Scream Discretion Shots in Live-Action TV series.
- Done at the very end of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Never Again", when the protagonist discovers that she killed her boyfriend during an alcoholic blackout.
- Subverted in the Babylon 5 episode "Falling Toward Apotheosis". G'Kar has been stubbornly refusing to give Cartagia the satisfaction of hearing him scream; the episode ends with Cartagia ordering a guard to pluck out one of G'Kar's eyes, followed by a long silent view of G'Kar's cell door.
- "During Barty's Party", an episode of Nigel Kneale's Beasts ends with a horrified couple watching helplessly as the family next door are attacked in their driveway by a swarm of rats. The audience sees nothing except the faces of the couple, but hears the squeaking of the rats and the screams of the neighbours.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- The Anointed One's death.
- Downplayed in one case during School Hard when Drusilla goes to feed on a girl named Sheila Martini. Poor girl has her mouth gagged and can only let out a gasp when she see Drusilla go to vamp face. The trope is still present when the scene cuts away just before the bite connects as Drusilla's growl is still heard.
- Season 5 of Dexter introduces Lumen, who spent some time being raped and tortured by 5 men. They were also responsible for the rape, torture, and murder of at least 11 other women. In one episode it's revealed one of the men made DVDs of it. Mercifully virtually nothing is shown, but you can hear the victims screams just fine. Played with in that all of them, especially Lumen's, are terrifying.
- Doctor Who:
- When the Cybermen are created and when they "upgrade people", which involves Unwilling Roboticisation.
- Turned into Black Comedy in the episode "The Sound of Drums." The Master closes a door to muffle the screams
as Vivien Rook is being killed by the Toclafane. He opens the door, hears her still screaming, and closes it. He opens the door again, she's still screaming, so he closes it again. Crosses the Line Twice at its greatest.
- Done in Frasier when Frasier, fed up with Bull Dog's constant pranks tries to get him back only to accidentally hit his station manager instead which apparently knocks her into a coma. He goes to visit her in the hospital and apologizes. But just as he leaves, she wakes up and seen grabbing his arm. Cut to hallway where we hear Frasier scream.
- Happens several times in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Such as when Philip takes Hilary's credit cards and snaps them all in half (she was jobless for half a year and still spending hundreds of dollars a month on luxury goods), or when Will rips Carlton's hands off his head (they were feuding over a girl and Will mixed superglue into Carlton's hair gel, with Will deciding to help him out after they reconciled).
- Possibly the best known example was in "The Baby Comes Out" and the episode begins with a scream discretion shot from both Uncle Phil who is announcing to the family that the baby is coming and Will, who had seen him naked. "And he was running!"
- Game of Thrones:
- Done when Ramsay Snow moves on his pinned-down prisoner, Theon Greyjoy, with a gelding knife. We only hear Theon screaming and see the screen go blurry.
- The sacrifice of Shireen; her burning and death aren't shown on camera. It doesn't do much to alleviate the viewer of discomfort, though, as the poor girl's screams and cries for her parents go on for what feels like forever and get heart-wrenching when she apparently catches on fire. The Gory Discretion Shot includes the reactions of her parents (an increasingly disturbed Selyse and a resolute Stannis) and Stannis's men, whom are visibly disturbed and upset. And then the screams cut off...
- Played For Laughs in Hangin' with Mr. Cooper when Charles Barkley guest starred and Mark Curry talks to him the credits. Mark claims he can probably take him in a basketball game but states there isn't any time. Charles promptly orders the credits stopped and we cut to the outside of the house where Mark is heard screaming.
- Subverted in Helix. When Dr. Peter Farragut, a research scientist infected with The Virus, breaks into a lab full of his fellow researchers to attack them, the viewer only sees what seems to be a sudden blood spatter on the glass of the lab door, accompanied by a woman's scream. But the subsequent episode's opening scene shows no one is wounded, and reveals Peter's Bad Black Barf as the method of viral transmission.
- In Heroes when Sylar kills someone for their powers he opens their heads, but we almost never see this, instead the camera shows us Sylar and we hear the victim scream.
- Done twice in I, Claudius. First with Caligula's attempted abortion on his sister's baby where we only see a bit of blood around Caligula's face when he leaves the room and Claudius' reaction to what he sees. And then when Macro orders the rape of Sejanus' daughter, which we never see but only hear her scream. These were cut for American audiences.
- Interview with the Vampire (2022):
- "...The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood with All a Child's Demanding":
- The camera faces Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt when a trumpet player across the street squeals "No!" in pain several times as Claudia mangles him.
- Later, Lestat kills the undertaker off-screen, so viewers only hear the victim's yelps before he dies.
- "Like Angels Put in Hell by God": Claudia is startled by the sound of the train conductor screaming and the loud thuds as he's being slammed against the baggage car. It's only after Lestat kicks open the door that she realizes that he has ripped the man's head off.
- "The Thing Lay Still": Louis murders the MacPhail twin who wasn't poisoned by Claudia, but the audience doesn't see it happen. Lestat (who's in a different room and was expecting to eat both twins) is surprised when the young man cries in agony.
- In the Season 2 First Look Scene, the camera is focused on Armand and Louis flirting outside of the de la Croix estate as the screeching humans inside the mansion are being feasted upon by the vampires of Armand's coven and Claudia — not all of the deaths are visible on-screen.
- "...The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood with All a Child's Demanding":
- Island of the Sea Wolves: At the end of episode 1, Dagger seemingly attacks Cedar. There's a snarl and the camera switches to a distant view of the forest as whimpering is heard. Subverted by the next episode, which reveals that she wasn't actually attacking.
- In an episode of BBC's Jekyll, Tom Jackman wakes up in an almost totally empty apartment shortly after his son was nearly fed to the lions, only to discover Christopher (the mook that put said son in the lion's den) is in the next room, all tied up. After a couple of questions from Tom to Christopher, Hyde "calls" Tom, convincing him to set an example to their enemies by basically unleashing Hyde on Christopher. The phone is hanging on its chord, all we see is Jackman's/Hyde's back, Christopher begins to ask nervous questions... then Hyde turns around, grins widely while the camera focuses on his eyes, and Christopher screams. Cut to Hyde walking in a hospital with a very deformed and bloody bundle.
- Justified in that the action takes place entirely in one shot, and the characters are all silhouettes: in one episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, when a Shadow Archetype that Crow accidentally let on board the Satellite sneaks into the theater and bothers Tom Servo, he gets increasingly annoyed and attacks the creature. A few moments later, judging by speculative commentary, Tom is clearly losing the fight and we hear his muffled sobs and screams for help coming from under the seats. The next thing we know, he's encased in a pseudopod on the bridge.
- In the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Resistance", the audience never sees the bad guys torturing Tuvok, but Torres realises she should be more worried about him after she hears his screams through the cell walls.
- This is done a lot on Supernatural.
- The Twilight Zone (1959): In the final scene of "The Jungle", the lion leaps towards Alan Richards. His screams are heard as the episode ends.
