"There is something about the light of a lamp held lower than someone's face. The shadows are wrong. They fall in unfortunate places. Teeth seem more prominent. Agnes came to realise that she was alone in a room in suspicious circumstances with a man whose face suddenly looked a lot more unpleasant than it had before."
When a character (typically a young one) wishes to scare their friends (ideally after reaching the end of a scary story) they'll shine a torch or other source of illumination upwards across their face. This will often be accompanied with a Scare Chord and have a dramatic musical buildup but it's almost always Played for Laughs.
The effect works in Real Life as long as the room's relatively dark, as the light casts a shadow across parts of the face and eyes and highlights others, making it look distorted and skull-like. Despite this, the ubiquity of the trope means that no one's likely to be fooled.
Sometimes a character might just have their face lit that way to make them look creepy. This isn't quite as dead, but there's a significant risk of this trope being pointed out, leading to Narm.
Often delivered by a character giving the Cruel Twist Ending or Karmic Twist Ending to a Ghost Story. It serves as a Jump Scare in universe but is rarely expected to scare the audience. Compare Demon Head, for a similar prosopic source of shock. Compare Ghostly Gape, which this can resemble.
Examples:
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Advertising
- Jell-O Pudding used this in a commercial — the kids were camping on the lawn, Mom told a scary story about a creature that hunted down kids who stole pudding snacks (kicker being Mom was getting back at the kids for stealing her pudding snacks).
Animation
- The title card of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Joys of Seasons episode 94 features Weslie scaring Wolffy by popping up behind a bush and shining a flashlight in his face while making a creepy expression.
Anime & Manga
- In Asteroid in Love, during Chapter 26, Mira sends Ao a picture of herself doing this. While Ao had been troubled over her father being transferred and having to move in March, something Mira didn't know about, she cheers up for a moment.
- Azumanga Daioh: Osaka shines a flashlight under her face, and tells a scary story.
- City Hunter: Ryo does this several times to scare both friends and allies. He thinks that it is funny; needless to say, no-one else does.
- In Dr. STONE, Gen wakes Senku up with this before dawn on New Year's Day.
- Great Teacher Onizuka: A creepy old guy Onizuka got to tell a scary story does this right before the Kimodameshi in Okinawa. Onizuka himself does it as well, but only to Fuyutsuki.
- Naruto:
- The title character does this repeatedly during the "what's under Kakashi's mask" episode. Sakura is unamused.
- Yamato manages to create the effect without a flashlight in the middle of the day to scare Naruto several times.
- In One Piece: while telling the crew about the stories of the "ghosts" of the Florian Triangle, Sanji used a lit match to do this.
- Ranma ½: During a Hot Springs Episode, Nabiki does this as she tells a ghost story to Ranma and her sisters.
- In episode 16a of Tamagotchi, as Chamametchi, Imotchi, and Kikitchi are all telling their scary stores (or about to, in Kikitchi's case), they shine a flashlight's light in their faces.
- Why the Hell Are You Here, Teacher!?: When Satou gets home from his class's haunted house, his mom is waiting for him like this.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Juudai does this to the Ojama Trio while rescuing them from the abandoned well in the second season.
Comic Strips
- The punchline of one FoxTrot strip reveals that Peter and Jason got lost during what was presumably a camping trip because Jason "killed the flashlight playing 'Mister Specter-Face'."
- Garfield does this to Odie in the title panel of the July 29, 1987 strip,
and to the reader in the title panel of the October 30, 1994 strip.
Fan Works
- Asuka makes one to give Shinji a Jump Scare in The Second Try.
Films — Animation
- In DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, the Genie holds a flashlight to his face when telling the boys about Merlock. ("He's an evil sorcerer!")
- In The Little Mermaid, King Triton does this, with the glow from his trident, just before destroying Ariel's grotto (as he snarls "So be it!").
- My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Legend of Everfree:
- Though not used during the actual scary storytelling around the campfire, Sunset Shimmer earlier toys with a flashlight for this effect.
- The cover for the novelization and the soundtrack has Rainbow Dash making one at the campfire, which never happens in the film.
- Song of the Sea: Ben uses a flashlight under his face while telling Saoirse the story of Macha the Owl Witch, to better scare his little sister.
- Near the end of Tom and Jerry: The Movie, the villain does this after revealing her presence.
"Daddy... IS DEAD!"
Films — Live-Action
- Barking Dogs Never Bite: The light from the stove casts this effect on the janitor's face as he tells a Ghost Story of how Boiler Kim's ghost haunts the cellar after he died and was walled up in the basement by his panicky coworkers.
- This effect is used in the promotional pictures for the 1980 horror film The Children.
- Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum: Before the group enters the asylum, around the time the clock strikes midnight, Ji-Hyun says to the camera that midnight is when ghosts come out. In response to this, Charlotte an Ah-Yeon shine their flashlights in their faces behind her.
- Henry does this at one point in The Good Son to scare Mark, when he has Mark play hide and seek with his sister Connie. Mark, knowing of Henry's true nature, is fearful he will do something horrible to Connie if he doesn't find her first.
- In Lemon Tree Passage, Amelia does this while telling a scary story round the bonfire on the beach. She offers it to Oscar when he starts his story, but he dismisses it, saying he doesn't need special effects to be scary.
- In the horror movie Nightwish, a character who was previously murdered suddenly shows up again. The effect is enhanced because his face is illuminated by a flashlight.
- The Supreme Being in Time Bandits looks like a rotoscoped flashlight face.
- In Wayne's World, Wayne scares Garth by shinning a flashlight on his face and pretending to be the Leprechaun.
Literature
- Sir Percy Pelham is recounting a local ghost legend to his guests over dinner in Aunt Dimity and the Deep Blue Sea, and the lights go out just after he recounts a creepy detail. Before the lights come back on, he illuminates his own face this way with a lit match.
- The Famous Five: There are many moments when characters are described as looking frightening or peculiar when lit by a torch, or moonlight or twilight. A notable example is in Five Fall into Adventure, when Anne happens to shine her torch on the bedroom window, and sees a face looking in. In the same book, Julian flashes his torch on the villain Red Tower, seeing his wild red hair and beard, takes one look into the man's eyes, and then no more.
- Played with in Septimus Heap, where Jenna is spooked by Septimus's face being illuminated by his Dragon Ring he's holding below his chin.
Live-Action TV
- An iconic image of Are You Afraid of the Dark?
- Count Baltar in the original Battlestar Galactica often did this unironically. We don't actually see the light source.
- Dexter does it once while talking to Doakes... warning him to be careful, as there are psychos on the streets.
- Keeping Up Appearances: In "Let there be light", Richard has been volunteered by Hyacinth to mend the church hall's electrics. He reluctantly makes his way under the stage, in a dark space which is full of junk; and is suddenly startled by the presence of the vicar, who reveals himself by shining a torch to his face. The vicar claims he is meditating, as he always does before bring-and-buy sales, but it is most likely he is hiding from Hyacinth.
- On Conan O'Brien's Late Night show, he would sometimes do a segment about predicting the future called "In the year 2000" (even well after the year 2000). To enhance the mood, the studio lights would be dimmed and he and his band leader would light up their faces.
- Frank Black on Millennium does it to a bunch of kids who have broken into his house (empty because he's separated from wife Catherine) and are telling spooky stories about him.
- The Rachel Maddow Show used it more than once to reference uses of fear in politics. A good example is from the 2/16/2012 show, opening a story on the 2012 GOP Presidential nomination campaign. Specifically both critiquing Rick Santorum's poor lighting at a campaign event and alluding to his rival Mitt Romney's worries about the former's underfunded yet oddly popular support.
- Seen in the Special Edition Title of "Changing Channels" when the Winchesters are Trapped in TV Land, including a sitcom version of Supernatural which puts a light comedy spin on the brothers' ghost-hunting antics.
- Referenced in Svengoolie's makeup.
- The Sweeney. Jack Regan's Girl of the Week has a prophetic nightmare of him in danger, ending with a red-coloured light shining in his face like this trope as Regan screams right before she wakes up. It's all supposed to foreshadow him being (temporarily) blinded by a Laser Sight by the Villain of the Week.
- The X-Files: Mulder does this while exploring a Haunted House in "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas". Scully's nerves are wound so tight, it actually works.
Theatre
- Tripod Versus the Dragon: Scot and Yon play the evil Twin Wizards by wearing party hats and carrying torches to light their faces.
Video Games
- Animal Restaurant: In this image, Gumi tells scary stories while shining a light on his face from below.
- Should you ever run out of power in Five Nights at Freddy's, you'll be treated to a horrifyingly twinkly and serene rendition of Toreador while Freddy stands in the corner for up to a minute flashing his eyes before he jumps and kills you.
- At nighttime in the Kai Tak Resort in Jazzpunk, one of the hotel clerks does this while wearing a tiki mask every time the player faces near him.
- Metal Slug 5, on the character selecting screen.
- Persona 3: Junpei does this when telling a ghost story.
Webcomics
- Blood Stain: Main character Elliot is introduced to Dr Vlad Stein, her new employer, this way when he offers her a candle during a blackout. This, along with his intimidating appearance, does not help him make a good impression on his new employee.
- Rusty and Co.: Invoked by Schmetts the fairy, who uses her glow to provide "dramatic underlighting" for Malevolus' face by positioning herself in his armor's neck piece.
Malevolus: This armor is single occupancy!
- In Sluggy Freelance, one bad guy took advantage of his "Dramatic Lighting Shoes" to create this effect while monologuing. He was quite proud of them.
- unOrdinary: When Evie regales the other Safe House members with spooky stories she uses her illumination power to light up her hands beneath her face and cast spooky shadows.
Websites
- The Onion's Marilyn Manson Now Going Door-to-Door Trying to Shock People has Marilyn Manson shining a flashlight under his face in a desperate attempt to seem scary.
Web Videos
- Used frequently by Diamanda Hagan, especially during her opening credits.
- Hewy does his review of Coraline with a flashlight face in Hewy's Animated Movie Reviews.
- JesuOtaku did this (and commented on how this doesn't seem to accomplish much other than blinding you and casting shadows on your nose) at the end of his Deliciously Evil Anime Villains Countdown.
- This spoof of the Title Sequence of The X-Files.
Western Animation
- In the 3-2-1 Penguins! episode, "Wise Guys" Kevin does this.
- Nick Dean in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius does this when he's telling the story of the Phantom of Retroland to the class in "The Phantom of Retroland".
- Batman: The Brave and the Bold: The creepy usher does it in "Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Cases!"
- Birdgirl: At the beginning of Topple the Popple, Birdgirl does a flashlight face while answering a call from Meredith on her phone.
- Bounty Hamster: In "Lonely Planet", Cassie and Marion give an Evil Laugh while shining flashlights in their faces.
Cassie: I have no idea why we did that.
- The Fairly OddParents!:
- In "Vicky Loses Her Icky", Vicky is turned nice by Timmy's godparents. When a character became evil as a result of the evil bug having escaped from Vicky's body and crawled into theirs, they would do a flashlight face in over-the-top comedic fashion.
- In "A Bad Case of Diary-Uh!", Timmy reads Vicky's diary, revealing that she has a crush on a British student named Winston Dunnsworth. He plots to sabotage Vicky's date as retribution for all the bad things she did to him, and gets Wanda to help him because she called her fat. They hold a flashlight under their faces as they laugh wickedly, and do it for so long that the flashlight's batteries run out.
Timmy: The batteries are dead already? Wow, we're really being evil today!
- Brainy briefly does this during the intro to Hey Arnold!, complete with an accompanying off-camera scream.
- In the Jimmy Two-Shoes episode "Mt. Misery", Beezy does it twice while shouting "EVIL" in a very over-the-top fashion at the sight of a tiny weavil that Jimmy thinks is adorable. In both instances, he then turns off the flashlight and puts it away.
- Kim Possible
- In "Bad Boy", Kim notices Ron (who unknown to her has turned evil) crouched under a table with a flashlight working on his Evil Plan. When he crawls out from under the table he has the flashlight tucked into the crook of his arm, giving this effect. "You have no idea how scary I can be!"
- In "Bonding", Professor Dementor tries to make himself look ominous by illuminating his face from below with a red flashlight. Kim is not impressed.
- Pinkie Pie does this in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Bridle Gossip" accidentally.
- Pachyderme: Scary firelight face, played for drama and horror. A 9-year-old girl is dropped off at her grandparents' for a ten-day stay. It eventually becomes clear that her grandfather is sexually abusing her. Towards the end, as the grandfather is lighting a fire in the wood-burning stove, there is a sudden cut to an extreme close-up of his face, lit from below by the fire. This is even more effective because until then the grandfather has been The Faceless.
- In Pete the Cat, Callie does this when telling the other characters a "scary story" which ultimately turns out to be a Mundane Ghost Story.
- Phineas and Ferb:
- Baljeet tries this while the kids sit around the campfire in the episode "Get That Bigfoot Outa My Face!" His story is less than terrifying.
- In "That's the Spirit!", Russell does this when talking about his haunted house. And when the lights go out, Baljeet does it again when asking the inevitable question.
Baljeet: Hey! Wheeeeeeerrrrrrre iiiiiiiiiis Perrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyy...?Buford: Quit it, Baljeet!- Lampshaded in the Star Wars crossover, when Darthinschmirtz reaches for his light saber... and it's just a flashlight. He does this trope for a second, before abandoning the gag.
- Angelica does this a couple of times after telling scary stories to the babies in Rugrats.
- While on the run from several actual zombies in Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, Shaggy and Scooby crash into the local gardener, whose lantern casts his face in this light, giving him broad, skeletal features and blank, gray eyes. After they run off, assuming he's another zombie, the gardener raises the lantern to eye level, showing that he was instead looking with concern.
- The Simpsons: Bart tells a scary story to Homer. "...and that is how much college will cost for Maggie."
- South Park: Cartman shines a flashlight under his face to tell the story of Scuzzlebutt in "Volcano".
- The SpongeBob SquarePants episode "New Student Starfish" has Mrs. Puff do this when she sends SpongeBob and Patrick to detention. Lampshaded in that she turns the flashlight off afterward.
- In the Star vs. the Forces of Evil episode "Cheer Up, Star", Marco (unintentionally) does this when he dresses as a clown to try do what the episode's name says. Combining that with Star's apparent fear of clowns turns out to be very ineffective at cheering Star up.
- When the generator is temporarily down in Totally Spies!'s "Aliens", Jerry announces his presence to the spies this way, frightening the poor girls half to death. This was possibly on purpose, as Jerry often seems to get a kick out of scaring the spies.
- Ultimate Spider-Man: A security guard finding the kids wandering at night in the school spooks them this way, revealing his face... and yet another Stan Lee cameo in the process.
