History Main / OminousOwl

* ''VideoGame/OriAndTheBlindForest'' has Kuro, a large, black owl who attacks the Tree of Light and [[YouWillNotEvadeMe repeatedly chases Ori]]. [[spoiler: As the game goes on, she becomes a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds when we find out why she's so angry at the Tree of Light.]] The sequel ''VideoGame/OriAndTheWillOfTheWisps'', averts this with [[spoiler: her daughter]] Ku. However, it still gets in its evil owl quota with Shriek, who is so [[AnimalisticAbomination twisted by The Decay]] that it's difficult to even recognize her as an owl. [[spoiler: Like Kuro she has a sympathetic backstory, but outright [[RedemptionRejection refuses]] when offered a hand. Staying a villainous IronWoobie to the end.]]

** Decidueye, Rowlet's final form in ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon''. It's the first [[SoulPower Ghost-Type]] starter Pokémon, and its SignatureMove is ''Spirit Shackle'', which prevents opposing Pokémon from [[YouWillNotEvadeMe switching out]] by ''stitching their shadow to the ground.''

* The ''stikini'' ([[SpellMyNameWithAnS a.k.a strigini or ishtigini)]] from [[Myth/NativeAmericanMythology Creek and Seminole myth]] is a witch who turns into a heart-eating owl by [[{{Squick}} vomiting up her organs]]. You can also turn into one by [[SpeakOfTheDevil saying the word "stikini"]]. Go on, say it aloud...

* ''Fanfic/BreathOfTheWild'', a fanmade novelized adaptation of the game of the same name, there's an original entity called the Owl Spirit, or just the Owl. As its name implies, it takes the form of a giant golden owl. [[spoiler: It's Zelda's spirit animal, expanding her sealing power from just a sealing power to wielding the power of this enormous spirit animal]]. It's not ominous on its own, except for one scene where [[spoiler: Paya, empowered by the Sheikah Orb, has a vision where she sees the Owl as wielded by Zelda become suddenly corrupted by Malice in the same vein as Calamity Ganon.]]

So remember: if you ever see an owl, clutch your Tootsie Roll Pops tightly and run in the other direction.

* ''WesternAnimation/LegendOfTheGuardiansTheOwlsOfGahoole'' has a cast made up almost entirely of owls, so naturally some are good and some are evil. The Pure Ones are a nasty bunch, a group of barn owl supremacists who want total power over the owl kingdoms. It's not just limited to the Pure Ones barn owls either; [[BashBrothers brothers Jutt and Jatt]] (long-eared owls), the traitorous [[DoubleAgent Allomere]] (a great gray owl), and High Tyto [[BigBad Metal Beak]] (a sooty owl, which is ironic since [[AdaptationSpeciesChange in the books]], sooty owls are low in Pure Ones ranking systems) are also pretty nasty owls.

Owls possess several traits that make them creepy to humans. Firstly, they're nocturnal and fill the darkness of night with [[SpookyAnimalSounds their spooky call]]. Secondly, they strike in silence and eat [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute cute]] [[NiceMice little mice]]. And then there's the fact that they can spin their heads all the way around.[[note]]Not really, but they ''can'' turn their heads further around than most animals (270 degrees total compared to 180 degrees for a human). And then snap their heads around to the other side so quickly you could be forgiven for thinking they'd actually gone 360[[/note]] It could also be those piercing eyes and their claws that can badly hurt a human if a owl would choose to attack one. Rare, but not unheard of.

Owls are, to put it bluntly, [[NightmareFuel creepy]]. They just are. Perhaps it's because most of them are nocturnal or that they eat [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute cute]] [[NiceMice little mice]] or that they can spin their heads all the way around[[note]]Not really, but they ''can'' turn their heads further around than most animals (270 degrees total compared to 180 degrees for a human). And then snap their heads around to the other side so quickly you could be forgiven for thinking they'd actually gone 360[[/note]]. It could be those (relatively) gigantic, piercing eyes. [[SpookyAnimalSounds Or perhaps it's the sounds they make at night]] (except for the beating of their wings, which are so soft and fluffy you'll never hear a thing. Bad news for rodents), in the dark, when you're in the forest.

It doesn't really matter ''why'' they are creepy, they just are. Owls have long been viewed as harbingers of disease, death, destruction, and bad luck. To the Hopi, they were a symbol of evil sorcery; to the Romans, they were funerary birds, signaling ill will in the daytime (unless you were collecting their eggs, in which case they signaled a HideousHangoverCure); and the Myth/{{Aztec|Mythology}} [[TheGrimReaper god of death]], Mictlantecuhtli, was often portrayed with owls. In some Native North American traditions, owls are associated with the evil wintertime spirits most popularly known in English as {{wendigo}}, and a few languages used a single word to refer to both the bird and the spirit. Creator/GeoffreyChaucer also had a thing for them. Harbinger is the key-word here, all too often the owls are used in films as normal, non-threatening (to humans) animals who merely enrich the eerie ambiance with their huge glistening eyes and especially their otherworldly hooting.

It doesn't really matter ''why'' they are creepy, they just are. Owls have long been viewed as harbingers of disease, death, destruction, and bad luck. To the Hopi, they were a symbol of evil sorcery; to the Romans, they were funerary birds, signaling ill will in the daytime (unless you were collecting their eggs, in which case they signaled a HideousHangoverCure); and the Myth/{{Aztec|Mythology}} [[TheGrimReaper god of death]], Mictlantecuhtli, was often portrayed with owls. In some Native North American traditions, owls were associated with the evil wintertime spirits most popularly known in English as {{wendigo}}, and a few languages used a single word to refer to both the bird and the spirit. Creator/GeoffreyChaucer also had a thing for them. Harbinger is the key-word here, all too often the owls are used in films as normal, non-threatening (to humans) animals who merely enrich the eerie ambiance with their huge glistening eyes and especially their otherworldly hooting.

* On the one hand, owls are considered a death omen in Myth/JapaneseMythology. On the other, they're also considered to be really stupid. A notable example is the Tatarimokke, a ghost born from a grudgeful dead child carried around by/possessing an owl. In Ainu mythology, however, the eagle owl was seen as a messenger of the gods and worthy of reverence, and carvings of eagle owls on houses were used as wards against sickness and pestilence. Little horned owls and barn owls are viewed as being demonic beings, though, playing the trope straight. Though, while the little horned owl is considered demonic, it's said that it is able to detect whether someone has evil in them, and that if it averts its gaze from you or only squints at you, you have darkness within you, whereas if it stares at you with eyes wide, you are a good person. As for barn owls, thinking them to be demonic after hearing the hideous ''screech'' they can make is perhaps rather forgivable.

* Smaller birds (usually corvids) will gang up to mob and harass nocturnal species of owls if they catch sight of them in daylight, when they latter are usually asleep. Certainly ''they'' consider owls to be ominous.

* Smaller birds will gang up to mob and harass nocturnal species of owls if they catch sight of them in daylight, when the predators are too dazzled by sunlight to fight back effectively. Certainly ''they'' consider owls to be ominous.
* Some moths have sizable round markings on their wings that resemble an owl's eyes, the better to emulate this trope when a potential predator comes near them.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'''s Cosmic Owl is a pretty chill dude, but when he appears to Jake in a dream that appears to predict his (Jake's) death, Jake [[FaceDeathWithDignity calmly, completely, even *enthusiastically* accepts that he's going to die]] which freaks Finn out terribly.

** There is [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/gloomstone.htm Gloomstone]], a tombstone-like monster which releases headless owls. [[WidgetSeries It's that kind of setting.]]

* [[http://www.billdavenport.com/owls/owls1.html Macrame owls]] were horrifying to quite a few children in TheSeventies. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHmVDzrKdLU Very much so.]]

* Lechku and his buddy Nechku from ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'' count, even though, technically, they're not real owls, but they're [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot demonic clockwork owls]]. With hats. [[WidgetSeries In feudal Japan.]]

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheScoobyDooShow''[[note]]Originally made as a revival of ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'', but that's just nitpicking[[/note]] had a MonsterOfTheWeek called the Willawaw, whose attacks on a person were heralded by an owl hooting the pending victim's name. In addition, the Willawaw had a pair of OwlMen to act as its minions. Since the episode included Native American characters, the lore was likely inspired by the Native American traditions listed in the "Myths & Religion" folder above.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheScoobyDooShow''[[note]]Originally made as a revival of ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'', but that's just nitpicking[[/note]] had a MonsterOfTheWeek called the Willawaw, whose attacks on a person were heralded by an owl hooting the pending victim's name. Since the episode included Native American characters, the lore was likely inspired by the Native American traditions listed in the "Myths & Religion" folder above.