WWE}} TV (and later in home video) about Wrestling/HulkHogan started by playing his famous entrance theme "Real American", but cut to footage of Hogan being massacred by Earthquake on "The Brother Love Show," interspersed with clips of Hogan's greatest moments and "happy times," set to a sad, melancholy, string version of "Real American" which ended with a shot of Hogan's locker being slammed shut.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNZPtJzna14 One WWE video]] detailed the history of the company set to Music/KidRock's "Lonely Road of Faith". As the Wrestling/NewWorldOrder were set to debut, they made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCOZIwgzY7k their own version]].
* After Wrestling/TheGreatKhali's hard-to-understand yet heartwarming birthday song to Wrestling/{{Natalya|Neidhart}}, the Wrestling/BellaTwins beat her in a match and taunted her by singing a nasty version of the birthday song.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/HazbinHotel'' has Charlie, princess of Hell and AllLovingHero, publicly detail her plans to open a rehabilitation facility for demons [[AscendedDemon in the hopes that they can redeem themselves to heaven]]. When talking about it doesn't get her point across, she breaks out into her song ''Inside Every Demon is a Rainbow'', explaining her belief that every demon has at least the potential to be redeemed. Later, Alastor the Radio Demon, a [[TheDreaded feared]] and [[HumanoidAbomination nearly-eldritch]] elder of Hell, approaches Charlie and offers his support. He's very open about how he believes Charlie's goal is ridiculous, but he thinks demons trying to redeem themselves and failing [[ItAmusedMe would be great entertainment]], hence he offers his patronage with no strings attached. Charlie accepts Alastor's help, and after implementing a few improvements, he breaks out into his own musical number ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Alastor's Reprise]]''. It's somewhat similar to Charlie's, and it's actually superficially cheerful too, only intentionally ironic instead of how Charlie's was unintentionally twice as ironic. Fitting his early-1900s radio announcer theme, Alastor's song has a bit of a ragtime twist. The former title lyric becomes "Inside every demon is a lost cause."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Videos]]
* ''WebVideo/DrHorriblesSingAlongBlog'':
** "My Eyes" -- inverted, as it starts with Dr. Horrible's negative verse and follows up with Penny's optimistic variation. The overall effect, however, is the same.
** In subtext, Penny's version comes off as darker, since she's blind to the negative aspects that Billy is actually seeing accurately. Also, Billy is a sympathetic character and Penny's being taken in by Hammer (who is an egotistical jerk), so...
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'': Joker has his own version of [[LockAndLoadMontage gear up sequence]] when he decides to become Batman for an episode.

* ''WesternAnimation/SweetSea'''s happy, cheery opening song is reprised in a minor key and with altered lyrics as Sweet Sea cries over the ruined kingdom when Sheeba takes over.
* In ''[[WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Total Drama World Tour]]'''s first song, Noah's only line has him sarcastically echoing the song itself.
** "Come fly with us, come DIE with us."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime]]
* The 1963 and 1980 versions of ''Anime/AstroBoy'' use melancholic or suspenseful reprisals of the main theme in various moments throughout the show. A notable example of this is the final episode of the 1963 show, which plays a choir version of the main theme as [[spoiler: Astro Boy [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices himself to save the earth]].]] The Japanese version of the 2003 show uses a sad music box reprisal of the original theme for [[{{Flashback}} flashbacks of Tobio's memories]].
* Parodied in one of the summer vacation episodes of ''Anime/AzumangaDaioh''. Some RelaxOVision music plays when Nyamo-sensei drunkenly tells the girls about the birds and the bees. When Chiyo-chan talks to her the next morning, the same music plays. Nyamo is horrified at what she hears.
* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' has "See You Space Cowboy", a lower and sadder version of the [[SolemnEndingTheme already solemn]] ending theme, "The Real Folk Blues", playing near the show's end.
* The happy tune that Saya sings various songs to early on in ''Anime/BloodC'' gets played in a slower, darker manner in the final moments of the last episode.
* ''Anime/ReCutieHoney'': One of the villains' lackeys sings a mocking reprise of the [[SignatureSong iconic theme tune]] to lure Honey out after the whole city is convinced that she's only a danger to them, [[HeroicBSoD our heroine included.]]
* ''Anime/CyberTeamInAkihabara'' has his third ending which is a ''very'' dark version of the song "Taiyou no Hana" from the first ending (and played in a joyful version for the second ending)
* The first season of ''Literature/DateALive'' features the "Seirei" theme for the appearance of Spirits (more specifically, it is used for Tohka before she is named as such by Shido). The last episode of the second season features the ominous "Hanten Tohka", during the debut of her Inverse Form.
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' gets one. The ending theme, "Fly me to the Moon" always seemed a tad out of place, even in the beginning, but by the end in the middle of all the MindRape, [[HeroicSacrifice Heroic Sacrifices]], HeroicBSOD's and other assorted wrongness, that damn song just keeps on playing. [[SoundtrackDissonance And it freaks you out]]. Especially in the [[MindRape Arael]], [[HeroicSacrifice Armisael]] and [[HeroicBSOD Tabris/Kaworu]] episodes. WITHOUT CHANGING A DAMNED NOTE!!
** Probably easier to take seriously if you're not a native English speaker and are getting the meaning from subtitles. If you actually understand it, the fact that it's GratuitousEnglish and sounds more like [[JapaneseRanguage "Fry me touda moo"]] kind of spoils any suspense it might create.
* Gainax seems to like this. In the ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' movies, most of the soundtracks have been changed to now HAVE OMINOUS CHANTING ON TOP OF THE MUSIC! It does add to the mood of the scenes, but it sure does freak you out when you know that the voices are chanting.
** And another Gainax-example: ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' has Libera Me From Hell, a remix between the classic, Latin song "Libera Me", and the up-beat rap-song "Rap is a Man's Soul". And that's not the only time they took a classic song and used it in an anime. Just watch the ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' version of Shinji versus Zeruel. THEY'RE PLAYING A CHILDREN'S SONG WHILE SHINJI IS CAUSING THE END OF THE WORLD, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!
** Yet another Gainax example: in the penultimate episode of ''Manga/{{Mahoromatic}} ~Something more Beautiful~'', the music track at the end of the episode gives way to a [[LonelyPianoPiece sad piano remix]] of the generally-happy opening song, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zV22pSPyeE So Re I Yu.]]
* The Grand Magic Games arc of ''Manga/FairyTail'' has the appropiately-named "Grand Magic Games" theme, which has a grandiose tune fitting for a high-scale competition. However, [[spoiler:when the Games end and the conspiracy plot is brought to light, the appropiately-named "The Truth About the Grand Magic Games", with several of the tones striking a dark chord and a different closing, plays, which is fitting for the ''grim'' prospects the plans of the real ArcVillain entail]].
** Predating that, the "Dragon Chain Cannon" theme is a dark reprise of the main theme of the series, which makes sense given that [[spoiler:it plays when the lacrima made out of the Fairy Tail guild is about to be harvested by the titular cannon]].
* In ''Literature/FateZero'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R7sas8bWN4 Let the Stars Fall Down]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWKa5c_AlV0 Manten]] share the same tune, the former being used when Irisviel takes on Kirei and the latter being used as the ending theme for [[spoiler: Kiritsugu's flashback episodes]]. Then there's The Dream Fades Before Dawn #3, where the melody becomes flat out [[OminousMusicBoxTune creepy]]. Fitting that it's featured when [[spoiler: Kirei is about to backstab Tokiomi]].
* ''Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren'' is this to the original ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''. Apart from the DarkerAndEdgier approach, even the soundtrack features Dark Reprises of well-known tunes from the game itself - the random battle theme is now a chilling piano instrumental, and even the iconic OneWingedAngel has been amped up into a rock opera.
* In ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'', the instrumental "Romantic" is played--you guessed it--in romantic moments in the first few instances. It is reprised numerous times later in the series, e.g. when [[spoiler:Miaka tries to kill herself to save her friends and when Mitsukake dies]]
* ''Manga/HunterXHunter'' has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCYm453CE6Y Hyori Ittai]], a fast-paced, upbeat fight song that plays during the second half of the Chimera Ant arc. A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnKfa0xly6o much more somber piano rendition]] plays when [[spoiler:Killua finds a [[DeathSeeker hopeless]] Gon [[PlotRelevantAgeUp having given up all nen he'll ever have]] to take revenge on Pitou]].
* Happens with the anime adaptation of ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable''. The third opening theme, Great Days, has a cheerful and laid-back tune, with a warm color palette and the heroes standing together. However, during the final arc, the opening distorts into a creepy, off-tune mess with a dark and unsettling color palette, and some segments (and even the animation under it) being played backward, slowed down and sped up, to reference [[spoiler:the BigBad's terrifying EleventhHourSuperpower, which loops and distorts time]].
* The dub version of ''Anime/KirbyRightBackAtYa'' uses a foreboding version of Kirby's TransformationSequence music for the scene in "Fossil Fools, Part 2" where a dinosaur made from Kirby's DNA copies the Fire ability.
* ''Anime/MacrossFrontier'' has the song ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHpt2qikj1I Aimo]]'', a love song/lullaby taught to Ranka Lee by her mother. Later in the series, Ranka sings a version created by her manager, ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URzO2BT8l-A Aimo O.C.]]'', which changes the song into a battle hymn. To say nothing of the ~bless the little queen~ version of ''Do You Remember Love''... It's not just a dark reprise of an earlier scene in the series--it's a dark reprise of ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wckZcVFLU24 the most iconic song of the franchise]]''.
* Everyone familiar with ''[[Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' knows about the cheery, happy tune of "Hare Hare Yukai" ("Sunny Sunny Happiness"), the ending theme from the anime adaptation's first season. Included in the {{Image Song}} Album for each of the characters is a version of "Hare Hare Yukai" sung by that character. For the most part they have the same lyrics, but [[EmotionlessGirl Ryoko]] [[CuteButPsycho Asakura's]] version has very dark and moody lyrics about how she has no place in the world and mentions destruction a few times.
* ''Manga/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'' reverses this with Return to the Sea. In its first uses, it's a dark, angry song in which Sara expresses her rage and hatred. However, when Hanon's assertion that Tarou really did love Sara gets to her, she reprises the song with a happier, more optimistic tone ("The inevitable distrust/Is only harmful weakness/Love cannot be defined, but/I want to believe in it again").
* Early on in ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'', Tohru sings a cheerful tune about [[LyricalDissonance annihilating all the dust and garbage]] while cleaning. She sings it again 100 chapters later, only this time it's being used as a PreMortemOneLiner as she prepares to finish off [[spoiler:Jida]].
* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' has several songs that are somber reprises of its most memorable themes.
** "You Say Run" is the series' SignatureSong for some of its greatest [[HellYesMoment "Hell, Yes!" Moments]]. But [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG000ziNVs4 "Anguish of the Quirkless"]] is a somber version that first plays the day Izuku learns he's Quirkless and thus his dreams of becoming a hero are impossible while he and his mom cry uncontrollably over it. The similarly saddening "Supportive Heart" features parts of "You Say Run" and plays when [[spoiler:All Might has used up all of his power as Izuku sobs in his arms]].
** "I Am Here!" is All Might's soaring theme song that plays whenever he arrives to save the day. The far more solemn and gentle "Resting Symbol of Peace" plays as All Might reflects on how little time he has left to be a Hero as he clings to whatever remnants of One For All he has left.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has the melancholic track 'Hahanaru Umi' (Mother Sea), which is a slow piano cover of the series' upbeat theme song 'We Are!'
* The ''Anime/PopeeThePerformer'' episode [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BngiyN-ZfNk "Swallower"]] has a sad instrumental violin and harp cover of its normally upbeat main theme. The episode is notable not only for having both Popee and Kedamono [[DownerEnding dead by the end of the episode]], but also for being one of the only episodes of this BlackComedy to be banned from the airwaves.
* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' has a weird version where the darker version shows up first... in the ''very first scene''. It's a creepy song and fits the dark atmosphere of the scene. It turns out to be a slowed down, distorted version of the ending theme, "Magia", which the show deliberately avoided using until [[WhamEpisode Episode 3]]. The ending version is... only slightly less creepy than the one used in the opening scene. The slowing down and pitching down of "Magia" and other songs in Episode 1 turned out to be a production error exclusive to certain TV broadcasts; it was later [[EnhancedonDVD "SHAFTed"]] back to the regular version in the DVD/Blu-Ray releases.
** Another weird variation comes up late in the series. Homura's theme, "Puella in somnio" (Girl in the Dream) tends to follow her arrival onto a scene without fail, and is a mysterious and airy. A reprise comes in the form of "Inevitabilis" (Inevitable), a heavy and melancholic piano reprise that plays [[spoiler:during Episode 11 when she breaks down in front of Madoka and explains everything before resolving to fight Walpurgis Night by herself]]. While the reprise came up much earlier in the series, it's particularly more poignant in the context of this scene and sets a much bleaker tone from thereon in (which, for ''Madoka Magica'', is saying something).
** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya_PILAheXY Signum Malum]]'' is a darker and more melancholic revision of ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btmSuNcxiIU Sis Puella Magica]].''
** Sayaka Miki's {{leitmotif}} is a somewhat cheery tune called ''Decretum'', which has a slower, more melancholic version called ''Conturbatio''. Later, when [[spoiler:Sayaka becomes a witch]], she is accompanied by a harsh, orchestral version of ''Decretum'' called ''Symposium Magarum''.
*** Oddly enough despite ''Conturbatio'' being the darker, more melancholic version, it's ''Decretum'' that's the dark reprise making this a minor example of SoundtrackDissonance. ''Conturbatio'' plays when Sayaka makes her wish and when she is with Kyosuke, ''Decretum'' plays when she's sinking into despair and when [[spoiler: she turns into a witch]].
** Early on, we have "Venari Strigas" (Witch Hunt) during a fight against a witch. Later on, we get "Surgam Identidem" (I will rise again), which plays during the climatic fight against [[spoiler:Walpurgisnacht, the strongest witch in the story (not counting Kriemhild Gretchen)]].
* While the theme song ("Chirin No Suzu") to the 1978 animated film ''Literature/RingingBell'' was already melancholy from the very beginning. As the movie progresses, the song gets gloomier with newer lyrics added. A notable example is after [[SweetSheep Chirin]] mourns [[MissingMom his mother's death]], he decides to leave the stable and confront the [[SavageWolves wolf]]. As he's preparing to leave, a slower variation of the theme song is heard complete with drums.
* ''Anime/SailorMoon'' uses this to great effect many times. Some examples:
** Most of the dramatic scenes in the first four seasons of the show use a slowed down version of the theme song, 'Moonlight Densetsu', most notably the star locket.
** Sailor Stars also uses a slowed down version of the theme 'Sailor Star Song' in emotional scenes (though there's also a happier, faster version); it's even billed as a separate song in the soundtrack, called 'Makenai' (Don't Give Up). The same trick is used with Princess Kakyuu's theme [[spoiler: in her death scene]].
** The way it happens in TheMovie of Sailor Moon R is probably the most interesting: after Usagi [[spoiler: manages to save 'everybody' as she puts it, with the help of the other senshi and Mamoru, using the power of the Silver Crystal]] in a sequence set to 'Moon Revenge', she uses up all her power and [[spoiler: dies]] the song 'Fukkatsu No Serenade' starts playing, and it's somber and sad, but blossoms into a more hopeful tone as [[spoiler: a contrite Fiore uses his powers to resurrect Usagi]].
** A scary version happens with the Sailor Star track ''Nehellenia Fukkatsu' which is already pretty sinister when normal, but is reprised later in the season, most notably when [[spoiler: Sailor Galaxia '''kills 99% of the Earth's population''']], and it's pure undiluted NightmareFuel.
* Appears in ''Manga/SoulEater'' with the songs "soul-eater (so scandalous)" and "soul-eater (reprise)." The first is a hip-hop tune with WordSaladLyrics used over some title cards and at other light-hearted moments. The second keeps the WordSaladLyrics, but the catchy refrain is gone, some of the lyrics are warped, it sounds a lot creepier in general, and it's generally played when people are going crazy.
** It also has "Black Star (never lose myself)" and "Black Star (lost myself)". The first is a stirring hip-hop song that serves as Black Star's leitmotiv, the second one is a complete jumbled mess with the voice turned incomprehensible and the entire musical arrangement sounding like a carnival on acid.
* ''Manga/SpyXFamily'': In the first episode of the anime adaptation, the cheery tune of the track "Girl's Pastime" is changed to the sadder theme of "Subject 007" when Anya Forger has a flashback to her time at the laboratory she received her powers from.
* ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'' has Unravel, the epic first-season opening, which, admittedly, was already a bit sad as far as the lyrics go, but then it just becomes... ''depressing'' with its special version during the second-season finale. What once was guitars and others becomes just a piano, a violin, a cello, and TK's fragile-sounding voice. While it plays, you see the aftermath of all that's happened in the episode: [[spoiler:Anteiku has burned down, characters are dead and other characters are mourning, and most importantly, ''Kaneki is walking through this all, carrying the body of his best friend Hide in his arms'']].
* Kurogane from ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' has two themes, ''Break the Sword of Justice'' which is high energy action theme, and ''Broken Sword of Justice'' which is a slower more swelled orchestral theme. 'Broken Sword'' plays when Kurogane loses both his parents, his father to combat, and his mother at the hands of a murder.
* In ''Anime/YourName'', the upbeat vocal opening theme, "Yume Tourou", gets remixed into the slow, melancholy instrumental "Kataware Doki" when Taki and Mitsuha [[spoiler:finally meet in person at the lip of the mountain crater]].
* ''Anime/YuYuHakusho'' sometimes uses a melancholic version of the melody of its theme song "Smile Bomb" during sad situations, when Yusuke was in terrible pain from absorbing Genkai's power and Puu tried to give him water.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
!!!'''Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon:'''
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'':
** [[VillainSong Jafar's reprise]] of "Prince Ali". "Prince Ali, Yes, it is he, But not as you know him."
** "One Jump Ahead" and its reprise also qualify: in the first Aladdin sings about what a great thief he is, in the second he wishes people saw that there was more to him than that.
** When Genie puts the palace on the mountain, a sinister slowed down version of "Friend Like Me" plays.
** "Why Me" was a [[CutSong rejected]] alternate reprise of "Prince Ali". In the stage adaptation, it was used as Jafar's introductory song.
** In the third movie ''WesternAnimation/AladdinAndTheKingOfThieves'', everyone is singing about Aladdin and Jasmine's upcoming wedding, but in the middle, it's a slow DistantDuet between Aladdin and Jasmine nervous about the changes going on in their lives.
* "Who's Been Painting My Roses Red?" from ''WesternAnimation/AliceInWonderland'', an accusatory reprise of the cheerful "Painting the Roses Red".
* ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'':
** "[[VillainSong Gaston]]" starts out as an amusing but mostly harmless comedy piece, touting Gaston's "virtues" from the inane ("no-one's got a swell cleft in his chin like Gaston") to the unpleasant yet still funny ("in a wrestling match, nobody bites like Gaston!"). In the reprise, although the tune remains the same, all pretense is stripped away to openly trumpet Gaston's villainy. ("No-one persecutes harmless crackpots like Gaston!") There's a few Dark ''Instrumental'' Reprises in later scenes, such as when Gaston and [=LeFou=] visit Monsieur D'Arque and when he first encounters the Beast in the tower.
** "Death of the Beast" is a sad instrumental reprise of "Beauty and the Beast" and the Beast's leitmotif, and had a rejected alternate version that was considered too light.
** "The Mob Song" seems to follow the same melody as "Be Our Guest," with both the melody and material significantly darker.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'', after the stepsisters rip up Cinderella's dress, dashing any of her chances to go to the ball, and Cinderella goes into the garden to cry, a somber offscreen chorus sings "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" while Cinderella has a HeroicBSOD lamenting that she's lost all hope ([[FairyGodmother or so she thinks]]).
* "Breakout/It Comes With a Pool" from ''WesternAnimation/{{Dinosaur}}'', which is a dark reprise of "Courtship." It's played during the scene where Aladar, the Lemurs, Eema, Baylene, and Url accidentally discover an alternate route to the Nesting Grounds while attempting to find their way out of a large cave. The reprise comes in when Zini the lemur starts to surf in the lake, and the dark part comes in when Eema actually tells Aladar that the old entrance to the Nesting Grounds has been blocked by a huge landslide, and that Kron is threatening all the other dinosaurs into taking that route.
** Also "Across the Desert", which is a slow and somber version of "Raptors/Aladar Meets the Herd". It's played during the scene where Kron forces the Herd (as well as Aladar, the Lemurs, Eema, Baylene, and Url) to march across an endless desert reminiscent of the final act of [[WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}} ''The Rite of Spring''.]] Fortunately, there's a lake ahead...
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}'', following the Pyramid of Pachyderms disaster, [[CoolTrain Casey Jr.]] mournfully hums some bars from his otherwise cheerful theme song.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'':
** "For The First Time in Forever" has a reprise where Anna confronts her sister and tries to convince her to come home and end the winter she made. After Elsa learns she created an endless winter, she starts to panic, her singing quickly drowning out Anna's and ending [[spoiler: with her accidentally striking Anna in the heart with her powers]].
** There's a melodic reprise of "Frozen Heart" as well at the end of that song [[spoiler: which is appropriate because Anna now literally has a frozen heart]].
** "Do You Want To Build A Snowman?" morphs into a Dark Reprise of itself in the final verse. It begins as an upbeat song where the young Anna tries to get her sister to come out and play. The singing stops in the middle to depict their parents dying in a shipwreck. A final verse is then sung by Anna, pleading Elsa to let her in - sorrowfully ending on a tearful delivery of the line "do you want to build a snowman?"
** The cut duet between Elsa and Anna, "Life's Too Short", had its own Dark Reprise. In a way it's also a dark reprise to "Do You Wanna Build A Snowman?" as it uses its melody. [[spoiler:While Anna is slowly dying and Elsa is imprisoned in the castle's dungeon]], they sing about their regrets. While the original is them arguing about how life's too short to put up with one another, the reprise is them realizing that life's too short to fight each other. Anna sounds [[spoiler:painfully like she can barely breathe]] at the end of the song, implying it ended right before Olaf's scene.
** An even earlier CutSong "We Know Better" had a dark reprise. The first portion is about Anna and Elsa growing up together as little kids, having fun and making mischief. The dark reprise begins with civilians doubting Elsa due to her bold personality and frightening powers. Anna and Elsa begin to drift apart as the song goes on while people detest Elsa more and more. It ends with Elsa and Anna discussing princes - with Elsa being distasteful towards them while Anna adores the idea of falling in love - and Elsa repeats the chorus by herself.
** On a score-related note, Hans has a leitmotif during the scene where he first meets Anna. [[spoiler:After it's revealed that he's the BigBad, the theme plays again with a more sinister tone.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/FrozenII'': The score "Ghosts of Arendelle Past" contains a dramatic instrumental reprise of "Dive down deep into her sound. But not too far, or you'll be drowned" from "All Is Found" near the end [[spoiler:when Elsa freezes in Ahtohallan.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame|Disney}}'':
** The film features a lovesick Quasimodo singing about how he has finally found love after years of assuming he was unlovable (''Heaven's Light''). Not much later, these same lyrics are echoed with a new, bitter twist as he discovers this his newfound 'love' is more interested in her KnightInShiningArmor.
--->'''Quasimodo''':\\
I knew I'd never know\\
That warm and loving glow\\
Though I might wish with all my might\\
No face as hideous as my face\\
Was ever meant for Heaven's Light...
** And ''seconds'' after the first instance, Frollo sings his own version, "[[VillainSong Hellfire]]'', about his fury at and lust for Esmeralda.
*** In addition to the instant dark reprise, "Hellfire" doubles as LyricalDissonance. The OminousLatinChanting aka "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confiteor Confiteor]]" is a general confession of sin recited at the beginning of Mass of the Roman Rite in the Roman Catholic Church. It is a strong contrast to Frollo's actual song.
---->'''Frollo''': It's not my fault! ('''Choir''': Mea culpa ''through my fault'')\\
'''Frollo''': I'm not to blame! ('''Choir''': Mea culpa ''through my fault'')\\
'''Frollo''': It is the gypsy girl, the witch who sent this flame! ('''Choir''': Mea maxima culpa ''through my most grievous fault'')
* "The Bare Necessities (Reprise)" from ''WesternAnimation/{{The Jungle Book|1967}}''. It's sung by Baloo and Bagheera as the two both walk off into the sunset after Mowgli bids them both farewell and heads back to the Man-village. Earlier in the film, there is another dark reprise of "The Bare Necessities". Mowgli sings it before Baloo reluctantly attempts to take him to the Man-village.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'':
** Scar was originally going to have a reprise of "Be Prepared". It started with the deleted scene of him trying to court Nala as his mate, then when she refuses and the pride refuses to banish her on Scar's behalf, he introduces them to the hyenas, who in this version had been denied the run of the Pride Lands for some time. They then sing a more traditional reprise of "Be Prepared", warning the lionesses that they now run the Pride Lands as they chase Nala away from home.
** When Scar discloses his intent to kill Mufasa and Simba in "Be Prepared", the hyenas misread it to mean there would be no king at all, leading them to chant "No king! No king!" before Scar angrily corrects them. A choir can be heard singing an ominous reprise of this chant later as Mufasa struggles to save Simba during the wildebeest stampede, moments before being murdered by Scar.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'':
** Scar was originally going to have a reprise of "Be Prepared". It started with the deleted scene of him trying to court Nala as his mate, then when she refuses and the pride refuses to banish her on Scar's behalf, he introduces them to the hyenas, who in this version had been denied the run of the Pride Lands for some time. They then sing a more traditional reprise of "Be Prepared", warning the lionesses that they now run the Pride Lands as they chase Nala away from home.
** When Scar discloses his intent to kill Mufasa and Simba in "Be Prepared", the hyenas misread it to mean there would be no king at all, leading them to chant "No king! No king!" before Scar angrily corrects them. A choir can be heard singing an ominous reprise of this chant later as Mufasa struggles to save Simba during the wildebeest stampede, moments before being murdered by Scar.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'', the usually grand imperial theme plays in a somber tone after [[spoiler:the army led by Shang's father is found annihilated by the Huns]].
* Near the end of ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'', a much more somber and slower variation of "When You Wish Upon A Star" performed on a violin is briefly heard as Geppetto and the others are mourning Pinocchio after Pinocchio died saving Geppetto's life. This is but moments before the Blue Fairy appears and announces Pinocchio's sacrifice is what [[ActOfTrueLove proves himself brave, truthful and unselfish]], and she restores his life and turns him into a real boy.
* "Colors of the Wind (Reprise)" from ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}''. It's a somber, instrumental version of the song "Colors of the Wind" that plays at the end of the film where [[spoiler: John Smith is actually sent back to England as a result of him being shot by accident by the villain while attempting to protect the Indian chief]].
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' has two:
** First, Tiana sings her IWantSong "Almost There" a second time after she's outbid on the restaurant she wanted (or so the realtors claim). Plus a related IronicEcho, when Facilier whispers this as he offers to help her in exchange for his talisman.
** For the second, we have the short Dark Reprise of the VillainSong, "Friends On The Other Side," when [[spoiler:said "[[WithFriendsLikeThese friends]]" [[DraggedOffToHell drag Facilier to his hellish death]], evilly chanting [[IronicEcho "Are you ready?"]] He wasn't ready at all.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuersDownUnder'': While Mcleach was taking Cody to his lair, he sings a twisted version of "Home on the Range".
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'':
** The reprise of "Mother Knows Best". That was already a dark VillainSong to begin with, showing Gothel emotionally abusing Rapunzel under a "good mother" facade. At the reprise Gothel has dropped the facade and is now outright hostile to Rapunzel. The fact that both are ''literally'' in the dark but the first time it's because Mother Gothel closes the curtains, and at the reprise it's because they're outside at night, can be [[{{Symbolism}} symbolism]] for Mother Gothel dropping her facade: the darkness as well as Mother Gothel's attitude is artificial vs. natural.
** The second reprise of "The Healing Incantation" as [[spoiler: Rapunzel desperately tries to revive the mortally wounded Flynn after her hair has been robbed of its healing magic]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'': A more sombre version of Mei's theme plays when Mei is taken home after [[spoiler:she attacks Tyler at his birthday party]].
** A darker version of the panda theme is also used when [[spoiler:Ming, in her red panda form, attacks the 4*Town concert]].
* ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'': The music that plays when the ''Sugar Rush'' characters bully Vanellope and destroy her kart is a darker version of the upbeat theme that plays during the roll-call for the race.

!!!'''Musicals:'''
* ''WesternAnimation/AllDogsGoToHeaven'':
** ''WesternAnimation/AllDogsGoToHeaven: A Christmas Carol'', it manages to have a normal song paired with a Dark Reprise at the same time with ''I Always Get Emotional At Christmas Time''. On one hand, Killer is singing about how he loves Christmas and it makes him feel repentant for his evil deeds while Belladonna's version has her singing about how much she loves doing evil things to people on Christmas.
** The [[WesternAnimation/AllDogsGoToHeaven2 second film]] has the reprise of "[[VillainSong It Feels So Good to be Bad]]", brief as it is. While the first song was simply Red singing about how EvilFeelsGood and how doing evil things can give one pleasure, the reprise is about how the coming success of his plan to steal Gabriel's horn and send all dogs to hell makes ''him'' feel good about what he's doing at the expense of others. The kicker that truly makes this a dark reprise? Carface, the previous song's [[TheChewToy Chew Toy]] is singing along with Red, saying how "it's deeply pleasing to be the reason so many will be so sad".
* ''WesternAnimation/ArloTheAlligatorBoy''
** The aptly titled "College of Broken Dreams", which segues into the BSODSong, is an unhappy mashup of the songs "Better Life", "Beyond These Walls", "More More More" and "Follow Me Home", with more cynical lyrics.
** And just in-between said moments when Arlo falls into the lake at Central Park before plunging into the sewer, the background score is playing a slow, more lustful instrumental reprise of the movie's prologue song, "New York, My Home".
* ''WesternAnimation/CatsDontDance'' uses this trope with "Big and Loud". The first time, [[PepTalkSong Darla is giving advice to Danny about how to impress an audience]]. Once Danny is hustled out the door, the lyrics change as she declares her true intent -- to destroy Danny's career and that of anyone else who gets in her way. The first time she tells Danny, "[Your act]'s gotta be big and loud!" but it shifts to, "They're gonna fall big and loud!" The song is used a third time as she puts her plan into action, with the same lyrics as the second time, as she revels in her victory.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}''
** When Coraline visits the Other Mother's parallel world, she meets the other world's version of Mister Bobinsky (her strange yet friendly house neighbor), who performs his the "Mice Circus" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtDH_YlwuWY song]]. Later, when Coraline heads back to retrieve the souls of the Other Mother's victims, she finds the circus in disrepair and the Other Mr. Bobinsky reduced to a pile of talking rats. The song accompanying this scene presents the feeling of a circus [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIkW6LkX6jw falling apart]].
** Likewise, when she revisits Spink and Forcible's burlesque theater, the bawdily silly song they'd earlier performed plays in the background, [[SoundtrackDissonance making for an unnerving contrast to the gloomy setting]]. Eventually, it becomes a twisted sort of ballet music.
* During the song "Let There Be Snow" in ''Frosty Returns'', Mr. Twitchell sings one with his own lyrics ("There's no more snow!") to an industrial metal version of the tune.
* Inverted and played straight in ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon''. The music playing when Hiccup first encounters Toothless is a sinister version of the "Friendship Theme" played later in the movie. This does however get a true dark reprise during the scene where Hiccup accidentally betrays Toothless by telling Stoick that only a dragon can find the hidden island.
** Also played straight with "Test Drive", originally heard when Hiccup is learning to ride Toothless. A sadder version comes later [[spoiler: after Hiccup lost a leg during his fight with [[BigBad Red Death]], and must learn to walk with a crude prosthetic limb]].
** The Dark Reprise is used to great effect in the [[WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon2 second movie as well.]] The lovers' song that [[spoiler: Stoick and Valka sing together with such enthusiasm and joy when they are reunited]] is later brought back during [[spoiler: Stoick's VikingFuneral]] as a slower, sadder version with mournful background vocals singing during [[spoiler: Gobber's farewell speech to his friend]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie2TheSecondPart'': "Everything's Not Awesome" starts as a dark reprise of "Everything Is Awesome" after [[spoiler: everyone is trapped in the storage bin after Ourmamageddon and they start to lose hope]], but turns into a TriumphantReprise after [[spoiler: Lucy inspires everyone not to give up]].

!!!'''Other:'''
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'': While the first performance of "Remember Me" is a bombastic grandiose ballad, it reappears on a more melancholy note later in the film. In an inversion, the former is actually Ernesto's bastardized version stolen from Héctor, while the latter is how the song was meant to be played, as a farewell lullaby from Héctor to Coco.
* "How Bad Can I Be?" from ''WesternAnimation/TheLorax2012'' was supposed to have one in the cut song "Biggering" where the Once-ler takes a flying leap off [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope the slippery slope]], becoming a villain who is totally aware of the carnage he's causing and choosing to ignore it, rather than the ObliviouslyEvil AntiVillain he stays in the real movie. The piece was removed for being [[DarkerAndEdgier too dark]].
-->'''Once-ler:''' Who cares if some things are dying? I don't wanna hear your crying!
* In ''WesternAnimation/MickeysChristmasCarol'', the background music starting at Scrooge's arrival [[spoiler:at the graveyard]] through Bob Cratchit's exit is mostly an instrumental sad reprise of the opening credits song, "Oh What a Merry Christmas Day".
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks'':
** The B-section of the VillainSong "Battle" is an evil counterpart to the chorus of the "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4WLuR70ZO4 Cafeteria Song]]" from the first ''WesternAnimation/EquestriaGirls''. This part gets an even darker arrangement in the Dazzlings' part of "Welcome to the Show", as mentioned in the Sarcastic Echo section.
** When the Dazzlings have been defeated, they sing the "We will be adored..." part of "Welcome to the Show" horribly, as a result of all their powers gone when their ruby pendants have been destroyed.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyFriendsTiggerAndPooh'' film ''Pooh's Super Sleuth Christmas Movie'', there's "Christmas Isn't Coming," a sad reprise of the special's opening number "Christmas Comes Tomorrow," performed after the Sleuths and the rest of the cast, sans Darby, have given up the quest to reach the North Pole as hopeless.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'', the song "The Plagues" is partially a dark reprise of Moses' earlier IWantSong inversion, "All I Ever Wanted", turning from a celebration of his life as an Egyptian to a lament over having to destroy it to win freedom for the Hebrew. It also doubles as a VillainSong for the Pharaoh, showing his anger at his foster brother's betrayal. Makes it even more dark and sadder if you remember that in-between "All I Ever Wanted" and "The Plagues", Moses' adoptive mother, the wife of the pharaoh, sings a reprise of this song, in a tender, motherly and comforting way, while trying to convince him to forget his true origin and embrace his Egyptian life and his adoptive family.
* "My Kingdom of The Heart" from ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndThePea''. It was sung by Daria earlier as she and Rollo shared a DanceOfRomance, and the reprise is sung when Rollo settles to marry Hildegard and Daria wanders around the forest after being exiled.
* In ''WesternAnimation/PussInBootsTheLastWish'', while burying his clothes for his TenMinuteRetirement, Puss tries to cheer himself up by singing his usual upbeat song "Fearless Hero"...only to break down sobbing over how badly his encounter with The Wolf traumatized him.
* "I Stand Alone" in ''WesternAnimation/QuestForCamelot'' is Garrett's IAmSong in which he embraces his solitude and declares that [[IWorkAlone he works alone.]] He gives it a brief but passionate Dark Reprise towards the end of the film, bitterly repeating the chorus as he unhappily resigns himself to remaining alone.
* In the Creator/ChuckJones adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's ''Rikki-Tikki-Tavi'', Darzee's Chant gets a Dark Reprise when it is thought that [[spoiler: Rikki has been killed offscreen by Nagaina. It then switches almost seamlessly into the triumphant original lyrics]].
* The song "First Toymaker to the King" from the ChristmasSpecial ''Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town'' is reprised as "No More Toymakers to the King" by Burgermeister Meisterburger.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongebobSquarepantsMovie'', there's the Goofy Goober song. Sung at the beginning in a childish, sugary haze, it receives two dark reprises:
** At the [[BadGuyBar Thug Tug]], the head thug realizes there are "babies" in their midst (i.e. [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick), and his method of weeding them out is to line everyone up and play the song at full volume, knowing that "no baby can resist singing along" to it. It becomes a full-on Dark Reprise when the thug, noticing the duo struggling to remain silent, leans right into their faces and starts singing the song in a taunting, sinister voice. They're a second away from breaking when another pair break first and are promptly set upon by everyone else in the bar, allowing them to escape unnoticed.
** The song is reprised in a slower, lower key as the two main characters [[spoiler:are literally being killed; by being dried up by the heat of a lamp's lightbulb shining over them]].
* In the ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'', "LaResistance" begins as a rousing anthem in the vein of "One Day More" from ''Theatre/LesMiserables''. "La Resistance (Reprise)" is a duet between the Mole and Kyle as the Mole dies.
** "La Resistance" also provides a very short version of this for Satan's [[IWantSong oddly poignant]] VillainSong, "Up There." The original has him sing "Up There there is so much room/Where babies burp and flowers bloom," while he adds in the reprise, "Tomorrow night ''[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Up There is doomed]]...''"
** Also in the song, the brief reprise of 'Uncle Fucker'--as Terrance and Phillip await their pending execution, they sing "Looks like we may be out of luck/Tomorrow night, we're pretty fucked!!"
** The SettingIntroductionSong "Mountain Town" is quite cheerful, but [[MyBelovedSmother Sheila]]'s verse [[EstablishingCharacterMoment establishes her personality]] with its cynical lyrics and darker background music.
* '' WesternAnimation/{{Thumbelina|1994}}'':
** The song "Let Me be Your Wings" has a dark reprise halfway through the movie, called "Once There was the Sun". She sings this in lamenting [[spoiler:Cornelius' apparent death]].
** When Thumbelina goes missing, her mother sings a sad reprise of Thumbelina's IWantSong "Soon".
* "Friends to the End (reprise)" from ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTheMovie'', which plays when WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry start to chase each other again, all without any dialogue.
* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'' begins with a montage of clips of Andy playing with his toys while 'You've Got a Friend in Me' plays, until [[spoiler: suddenly the music stops and the line 'our friendship will never die' is the last line you hear]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'': The first song heard in the film is Charles Muntz's theme, a jaunty and optimistic tune that represents the inspiration he brings to Carl and Ellie. When Carl meets Muntz at Paradise Falls and his theme returns, it gradually takes on a far more sinister tone as his true intentions are revealed.
* ''WesternAnimation/WallE'' has an interestingly reversed version of this, with the "dark" version coming before the 'light' one. In the first act, the titular robot watches a video of "It Only Takes a Moment" from ''Theatre/HelloDolly'', with the sappy romantic lyrics serving only to accentuate the hopeless loneliness of his existence. The song is used throughout the film as a {{Leitmotif}}, until at the very end of the film it gets a full reprise, only this time played straight.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Jaime and Landon from ''Film/AWalkToRemember'' have a {{Leitmotif}} specific to them. Among these is "The Kiss" which is played on guitar. It's dark reprise is "Jaime in the Hospital" where the guitar is counterpointed by a sad violin.
* ''Film/{{Across the Universe|2007}}'': "I Want You" is an interesting case, where it starts as a dark song about war conscription, then has a "light reprise" (not quite triumphant) as Sadie and Jojo share a romantic moment. It then has another reprise, as [[spoiler:Prudence]] sings the song, this time about her unrequited love for Sadie. So the third time the song is sung, it is a Dark Reprise of the second time the song is sung, while that second time is a light reprise of the original, dark song. Also is almost a Sarcastic Echo, since [[spoiler:Prudence's]] lines almost make it a duet with Sadie's; however, the tone is more heartbreaking than sarcastic.
* ''Film/AhBoysToMen'' has a dark rendition to the marching song "Training to be Soldiers" used in the prologue where a lone female singer sings it solemnly as Singapore is invaded [[spoiler:though it turns out to be part of a video game in an internet cafe]]. Another version is used in real National Service to torment Aloysius for running away from a brawl in a restaurant.
* ''Film/BabyDriver'' has an inversion that segues into a straight example. Midway through the film, after what he believes was his OneLastJob, Baby dances his way out of a junkyard while listening to "Easy" by Music/LionelRichie. At the end of the film, after his ''real'' OneLastJob, Baby and Debora listen to [[spoiler:a tape of Baby's mother performing]] a more quiet, sombre rendition of "Easy" as they drive away to their new life... [[DiabolusExMachina only to run straight into a police roadblock]]. The song keeps playing as a full-on Dark Reprise as [[spoiler:Baby allows himself to be arrested to spare Debora from jail, and is sentenced to a lengthy prison spell.]]
* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'': The main title is a mildly dark reprise of the first movie's theme music. It's played on lower instruments and, while still sounding triumphant, there is a certain foreboding to it.
* ''Film/Barbie2023'': PlayedForLaughs. Barbie is introduced cheerily going about her morning while "Pink" by Music/{{Lizzo}} plays, the lyrics talking about how perfect and happy Barbie and her life are. The next morning, after Barbie's existential crisis has begun, the same song plays with new lyrics about her "inescapable thoughts of death," all while [[LyricalDissonance keeping its upbeat tone]].
* Creator/TimBurton's two ''Film/BatmanFilmSeries'' films have some:
** ''Film/Batman1989'':
*** The film has what could more properly called a "Darker/Sarcastic Reprise," we have Music/DannyElfman's "Waltz to the Death." This is played as [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]], having first revealed his clown-face to the audience, murders his former boss by [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill shooting the old man six times from various angles]]. Here the music is more darkly funny than scary, though it does segue into a creepy lullaby tune played on chimes at the end of the scene. Much later, toward the end of the movie, "Waltz to the Death" is heard again as Batman stalks the Joker in the cathedral belltower, only to be ambushed by his gang while the Joker forces Vicki Vale at gunpoint to dance a waltz with him. Now the tune is less brassy than before, with a weird dreamlike quality that ''would'' be a Light Reprise if it weren't so out of character for the Joker (it's really disturbing to see a man who had previously murdered a young boy's parents while taunting in a demonic voice being portrayed as a romantic gentleman, albeit a villainous one) and if it didn't abruptly fall off toward the end into [[NothingIsScarier almost total silence]]. Even before then, the howls of rage and pain as the Joker's {{Mooks}} and Batman beat the tar out of each other [[SoundtrackDissonance do a great deal to undercut the supposedly light mood of the piece]].
*** Inverted on the movie's pop soundtrack by Music/{{Prince}}. "Batdance," his dance mix at the end of the album, takes some of the darker songs that have gone before ("The Future" most notably) and parodies them by remixing them in a goofy "deejay" style.
** ''Film/BatmanReturns'':
*** During the "Lair" sequence, we hear a poignant, hopeful violin piece as The Penguin speaks of returning to the world above and once again being accepted as a human being. After he has been rejected once again and vowed to kill all the children of Gotham City, the Penguin's theme is heard once more...this time (once again) in "chimey, creepy lullaby" style as the Penguin plays with an umbrella from which have been hung [[SubvertedInnocence various toy animals]].
*** Another inversion occurs with "Selina Transforms." When we hear it the first time, the piece ''starts out'' tragic and just goes downhill from there, mounting to what sounds like a [[Creator/AlfredHitchcock Hitchcock]] [[ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs movie score on acid]] as Selina Kyle loses her mind. "Selina Transforms" is then heard again at the end of the movie, but now it is LighterAndSofter, [[AlasPoorVillain an elegy of sorts now that Catwoman is apparently dead]].
*** "The Finale" soundtrack in ''Returns'' can be considered a Dark Reprise to the first film's "The Finale." Both scores end with church bells being rung three times before segueing into Batman's main theme, but while in the first film, they're being rung in a triumphant tone, in keeping with the second film's BittersweetEnding, the bells are being rung in a slower, more somber mood.
* In ''Film/BituingWalangNingning'', Lavinia sings "I Just Called To Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder early in the film. Dorina sings the same thing later but it ends with Lavinia throwing a drink in her face.
* The Disney adaptation of ''Film/BridgeToTerabithia'' plays the Steve Earle song, "Someday", twice. The first time it's played, Jess and Leslie are starting to have feelings for each other as they began developing a blossoming friendship, with them having a HeldGaze on each other during the song. The same song is played again near the end... [[spoiler: after poor Leslie suffered her DeathByNewberyMedal and drowned in a creek, the day after her funeral]], where the same replayed song is instead dark, sombre, and with Jess in mourning.
* Parodied (or played straight, or...who the hell knows?) in ''Film/TheBrothersSolomon'', in which the power ballad "St. Elmo's Fire" (from the film of the same name) is used first as a general triumphant anthem for the titular brothers. During their (extremely brief) falling out, a more sombre, acoustic version of the song is played.
* The 1951 version of ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'' has the old folk song "Barbara Allen" as the leitmotif of Scrooge's kindly sister Fan - when she dies giving birth to his nephew the tune is played in a dark minor key. Then played again toward movie's end, when he reconciles with his nephew, in a warm cheerful fashion (at least as much as the lyrics allow).
* The graveyard scene in ''Literature/AChristmasCarol: The Musical'' has a brief dark reprise of "A Place Called Home", as well as dark reprises of "You Mean More to Me"(when the Cratchits are mourning Tiny Tim) and "God Bless us Everyone"(sung by Grace Smythe and the ghosts of Fan and Mrs. Scrooge right before the Ghost of Christmas Future drops Scrooge into his grave, with a touch of SoundtrackDissonance).
** Additionally "Dancing on Your Grave" features a dark reprise of the instrumental intro of the already grim "Link by Link" as its main vocal melody, and of "Jolly Good Time" and the main melody of "Link by Link" as Scrooge's possessions are divided up, whilst "Yesterday, Tomorrow and Today" is the same tune as the warnings the Spirits sang to Scrooge earlier in the second half of "Nothing to Do with Me".
** The Money Montage segment originally used a dark reprise of "The Lights of Long Ago", but it was omitted from later productions and the film. It still has a [[{{Scales}} minor-key]] instrumental reprise of "Mr. Fezziwig's Annual Christmas Ball" when Marley dies.
* One of the earliest examples of this in films occurs during the first half of ''Film/CitizenKane''. As Charles Foster Kane is embarking on his political career, he brings a marching band and a line of chorus girls into his conference room to sing a ''very'' upbeat rendition of "There Is a Man, A Certain Man" to the assembled businessmen and politicians at the conference table. ("Who is this man? It's Charlie Kane! He doesn't like that 'Mister'; he likes good old 'Charlie Kane'!") Much later, after Kane has lost the race for New York governor under ''extremely'' humiliating circumstances, a much slower and even dirge-like version of "There Is a Man" is played as an instrumental tune as Kane's campaign workers clean all the confetti off of the stage.
* ''Film/ConAir'':
** Poe reads his daughter Casey's letter to him which says "My Daddy is coming home on July 14. My birthday is July 14. I'm gonna see my Daddy for the first time ever on July 14". After Poe is outed as a traitor, Cyrus reads the letter again but ending it memorably with "Make a move and the bunny gets it".
** Garland and a little girl sing "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands". He sings it again as the plane crashes into the Las Vegas strip.
* Early in ''Film/DarlingLili,'' Lili performs "I'll Give You Three Guesses" as a cheery, wholesome song-and-dance number. Later, [[spoiler:after discovering her jealousy of Crepe Suzette,]] she changes it to a striptease.
* ''Film/DeadPoetsSociety'': After [[spoiler:Neil's death]], the society's theme plays mournfully as the remaining members try to pay tribute, with [[HeroicBSOD Todd breaking down from trying to process this]].
* ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'':
** Edward and Giselle sing "I've Been Dreaming of True Love's Kiss". When they reunite, he sings this to her again but she forgets the words.
** A sad instrumental of " That's How You Know " plays when Narissa manipulates Giselle into eating the poisoned apple.
* In ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'', Gerald O'Hara has the song "Peg in a Low-Backed Car", [[DrunkenSong which he sings every time he gallops home drunk]]. It's PlayedForLaughs until his SanitySlippage takes effect later in the book. [[spoiler:While singing it, he attempts to jump the gate, falls off his horse, breaks his neck and dies.]]
* The opening theme to the first Harry Potter movies, is dramatically skewed for the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mObK5XD8udk Deathly Hallows part 2 trailer]].
* ''Holiday Heart'' starts with Holiday doing his drag act by lip syncing to "Baby Love" by The Supremes. A flashback shows that he sang this song at his husband's funeral. His in-laws were disgusted by his display and had him dragged off.
* The ventriloquist's song in ''Film/KungPowEnterTheFist''.
-->"We are both ventriloquists, ventriloquists, ventriloquists. We are both ventriloquists and we practice everyday. He carries the basket! He carries the paper roller! and we don't have cysts. But there is one thing that's for sure my friends, we are ventriloquists."
-->"We are both ventriloquists, but now we're upside down. I swing a bit more. I swing a bit less. But we both swing if you know what we mean."
* "Gong Jin'ou", the national anthem of the Qing Dynasty, is sung formally in ''Film/TheLastEmperor'', then gets sadly reprised one last time before the Qing abdicate.
* One of the new written songs for ''Film/TheLittleMermaid2023'' is a [[https://youtu.be/bdBdtm9pukY?si=crcncN1dkzCaSjxy melancholic reprise]] of "Part of Your World", which plays [[spoiler:as Ariel laments that she has nowhere to go after finding out about Eric's engagement with Vanessa, who's actually Ursula in disguise, and has tricked him with Ariel's stolen voice]].
* Inverted in ''Film/{{Logan}}''. "Old Man Logan" (a bleak, depressing western-type track) plays at the beginning, while we see the muted agony he lives through day by day (As he's pulling out his stuck claw with his bare hands, while hungover and covered in fresh wounds). However, at the very end, [[spoiler: when he finally dies, having saved the mutant kids, with his daughter holding his hand]] we hear the same music start, only to turn into the sweet, emotional reprise "Don't Be What They Made You".
* In Creator/PeterJackson's ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers'', we see Gollum singing joyfully while catching fishes in a mostly comical scene. However, at the start of ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing The Return of the King]]'' we see a flashback of how he became what he is, and the song echoes in the background as he sinks his rotting teeth into a raw, live fish, and the song emphasises how degenerate, wretched creature he became under the Ring's power.
-->''♫ The rock and pool\\
Is nice and cool,\\
So juicy-sweet!\\
Our only wish,\\
To catch a fish,\\
So juicy-sweet! ♫''
* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:
** The trailer for ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' uses a slow, nightmarish version of "I've Got No Strings" from ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}''. Post VillainousBreakdown Ultron is actually singing this in bits and pieces, in the Quinjet.
** The closing credits of ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' (which are also the first in the MCU to completely avert the CreativeClosingCredits) are set to a sombre orchestral piece, which ends with the film's title card [[spoiler: scattering into dust]] over a quiet piano-rendition of the normally epic and bombastic Avengers-theme that accompanied the title cards of the [[Film/TheAvengers2012 previous]] [[Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron two]] films.
** The triumphant "Wakanda" from ''Film/BlackPanther2018'' gets a of mournful rendition in "Killmonger vs.T'Chaka" the moment that [[spoiler:Killmonger kills Zuri and takes advantage of T'Chaka's rage afterwards to seemingly kill him]] and mixes parts of "Killmonger" and "Ancestrial Plane" for his [[spoiler:[[TyrantTakesTheHelm taking of the throne]]]]. Then it gets a bittersweet reprise when [[spoiler:T'Challa kills Killmonger]] in "The King's Sunset"
* In ''Film/MaryPoppins'', an already dark song gets an ''even darker'' reprise. "Feed the Birds" is first sung by Mary to the Children, and later played in an orchestral version [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYsSyCtjuNI as Mr. Banks heads off to be fired]]. The reprise continues relatively toned down as Banks walks alone through the London streets until he reaches St. Paul's... and its steps are completely barren, of birds and bird woman alike. At this point the orchestra swells to its full tearful majesty as Mr. Banks looks skyward, forlorn and desperate.
** Earlier, after Mr. Banks sings a self-pitying song about said firing (itself a Dark Reprise of "The Life I Lead", Mr. Banks' theme), Bert (Bert!) gives him a [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech Reason You Suck Song]] by both echoing "The Life I Lead" and reprising "A Spoonful of Sugar" into a song about Banks' neglect of his children for his work. However, when it reaches "A Spoonful of Sugar" it becomes briefly uplifting again, as Banks realises what is truly important to him.
* The trailer for ''Film/MissionImpossibleRogueNation'' features a menacing version of "Ready or Not" by the former hip-hop group The Fugees.
* In the soundtrack to the Creator/KennethBranagh movie of Shakespeare's ''Film/MuchAdoAboutNothing1993'', the melody of the wedding march at Hero's first, doomed wedding reappears (in minor key) as her dirge when she is believed dead. By contrast, no music is played at the second wedding (during which the audience knows that the bride is Hero, alive and well, but her groom believes her dead and thinks he is marrying her cousin) until the moment she lifts her veil. This is very effective in setting the mood for all three scenes.
* While not exactly a reprise, ''Film/TheMuppetChristmasCarol'' had a sad little echo of 'Bless Us All', sung by Tiny Tim about how he and his family have so much to be grateful for, played as it pans over his crutch after his death with his family in mourning. It also contains a Light Reprise of 'When Love Is Gone' sung while Scrooge is left by his fiance sung at the end as 'The Love We Found' after he changes his ways. Sadly, the first song was cut from the theatrical release (and only reinstated on some video releases), meaning that the finale is less poignant.
* Veda sings "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" by Manfred Mann a couple of times on ''Film/MyGirl''. She sings it again frantically when she gets trapped in the basement which is used as a mortuary.
* Jack's reprise of "Santa Fe" in ''Film/{{Newsies}}'' is pretty damn bleak.
* In ''Film/TheNuttyProfessor1963'', Buddy Love sings "That Old Black Magic" much to the delight of a club full of youngsters. Later, he sings it again drunkenly after hours. The girl he is with starts to see how limited his appeal really is.
* Inverted in ''Film/OneHundredAndTwoDalmatians'' when we get a light reprise of TheVillainSucksSong from the first movie talking about the confusion of why Cruella is being nice and is now an animal lover.
* In ''Film/PaintYourWagon'', [[PreacherMan The Parson]] leads the citizens of No Name City in ''The Gospel of No Name City'', warning them against their wicked ways or God "will gobble up this town and swallow it down." Naturally, the townsfolks [[InsultBackfire take the Parson's preaching as a compliment]]. The song is reprised by the chorus, with one modified line [[note]]"Your reckoning day is near." to "Your reckoning day is ''here''".[[/note]], when No Name City actually sinks into the Earth.
* ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': The soundtrack version. The film reverts Godzilla's TriumphantReprise from ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'' into a darker, slower, more foreboding theme similar to the original version, reflecting Godzilla's more hostile and antagonistic-seeming role in this film compared to how the previous film made him out to be a heroic, deity-like being.
* ''Film/LastNightInSoho'': Cilla Black's "You're My World" features in a glorifying context during Ellie's first vision of Sandie, but it returns in a haunting context as [[spoiler:Sandie/Miss Collins attempts to kill Ellie in the climax. Sandie's rendition of the song as she stalks with a knife colors the loving lyrics as an obsessive MurderBallad ("you're every breath I take"), while the violin from the song now sounds more like full-blown PsychoStrings. The song shifts back into Cilla's rendition, but remains dark due to being ironically and tragically joyous against the struggle and the full picture of Sandie's life]].
* ''The Phantom of the Opera'' movie musical ends with a sad melody of Christine's breakthrough hit "Think of Me" when the elderly Raoul [[spoiler: visits her grave]].
* ''Film/{{Predator}}'' has a pop-music version: As the commandos' helicopter is touching down in the jungle, the guys are full of macho bravado, slathering on camouflage makeup and trading humorous insults, while Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally" blasts from a cassette player. Later in the movie, Mac chases the Predator into the jungle suffers some SanitySlippage and begins [[MadnessMantra heedlessly babbling]] the lyrics of the song again.
-->Long Tall Sally. She's built sweet! She's got everything that Uncle John needs! Oh baby. I'm gonna have me some fun tonight. I'm gonna have me some fun. I'm gonna have me some fun. I'm gonna have me some fun...
* Compare the ending song of "Everyone Wants to Rule The World" (by Tears for Fears) in ending of ''Film/RealGenius'' to the trailer of ''Film/DraculaUntold''. (By Lorde). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OS7UEqTmXk First. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hne-eJOeZzA Second.
* "Ramona On My Mind" on ''Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld'' is played sadly again after she gets back together with Gideon.
* ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic'':
** "Edelweiss" comes up twice in the movie: First as a straightforward sign that Captain von Trapp is finally opening up to his family, and later as a defiant but bittersweet statement of patriotism in the face of a Nazi takeover that will do away with the country he loves. It's a subtler version in that the song is performed in the same key, performed by the same person, and does not differ until the Captain falters in his singing. (This is only a Dark Reprise in the movie version; on stage, the song is sung in the later scene only.)
** The second-act reprise of "My Favorite Things" begins as this, with the children trying to cheer themselves up after Maria has left, but it doesn't work. Then it turns into a TriumphantReprise as Maria returns and sings along with them.
** The children sing "The Sound of Music" for the Baroness when she arrives and this leads to their father bonding with them. Later on after Maria has left and the children are depressed, Max tries to get them to sing. Thus the song becomes sadder and some of the children are unable to do it. (This is again only in the film version; in the stage version, the Captain stops them from singing the song again at this point.)
** "So Long, Farewell". The first time, the Von Trapp kids sing this to a bunch of amused guests. The second time they sing it to a festival sponsored by Nazis, and begin their RunForTheBorder immediately after all of them are conveniently offstage. However, the trope is averted in that the song is played the same way both times (not counting the faster version the orchestra strikes up at the end of the latter scene, when it becomes clear that the family has escaped).
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** ''Film/StarTrekBeyond'' has a dark reprise of "Enterprising Young Men" when the ''Enterprise'' is attacked and boarded by Krall and his {{mooks}} and a sad reprise when [[spoiler:what's left of her crashes on Altamid]].
** In the opening of ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'', there's a more of a tragic dark reprise of the classic Trek theme leading up to the introduction of Harrison.
* ''Franchise/StarWars''
** Inverted at the end of ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', where the celebration music is a '' childrens' choir'' doing a "light" version of the Emperor's exceptionally dark {{Leitmotif}} (far grimmer than, if not as immediately imposing as, the Imperial March), foreshadowing the coming darkness. Similarly, at the end of ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'', a more triumphant version of the Imperial March is played, underscoring that while the clones appear to be a good thing at the time, evil will come of them later.
** Anakin's Theme from Episode I repeatedly utilizes six notes from the Imperial March in a soft, light piece.
** Most of the end credits music for ''Attack of the Clones'' is the love theme, with a different ending--it segues into the main thrust of the March, as played slowly on a double bass.
** The iconic "Force Theme" has several variations ranging from solemn and contemplative (the "Binary Sunset" scene) to triumphant (Leia honoring the heroes for blowing up the Death Star, young Anakin blowing up a [=TradeFed=] battleship), but perhaps the darkest variant plays during the final stage of the duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin.
** Another inversion occurs when Anakin Skywalker dies at the end of Episode VI, where the Imperial March is reprised quietly on a solitary harp.
** In the ''Literature/ShadowsOfTheEmpire'' soundtrack, "Leia's Nightmare" is a dark version of the "Han and the Princess" love theme mixed with the Imperial March. This is originally in the soundtrack for ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' during the carbon freeze scene.
** Yoda's death music in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' is a sad reprise of his theme and the Force theme.
** Star Wars is made of this trope. Most of the consequential music pieces are darker versions of earlier pieces of the trilogies.
* Parodied in ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'': "America, Fuck Yeah" is played again later on in the movie, when Gary has left the team and the rest of them go to fight Kim Jong-Il alone. The musical tone is sad and subdued in the reprise, but the lyrics are exactly the same, which is to say, relentlessly boisterous, boorish and ultra-patriotic. The soundtrack actually labels this song as the "Bummer Mix".
* ''Film/Titanic1997'': Near the middle of the movie, Jack is singing 'Come Josephine' to Rose as they stand near the front of the ship because it feels like they're flying. Later, singing the song is the only thing keeping Rose alive. Also, the music that plays during the dramatic final plunge of the sinking (aside from that played by the actual musical trio, of course) consists heavily of the main theme of the movie, but in a darker and more frantic tone.
* ''Film/TrainToBusan'': Su-an's initial performance of "Aloha'oe" (Farewell to Thee) is shown at her school recital. She had practiced it with the intention of performing it for her dad, who [[DaddyDidntShow didn't show up]] to the recital. [[spoiler:She sings it loudly at the end, letting the Busan soldiers know that she and an accompanying pregnant lady are both human, and not zombies. Fittingly, it's a farewell song - and she chose it for her dad, who killed himself after he was bitten and infected by a zombie, just minutes ago]].
-->''♫ Aloha 'oe, aloha 'oe\\
Until we meet again... ♫''
* ''Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen'' has a Dark Reprise of the iconic 'landing of the Autobots' scene from the first movie, with ''landing Decepticons'' causing widespread damage.
** Many of the musical themes from the first film are gone, and Optimus's theme becomes the backbone of the score. However, it's never in the same tone of the previous film, which was performed on a woodwind and with minimal percussion to make Optimus's theme sound more organic. The two main treatments are a minor-key variation with dark brass, and a more "spiritual" take (generally used for scenes involving the mythology and taking place after [[spoiler:Optimus's death]]) utilizing a OneWomanWail. To hear the effect in full, listen to the track titled "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMnEY2eBj4A Optimus]]" from the first film, then the one titled "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frADyjHdiKE Prime]]" from the second.
** In ''Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon'', the scene in which the Autobots are exiled and forced to leave Earth is accompanied by a heartbreakingly sad reprise of the "Arrival on Earth" theme from the first movie: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5JWLnMfOZY There is No Plan]]".
* ''Film/TronLegacy'': The opening notes of "Adagio for Tron" are the same notes (in a lower key) as the sweet end credit music from the first film.
* The original theme from ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}'' gets a more distorted remix combing motifs from its StealthSequel ''Film/{{Split}}'' in the GrandFinale ''Film/Glass2019'' with the track "David & Elijah", in which [[BigBad Mr. Glass]] himself threatens [[TheHero David Dunn]] that a whole lot of people will die at the hands of him and [[TheBerserker the Beast]] unless if [[PunctuatedForEmphasis he. Breaks through. That. Door!]]
* Music/PinkFloyd's ''Music/TheWall'' features a darker reprise of an already-dark song. "In The Flesh?" expresses Pink's disillusionment with life, or, alternately, an outsider's view as Pink starts to isolate himself. Later, "In The Flesh!" shows Pink's graduation into a full-blown fascist after a psychotic breakdown.
** "Hey You" could also be considered another darker reprise of "Another Brick In The Wall" (Parts All) as they both share the same guitar riff. "Another Brick in The Wall" being about Pink's anger at the world and feelings of abandonment which leads him to build the Wall while "Hey You" is about the crushing despair and loneliness he feels once he completely withdrew behind it only to find that he was trapped behind the wall.
*** The various parts of "Another Brick In The Wall" are gradually darker reprises of one another too, while each is of a rather dark subject matter (His father dying, his cruel authoritarian teachers, and his wife cheating on him and leaving him respectively) they get increasingly angry and deranged with each passing part, Part I is rather cold about it, part II is much louder and more aggressive, and Part III is by far the angriest and loudest with the same ghostly guitar riff used in all of them becoming much louder and faster.
* In ''War Comes to America'', the last film in the ''Series/WhyWeFight'' series, the song ''My Country, 'tis of Thee'' plays over an animation of America's early expansion. At the end of the film, a dark version plays over scenes of Pearl Harbor on fire, morphing into a TriumphantReprise as FDR calls for war against Japan.
* A few times in Creator/WillFerrell movies:
** In ''Film/AnchormanTheLegendOfRonBurgundy'', the day after he goes out with his attractive co host, Ron Burgundy and his crew sing "Afternoon Delight." Later, he has lost his job and all respect, and is now sitting drunk at the bar, singing the same song in a drunken, sad way.
** In ''Film/BladesOfGlory'', the song for the pairs first performance is "Don't Want To Miss A Thing." After his partner refuses to speak to him, he leaves many messages on his phone, one of which is a sad, drunken version of that song.
** And ''Film/SemiPro'': Jackie Moon earned all his money that he bought the Tropics with using royalties from his song "Love Me Sexy." He later goes through a HeroicBSOD of sorts, and sings a variation of that song while lying in a dumpster. Yes, it's sad and drunken.
* ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', in a scene that was ultimately cut from the movie for being a little too long and depressing, had Dorothy doing a Dark Reprise of the famous song "Over The Rainbow" after being trapped by the Wicked Witch in her castle. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_0Ir9P7xQQ The performance]] is said to have reduced the cast and crew to tears. The remainder of the scene is kept in the movie: Dorothy cries out to Auntie Em how frightened she is, and Aunt Em appears in the crystal ball. After begging Dorothy to tell her where she is, she vanishes into a swirl of light. The swirl converges onto the witch, mocking her "Come back! Come back!" She cackles at Dorothy before turning [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou toward the camera (the audience) and cackling as if to say, "You're next!"]]
* ''Film/TheIronClaw'': "Live That Way Forever" is first performed by Mike and his band as a fun number at a grungy college party. Later, a Softer and Slower Cover of it plays as [[spoiler:Mike commits suicide.]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', Bilbo and Frodo sing almost the same song as they leave the Shire. A single adjective is the difference between Bilbo's song of adventure and Frodo's complaint the arduousness of his task.
-->('''Bilbo's version''') Now far ahead the Road has gone\\
And I must follow, if I can\\
Pursuing it with ''eager'' feet...\\
('''Frodo's version''')\\
Pursuing it with ''weary'' feet...
* Children's story ''Literature/{{Superworm}}'', by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler of ''Gruffalo'' fame, invokes this of all things with a reprise of the "Superworm is super-long, Superworm is super-strong" theme after Superworm's capture.
** Crow: [[spoiler:Superworm is good to eat! Superworm's a special treat!]]
* In ''Literature/ATreeGrowsInBrooklyn'', Francie is horrified to hear her father come home singing the last verse of "Molly Malone" ("She died of a fever, and no one could save her..."), a verse he otherwise never sang. [[spoiler:He dies a few weeks later.]]
* [[TheFairFolk Bast's]] cheerful "Elderberry" counting rhyme from the prologue of ''Literature/TheWiseMansFear'' gets a much darker repetition at the end, where he uses it first to decide [[spoiler:what implement to use on two bandits who [[BerserkButton hurt Kvothe]],]] and then [[spoiler:which of them to kill first]].
--> Barrel. Barley.\\
Stone and stave.\\
Wind and water.\\
'''''[[BewareTheSillyOnes Misbehave]].'''''

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* A sinister cello version of Jenna's Turkish pop song "Muffin Top" plays during ''Series/ThirtyRock'' episodes when she or Tracy are up to something.
* Austin, from ''Series/AustinAndAlly'' sings a slow acoustic version of the upbeat title song in ''Albums & Auditions''. The lyrics are all about how Austin can't do what he does without Ally. The sad situation of Ally leaving the group to go to New York makes it a Dark Reprise.
* ''Series/Babylon5'': Early in season 1, we hear G'Kar singing a merry Creator/GilbertAndSullivan-inspired song comparing the acts of fishing and flirting while preparing his dinner. Fast forward to season 4, and G'Kar is trapped with his ArchEnemy Londo Mollari in a burning elevator. G'Kar begins to softly sing again, but wit new lyrics, this time comparing Londo to the freshly caught fish.
* ''Series/BatesMotel'': In season 2, Norman and Norma sing "Mr. Sandman" as an audition for a community theatre musical. In season 4's "Forever," Nan Vernon's SofterAndSlowerCover of the song plays as [[spoiler:Norman turns up a broken furnace and starts closing air vents so that he and Norma will die of carbon monoxide poisoning]].
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** "Under Your Spell". [[spoiler:In the first version, an upbeat love song, Tara uses the title phrase metaphorically; later Tara discovers she is literally under a spell to prevent her breaking up with Willow, and the Dark Reprise uses the phrase literally.]] The second version is actually a double version of this, seeing as it's a duet with an (even) Darker Reprise of Giles' earlier "Standing".
** In "Walk Through the Fire", Tara reprises Buffy's lines from "If We're Together": "We can't we face / If we're together?"
* ''Series/CobraKai'': [=S2E10=] begins with the original version of "Cruel Summer" playing, and ends with Kari Kimmel's slow, somber version of the same song.
* In the ''Series/ColdCase'' episode "Daniela", the titular Daniela and her boyfriend Chris have sex to the tune of "Please Don't Go" by KC and the Sunshine Band. They are later caught by Chris' father and Chris is forced to renounce her for being transgender. He hears "Please Don't Go" again at prom and it convinces him to run back to Daniela's apartment. [[spoiler:The song ebruptly ends when Daniela shoots herself.]]
* ''Series/{{Community}}''
** In "Paradigms of Human Memory", there is a montage of Annie and Jeff being secretly romantic set to "Gravity" by Sara Bareilles. Jeff retorts that the same can be applied to Pierce and Abed. It then shows the same montage of the two set to the same song. Troy, at least, finds it gross.
** The episode where Annie accidentally breaks Abed's ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' DVD, Troy walks in on her while he is humming [[RunningGag "Daybreak"]]. After telling Annie to confess, Troy walks away while humming "Daybreak" again, but this time crying while doing so.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E13LastOfTheTimeLords "Last of the Time Lords"]]: At various points remixed versions of "All the Strange, Strange Creatures" appear, with added instrumentation, in order to evoke a more desperate, partially tribal feel.
** Series 3's "This is Gallifrey" gets this more than once:
*** We hear a quieter, sadder version play when the Doctor talks about Gallifrey in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E6TheDoctorsDaughter "The Doctor's Daughter"]].
*** The music that plays as we see the ruined Gallifrey in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]] is a jaded version.
** From the same episode, we have a reprise of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMAljnqRf40 "Song for Ten"]], which appears very briefly towards the end.
** The music in the final scene of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens "The Pandorica Opens"]] is a dark reprise of Amy's theme.
** The Eleventh Doctor's secondary theme, "The Mad Man With a Box", is given a dark reprisal towards the end of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E13TheBigBang "The Big Bang"]], entitled "The Sad Man With a Box".
* A sad rendition of Sybil and Branson's love theme "Emancipation" plays after she died in ''Series/DowntonAbbey''.
* ''Series/EntertainmentTonight'' uses a LonelyPianoPiece version of their theme whenever a celebrity dies.
* The background music during the final scene of the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' episode "Jaynestown" is a sad, subdued, instrumental version of the earlier "Ballad of Jayne".
* In the ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' episode "Brown Betty", the story version of Walter is introduced amongst the cheerful sound of corpses singing The Candyman. Later, he sings it to himself as his son abandons him and he is left to die alone.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'' uses this trope several times:
** The first appearance of King Robert is heralded by a grand song called "The King's Arrival". The theme is then played as "You Win or You Die" at the climax of the eponymous episode. Then in the second season premiere, another more dark version of the theme, "The Throne Is Mine", plays when guardsmen hunt down and systematically kill Robert's bastard children throughout the capital. Inverted in the same piece when it transitions into "Black of Hair", a more triumphant rendition of the Baratheon theme, when Gendry escapes the purge. Then it's given an even darker and creepier reprise in Season 3 as [[BigBad Littlefinger's]] theme "Chaos Is a Ladder".
** "The House of the Undying", played during Daenerys' BadFuture vision in the House of the Undying sequence near the end of "Valar Morghulis" is a grimmer rendition of "Finale", the track played over the reveal of the dragons at the end of the first season, mixed with elements of "The Wall".
** Theon's theme, "What Is Dead May Never Die", first heard when he returns to the Iron Islands, gets a twisted and dissonant reprise in "A Man Without Honor" to hint at his deteriorating mental state. This is taken further in Season 3 when it sped up and set to a drum beat to reflect Theon's panic during his flight and later corrupted into "Reek" when Ramsay tortures Theon into accepting his new name.
*** "Chaos is a Ladder" ''itself'' receives a Dark Reprise, an eerie and lonely five notes when [[spoiler:Littlefinger finally lies dead in a puddle of blood, executed by the Starks for his crimes against them]].
** In the final episode of the second season, "Valar Morghulis", a very grim, foreboding version of the series' main theme called "Three Blasts" is played when [[spoiler:an army of dead led by the White Walkers approaches the Fist of the First Men]]. In the same episode, a mournful version of the main theme is played on [[PlayingTheHeartStrings a sorrowful violin]] as the Stark kids, Hodor and Osha survey the burnt wreck of Winterfell.
** In a season 3 episode, the Brotherhood without Banners sing "The Bear and the Maiden Fair". In the end it is reprised as a heavy metal riff [[spoiler:after Jaime gets his hand cut off]].
** Music/TheNational's "The Rains of Castamere" during the end credits of "Blackwater" acts as this for a far more cheery rendition performed by Bronn earlier in the episode. Then in "The Rains of Castamere", the eponymous music is played during the Red Wedding, were Robb and his bannermen are killed, and again when Ned Starks sword has been reforged into two swords. Finally it is played following [[spoiler:the death of Joffrey]] and upon [[spoiler:Tywin Lannisters death at the hands of Tyrion]], signifying the beginning of the end of the Lannisters. In a bit of irony Tywin is very much the reason how the music came to be.
*** Later done ''again'' in the show's penultimate episode, "The Bells". After [[spoiler:Cersei and Jaime are crushed beneath the falling rubble of the collapsing Red Keep,]] Music/SerjTankian provides the song's final reprise, which is also the most bombastic yet tragic as it signifies the near-death of the House. For extra irony, the manner of their deaths mirrors the houses mocked in the song. The pair are trapped under ground like House Reyne, buried by their collapsing castle like House Tarbeck, and killed as the city is being sacked, much like Elia Martell and her two children during Robert's Rebellion were at Tywin's orders.
** The sixth season finale opens with "Light of the Seven", a lovely piano piece that slowly adds the cello and organ along with vocalizations. As the piece goes on, Cersei and Loras' trial by the Faith begins. [[spoiler: As Lancel spots the wildfire, though, and Margaery begins to put two and two together]], things speed up musically, quickly turning south along with the action. As the situation becomes more tense, the organ starts playing the main theme of the show in a frantic and alarming manner. [[spoiler: And then, when the music cuts off, the wildfire ignites, destroying the set.]]
* In Season 4 of ''Series/{{Glee}}'', Blaine sings a stripped-down [[http://gleeperformances.tumblr.com/post/32923092681/teenage-dream-acoustic-version version]] of Teenage Dream to his boyfriend Kurt before admitting that he cheated on him. The usual upbeat and happy version song is the first one Blaine ever sang to him back in Season 2.
* In Creator/TheBBC adaptation of ''Literature/{{Gormenghast}}'', Lady Fuschia sings a childish (and rather stupid) rhyme to announce herself in the first episode ('I am Fuschia, I am me...') and in the final episode, Steerpike sings a seriously twisted version gloating about his utter madness and the fact that he has [[spoiler:mudered several members of Fuchsia's family, including her two aunts, whose corpses he is dancing around at the time]]. And it's all downhill from there...
* The theme for the documentary series ''Series/JimmySavileABritishHorrorStory'', detailing historic child sex offences against Creator/JimmySavile, is a darker version of the theme for ''Jim'll Fix It'', the show he was most associated with.
* In Flemish series ''Series/KabouterPlop'' by Creator/Studio100, the show's theme sometimes plays in a sober tone whenever a sad moment occurs between the characters.
* Franchise/KamenRider:
** Series/KamenRiderDouble has the energetic, electric guitar heavy ImageSong for Double's Cyclone forms, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ejbsgUiDJE "Cyclone Effect"]]. In the penultimate episode 48, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoovQE_JqiI a slower, somber acoustic version]] plays as [[spoiler: Shotaro closes the Double Driver, causing Philip to fade from existence]].
* The opening theme of ''Series/Loki2021'', "TVA", receives an intense and ominous arrangement for the end credits of the first season's final episode, [[spoiler:which is a reflection on the state of the TVA after He Who Remains dies and Kang takes over in that episode]].
* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'' introduces Halbrand as a MysteriousStranger that Galadriel meets in the middle of the sea. First hint that he is from the Southlands, comes from the hardanger fiddle performing same instrumental as the ''Southlands'' theme. His theme is melancholic and rustic, but gets a twisted and ominous arrangement in the final episode of Season 1, right before [[spoiler:acknowledging he is Sauron]].
* The episode preceding ''Series/{{Lost}}'''s fourth season finale introduces the show's [[http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Home_theme home theme]] as a happy, sentimental motif. The episode's final moment's transform it into a [[http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Of_Mice_and_Ben song of doom]].
* In the Series 4 finale of ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'', a lovely piece of music plays over [[spoiler: Gwen's coronation]]. Come the finale, the same melody returns in the scene when [[spoiler: Arthur dies]]. Talk about MoodWhiplash.
* ''Series/TheMickeyMouseClub'': Now it's time to say goodbye to all our company.../M-I-C (...you real soon!)/K-E-Y (Why? because we like you!)/M-O-U-S-E...
* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' does this in several episodes with their theme song, both with 'darker' versions as well as several sad versions. Interestingly, they often only change the speed of the song.
** "The Stories We Leave Behind," the episode where Ducky dies (reflecting the passing of his actor, Creator/DavidMcCallum), uses a piano arrangement of the theme song,
* ''Series/{{Power}}'': The season 6 mid-season finale and finale, "No One Can Stop Me" and "Exactly How We Planned", play a sad version sung by Jacob Banks of the opening theme, "Big Rich Town", over the ending scenes of [[spoiler: Ghost falling after being shot]] and of [[spoiler: Tasha being booked into jail]].
* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'':
** Episodes of ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' usually end with a brief, chipper instrumental reprise of "Go, Go, Power Rangers" before the credits. However, a darker, slower and uncompleted reprise closes darker endings such as the earlier episodes of arrivals the evil Green Ranger and Lord Zedd and after [[spoiler:the [[AllYourBase Command Center]] [[DarkestHour is blown up]] at the end of third season]].
** In ''Series/PowerRangersWildForce'', the standard music for the combination of the Wild Force Megazord begins with a jungle drumbeat, symbolic of the show's theme. When Zen-Aku combines the Predazord for the first time on screen, it's personal theme begins with an off-key version of the Wild Force Megazord's theme.
* In ''Series/RobinHood'', when Isabella first shows up, she's accompanied by a very dark, off-key remix of Marian's theme, indicating that her betrayal was planned from the start.
* John's theme in ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' is shifted into a minor key for the music that plays when he is [[spoiler: mourning Sherlock]].
* In ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds'' MusicalEpisode "[[Recap/StarTrekStrangeNewWorldsS2E09SubspaceRhapsody Subspace Rhapsody]]", we have "I'm The X", a slower, downbeat, straight-line version of the song before it "I'm Ready". While "I'm Ready" is about Nurse Chapel taking up a three-month fellowship even if it means dumping Spock, "I'm The X" is Spock realizing that he let his emotions get the better of him on the offchance he had met someone with similar likes, only to be dumped so easily, leading to him hardening his heart and returning to his more logical leanings.
* A variant from ''Series/StrangerThings'': the already ominous [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqffY-6OVKc theme]] used for [[spoiler:[[DarkWorld the Upside Down]]]] gets a slower and even more threatening reprise 51 seconds into [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRLLlKN3hw8 "Rats"]]. The latter plays during a scene in [[Recap/StrangerThingsS3E1ChapterOneSuzieDoYouCopy the third season's first episode]] where [[spoiler:[[BigBad the Mind Flayer]] enacts its plan to create a flesh proxy in the real world by forcing several dozen rats to ''[[BodyHorror explode into viscera]]'']].
* ''Series/TheStoryOfTracyBeaker'' featured a slow, sombre piano rendition of the theme song that would play over more poignant moments, typically involving Tracy and her [[ParentalAbandonment absent mother]]. Results in a bit of LyricalDissonance given the upbeat, positive nature of the lyrics.
* In each episode of ''Series/TheSweeney'' the opening theme are upbeat and heroic, while the closing theme is the same themes but slower and in a minor key, reflecting Regan's incomplete success and his regrets for the compromises necessary to achieve even that.
* In ''Series/TheTemptations'', "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" is first heard when David is listening it by himself and soaking in how good he sounds. It gets played again when he crashes a Temptations concert and he steals the microphone and sings it himself. He also begs to be let back in the group.
* In episode seven of ''Series/TheTerror'', when [[spoiler: a demented Hickey brutally stabs Lieutenant Irving to death]], a twisted version of the song that Irving was singing ('Hampstead is the Place to Ruralize') at the Carnivale in the previous episode can be heard.
* More of an even darker reprise of already dark music: In ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'': Children of Earth "Day One", "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8J40oteXow Countdown to Destruction]]" plays over the imminent [[spoiler: destruction of the Hub]] and a very passionate kiss between Jack and Ianto. Come "Day Four", the same music plays when Jack and Ianto confront the 456, which [[spoiler: doesn't end well]]. The real gut punch? The very same snippet that played over the kiss in Day One plays as [[spoiler: Ianto collapses]] in Day Four.
* The promo and first trailer for ''Series/TheTwilightZone2019'' use a dark, ominous remix of the theme for [[Series/TheTwilightZone1959 the classic series]].
* In ''Series/WalkingWithBeasts'', when the Neanderthals attack the mammoths, the music that plays is a mix of the ones played during the mammoth migration and Megaloceros hunt but darker and with chanting and drums.
* ''Series/TheWire'':
** In the penultimate season 2 episode, a jaunty folk tune plays when Frank decides to stick it to the Greek. It plays again when they meet to discuss getting Frank's son Ziggy out of prison [[spoiler: except the Greek's FBI mole found out Frank talked to the cops so he's walking to his death]].
** The season 1 version of the theme song plays over the series finale montage, indicating that nothing has changed in Baltimore.
* One episode of ''Series/TheWonderYears'' opens with Kevin extolling the virtues of his sweetheart Winnie as the Beach Boys' classic "God Only Knows" plays. The song is used again at the end of the episode when [[spoiler: Winnie dumps Kevin]].
* ''Series/WynonnaEarp'': The theme song, "Tell That Devil", is usually fast-paced in order to reflect the action-packed nature of the series. However, in the episode "Colder Weather" it's much slower and more somber, reflecting the InUniverse mood following [[spoiler: the death of Dolls]] in the previous episode.
** A similarly somber version of the theme tune plays over one of the final scenes of the Season 3 finale as [[spoiler: Doc ascends to Eden to rescue Waverly]].

[[folder:Music]]
* Music/{{Nena}}'s hit "99 Red Balloons" is a song about 99 red balloons being mistaken for a threat on radar and the nuclear holocaust starting. It's not exactly a sunshine song, but it's rather upbeat. Then the melody and lyrics turn soft and wistful for the final verse:
-->99 dreams I have had
-->And every one a red balloon.
-->It's all over and I'm standing pretty
-->In this dust that was a city.
-->If I could find a souvenir
-->Just to prove the world was here...
-->And here is a red balloon
-->I think of you and let it go...
* Music/TheWho's ''The Kids Are Alright'' from ''Music/MyGeneration'': The middle two sentences [[spoiler:("I know, if I go, things will be a lot better for her. I had things planned, but her folks wouldn't let her.")]] change the meaning of repeated verse.
* In ''Music/TheProtomen'', Mega Man declares "As I live, there is no evil that will stand, and I will finish what was started - the fight of Protoman", when he first decides to avenge his brother. He repeats the line near the end of the opera, only this time, he's referring to [[spoiler: trying to force humanity to fight for itself by allowing Dr. Wily to slaughter it]].
* Music/ArcadeFire's album ''Music/TheSuburbs'', about the appeal and dream-crushing nature of the aforementioned place, ends with a dark reprise of the titular song, representing (in one interpretation) the overwhelming nature of the suburbs. It ends with a slow fadeout of the words "Sometimes I can't believe it/I'm moving past the feeling", implying that while the protagonist once railed against the suburbs vociferously, he has given up his fight as futile.
* Music/{{Muse}} has the song Hyper Music which is an upbeat noise rock song... and also Hyper Chondriac Music, which is the same song but done in a mournful acoustic style. The lyrics were about someone going through a breakup and the stages of anger and depression respectively.
* Music/SkinnyPuppy's ''Remission'' has "Glass Houses", and its more sinister reprise, "Glass Out".
* Cord Lund's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1V3JW4HeBs I Wanna Be in the Cavalry]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVRbEGlB4sc its reprise:]] The [[WarIsGlorious first song]] is an upbeat country song about a young recruit, full of eagerness and enthusiasm who wants to join the cavalry. [[WarIsHell The reprise is a song about the hardships of being of a cavalryman in the 19th century]], disease, starvation, and the elements and all. To add to the bleakness, the narrator is a soldier [[HopelessWar in an army fighting]] [[DespairEventHorizon a losing war]].
* In Music/JoannaNewsom's album Have One On Me, the final song, [[http://youtu.be/-LgQhfusf_E Does Not Suffice]], is a Dark Reprise of the central [[http://youtu.be/ZOFbj3Fk4fw In California]]. Whilst In California is about the evaluation of a relationship, which is threatened by distance, homesickness and a fear of commitment, Does Not Suffice is a definite break-up, as the voice describes packing her belongings and leaving her lover, stating that "everywhere I tried to love you is yours again and only yours". The "chorus" of In California, which focused entirely on a sense of indecision, is echoed in Does Not Suffice by a series of resigned, defeated lalala's, which fade away as they are overwhelmed by strings and a burgeoning, crashing electronic drone (a stark mechanical presence in an album full of pastoral imagery). Definitely darker.
* In "Leave The Bourbon On The Shelf" by Music/TheKillers, it's the line, "And I love you endlessly, darling, don't you see, I'm not satisfied." The line isn't as noticeable at first, because it goes by quickly and the music is still playing, but when the music fades out and the song puts special emphasis on it by making it the last line in the entire song, it seems like they are trying to tell you something. [[spoiler: And they are: The next song in the trilogy, "Midnight Show", has the narrator killing his ex-girlfriend, whom the first song was also for.]]
* ''Music/EvilliousChronicles'':
** "Daughter of Evil", begins with the line, "There was, once upon a time, an evil kingdom that no one dared to face, and the ruler was a girl so mean, a little princess of only age fourteen". This line is repeated at the end, right before [[spoiler: the princess is about to be executed- though it is really her twin brother taking her place.]]
** In "Drug of Gold", the line "The two of us going won't be so bad" is repeated twice. The first time, it refers to the singer learning that his [[ArrangedMarriage fiancée's]] dream is to travel around the world. The engagement is broken off, and the singer later starts working as his former fiancée's chef, under a false identity, becoming increasingly horrified by just [[ImAHumanitarian what]] she has become. The second time the line refers to him resolving to [[KillTheOnesYouLove poison her]] [[MurderSuicide and himself]].
* In the Music/{{Vocaloid}} song "Kagome, Kagome" (Circle You, Circle You), Miku and Luka singing the words to the game (which is a real game, by the way) starts out already being extremely creepy. But when you find out their reasons for being in the abandoned orphanage and the things that happened in the orphanage before it was deserted, you realize that they are very likely [[spoiler: murderous ghosts]]. The line gets even darker when they sing it a second time.
* Music/NeYo's album ''Libra Scale'' opens with "Champagne Life", which is an easygoing, upbeat party tune, full of vitality and celebratory swagger. The album closes with "What Have I Done", a regretful look back at past mistakes and broken love whose backing track echoes the carefree tune of "Champagne Life" with piercing guilt.
* Lit's "Miserable" has this happen all within the chorus: "[[IntercourseWithYou You make me cum]]/You make me complete/You make me completely miserable."
* Music/GreenDay's "¿Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl)" from their RockOpera ''Music/TwentyFirstCenturyBreakdown'' is a Dark Reprise of one of the earlier songs, "¡Viva La Gloria!" While the latter is that of one of the main characters, Christian, praising and encouraging Gloria to "start a war", the former is that of Christian accusing her of being a useless "dirty liar".
* In the ''Domain'' concept album The Last Days of Utopia, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7CoAw_ZBsg this song]] is played when the main character is washed up on the shores of the titular city, and is breathtaken at its majesty. Later on, after the destruction of the island and with the main character floating alone lost at sea, we get [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70RplPqHwzs this]].
* Happens within a single song for Music/TheDarkestOfTheHillsideThickets' concept album ''The Shadow Out of Tim''. The song is called "Operation: Get the Hell Out of Here," and the chorus goes "Take your time, take your toll, everything's under control/Execute Operation: Get the Hell Out of Here" until after the last verse of the song, where the protagonists accidentally unleash an EldritchAbomination, it's changed to "Take your life, take your soul, everything's out of control/Execute Operation: Get the Hell Out of Here".
* The last song of Caamora's opera based on the novel ''She'', The Fire of Life, is full of these.
** Partway through the song, Leo reprises part of a much earlier song, Covenant of Faith. But instead of hopeful and optimistic, it's now full of despair. The line "But I won't turn back from this journey that I take" in Covenant refers to his exploration of the lost island they've washed up on, whereas in Fire he's referring to his decision to bathe in the Fire of Life and rule the island as its immortal king.
** Shortly after, Ayesha's "Wait for me" chorus has the same melody as the instrumental introduction to the song, but with a quiet, almost ethereal quality to it.
** Finally, the ending chant of "She Ayesha, She Immortal" is the same as the one in the prologue of the entire opera, except now it sounds hectic and desparate as the volcano erupts around the protagonists.
* "The Princess Who Sleeps In A Glass Coffin" from Music/SoundHorizon's ''Märchen'', Snow White sings a darker, more vindictive version of the song's first verse once she's revived.
-->With skin white as sorcery, hair black as obsidian,
-->And lips red as the flame, I have been reborn.
-->If your burning envy has made you sin, then with burning shoes,
-->You shall dance until you die!
* Music/Front242's ''Front By Front'' reprises "Until Death (Do Us Part)" as "Agony (Until Death)".
* The fourth (and final) movement of Music/PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky's ''Symphony No. 4 in F Minor'' (Op. 36) can qualify as this. Right after the fast, energetic melody at the very start, a fairly light and upbeat version of a Russian melody "In the Field Stood a Birch Tree" follows, played by flute and oboe. The melody returns later in the movement, much more melancholy, and slower in tempo. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLHj-eekdNU Listen to this for an example, and particularly, listen to 0:15, 1:35, and 4:05.]] This is perhaps even more pronounced in his ''Symphony No. 6 in B Minor"" (Op. 74). Light and joyful second theme of the first movement is used in a minor key in a unusually slow, depressive and hopeless fourth (and final) movement. Moreover, some parts of a similarly light second movement appear as a coda of the fourth movement, but now they transform into a shape of a funeral march. The fact that the author has died only nine days after the first performance of this symphony cannot make symbolism any stronger.
* Music/MauriceRavel's ''La Valse'' can be considered as a deconstructed variation. The piece itself can be considered as a homage to Johann Strauss, but with nasty twists. The first half of the piece starts with a set of melodies; some are sweet, others are exciting, all are generally benign. The second half shows fragments of the melodies arranged differently, becoming progressively more jerk-y and dissonant. The piece tries to bring itself together back again at the end (with a repeat of the first melody), but utterly fails, resulting in an atonal, dissonant, and savage ''danse macabre'' ending. All of this alludes to the rise and decline of 19th-Century Vienna, and eventual destruction by UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_valse Read this Other Wiki page for more info.]]
* Music/PinkFloyd's ''Music/TheWall'' has a couple:
** "In the Flesh?" opens the album with Pink discussing his vaguely defined issues: "''If you wanna find out / What's behind these cold eyes / You'll just have to claw your way through this disguise.''" When it repeats on the fourth side, it's about his (perhaps imagined) descent into fascism ("''If I had my way, I'd have all of you shot!''")
*** The film adaptation takes it further, where "In the Flesh" is redone in an orchestral format in order to fit with Pink's hallucination of him speaking at a Neo-Nazi rally instead of performing at a concert.
** "Another Brick in the Wall"'s three versions go from laments about Pink's childhood and education to a violent rejection of all human contact as he retreats behind his self-built Wall.
** At the very beginning of "In The Flesh?" we hear very soft, calm music which is pretty easy to not notice and the first couple words we hear are "...we came in?" At the end of the album in "Outside the Wall" is the exact same music and in the closing seconds of the album we hear "Isn't this where-". It's worth nothing that "Outside the Wall" is about Pink finally escaping from behind the emotional wall he's built between himself and everyone else, so "Outside the Wall" leading back into the very beginning (which after the soft part turns into the same music as in the later "In the Flesh" when he's at the height of his troubles). In case you haven't put it together yet, he's right back where he started.
* The Cruxshadows' ''Ethernaut'' gives "Winter Born" a dark reprise with "A Stranger Moment", which uses the same progression as the former's main riff and verse. The formers' lyrics speak of a hero's LastStand in a DarkestHour, while the latter appears to be about the character's ApocalypticLog or a MessageInABottle to his loved ones.
* In ''[[Music/{{Hero}} !HERO: The Rock Opera]]'', there's a Dark RepriseMedley. Right after "Execute" on the same track, there's the reprise to "Intentions" where Jude is DrivenToSuicide for betraying Hero, and then immediately after that there's the reprise to "Hero" and "Lose My Life With You" as the characters singing it realize that Hero is dead.
* The Frozen Autumn's ''Fragments of Memories'' includes an instrumental [[LonelyPianoPiece lonely piano]] and [[PlayingTheHeartstrings strings]] reprise of the already gloomy "Winter" from ''Pale Awakening''.
* Music/{{Jason Webley}}'s [[https://jasonwebley.bandcamp.com/track/against-the-night Against the Night]] has a Dark Reprise in the form of [[https://jasonwebley.bandcamp.com/track/again-the-night Again the Night]], which drops the guitar and percussion, turns the accordion up to a mourning roar, changes Jason's voice from smooth to gravelly, and makes the lyrics even MORE melancholy than the original.
* Interface's ''The Perfect World'' album zigzags this trope with "Square One", a [[DespairEventHorizon desperate]] reprise of "It Begins Today", which segues into the TriumphantReprise "Back To the Beginning".
* Bumblefoot's song "Normal" received two different Dark Reprises. The first, on the same album as "Normal" (aptly titled "Normal") is "Shadow" and is about how he starts to fall back into his depression after finally having been normal for a short time. The second is more of a SpiritualSuccessor, though. On the album released after "Normal", titled "Abnormal", we get the title-track, "Abnormal", which is where he's completely crazy and depressed again. Also, "Shadow" is the second-to-last track on "Normal", followed by "Thank You". "Abnormal" is the first track on "Abnormal", making the connection a bit clearer.
* On Music/DJShadow's album ''Music/{{Endtroducing}}'', the already eerie "Transmission 1" which appears near the start of the album is made even more [[NightmareFuel haunting]] in "Transmission 3", the album's finale. This track is fuzzier and more distorted than the original, and ends with a spine-chilling ''Series/TwinPeaks'' sample.
* ''[[Music/GentleGiant Gentle Giant's]]'' album begins with "Proclamation", a song narrated by the oppressive ruler of a kingdom. [[BookEnds At the end of the album,]] the song "Valedictory", which uses the same melody as "Proclamation", is instead narrated by the man who took control and tried to make the country a better place, [[HeWhoFightsMonsters having become just as oppressive and tyrannical as the ruler before him.]]
* ''Music/InTheAeroplaneOverTheSea'', Neutral Milk Hotel's holocaust-themed concept album, has a few of these:
** ''The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1'' is immediately followed by ''The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 2 & 3'', which has a much darker, heavier sound than the original track (which is largely acoustic), though the subject matter is a bit lighter, since the first song dealt largely with [[{{Squick}} abuse and incest]] while the second one talks about spiritual reverence.
** ''Two-Headed Boy'' receives a more standard Dark Reprise in ''Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2'', which is much slower than the original and ties together the original song's ideas about intimacy and identity with the album as a whole's themes of grief, perversion and tragedy.
--->''And when we break, we'll wait for our miracle\\
God is a place where some holy spectacle lies''
* Music/VNVNation's ''Empires'' album reprises the upbeat "Rubicon" as the melancholy "Distant(Rubicon II)".
* ''Music/{{Amnesiac}}'' by Music/{{Radiohead}} features a darker, more orchestral-sounding reprise of "Morning Bell" from Music/KidA in the form of "Morning Bell/Amnesiac".
* Music/{{Ween}}: Music/TheMollusk has a distorted version of the opening track, "I'm Dancing In The Show Tonight", as a hidden track following a few seconds of silence (and then ambience) on "She Wanted To Leave".
* Music/TheCaretaker's ''Everywhere At The End of Time'' album series, an auditory depiction of the progression of dementia, invokes this with its samples of classical and ballroom jazz tunes, several of which were used on the project's prior albums. For example, the "[[HellIsThatNoise Hell Sirens]]" section of ''Stage 4'' is a heavily slowed down and degraded version of the intro to "Granada" by Mantovani and His Orchestra, previously sampled on ''Theoretically Pure Anterograde Amnesia''; and "Place In The World Fades Away", the final track of the series and project as a whole, representing a moment of terminal lucidity before the protagonist's death, resamples the choral piece "St. Luke Passion, BWV 246", which first appeared in "Friends Past Reunited", the closer of The Caretaker's debut album ''Selected Memories From the Haunted Ballroom''.
* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SrDXjsol2U&ab_channel=JonathanYoung Answer the Call'', a ''VideoGame/BaldursGate3'' {{Filk}} song by Music/JonathanYoung, Colm McGuinness, and Rachel Hardy, starts off as a fairly upbeat, triumphant song about the call to adventure and heroism. Then Rachel Hardy takes over for the final verse, which is slower and much more sinister, encouraging the listener to given in to the tadpole's influence and become a mind flayer. She even corrupts the final rendition of the chorus.
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[[folder:Other]]
* The BBC musical education series ''Time and Tune'' did this in its Viking themed set ''Sea Thunder.'' The titular song is a Dark Reprise of the first song "Row, Row". Both have the exact same melody but wildly different lyrics. "Row, Row" is a robust and triumphant song about Vikings celebrating their high seas conquests, while "Sea Thunder" is an ominous song about their ship being caught in a storm and the Vikings panicking as their ship sinks.
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[[folder:Pinball]]
* Creator/ZenStudios' [[DigitalPinballTable virtual pinball]] adaptation of the Creator/{{Marvel|Comics}} character ComicBook/{{Venom}} features a multiball mode based on [[Characters/MarvelComicsPeterParker Spider-Man]]'s first experience wearing a black suit contaminated with the alien symbiote responsible for Venom's creation. Given that [[RuleOfSymbolism the black suit clearly taps into]] [[SuperPoweredEvilSide Spider-Man's dark side]], the music for that mode can be described as a darker version of the theme music used for Zen Studios' [[VideoGame/SpiderManZenStudios pinball adaptation of Spider-Man]].
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