YMMV / The Magic School Bus S 1 E 8 In The Haunted House

• Accidental Aesop: "Less is more."
• Most Wonderful Sound: Both in real life and In-Universe, Carlos's instrument once it finally works.
• Nightmare Fuel: This episode is genuinely terrifying, for a number of reasons.
  • The many scenes with no music. It's meant to draw more attention to sound, but feels appropriately ominous, especially for a show like this where music is typically constant. And when there is music, it's chilling, most notably the C minor piano scale that plays when the class discover the beds prepared for them, followed by an eerily dissonant version of "Lullaby And Goodnight."
  • The black silhouette of the kids pushing the bus up a hill in the dark, complete with a haunting rendition of "The Volga Boat Men Song." The way is jumps right from the otherwise bright, sunny setting to a dark night scene with muted colors and hard shadows is shocking.
  • The books with sound in them. How did they even get them in there??
  • The producer's segment, hosted by a ghost who ends it with an Evil Laugh.
  • The recurring pipe organ theme that Carlos refers to as "the call of Cornelia." While it later turns out to be nothing dangerous, the sound itself is beyond unsettling.
• Paranoia Fuel: "It's almost like someone was..." "...expecting us."

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