In the Sandbox.Hell Is That Wick Check, I, Badtothebaritone, and Selkies checked a combined total of 58 wicks. The usage is:

• Correct: 5/58, or ~9%
• Intended to scare the audience: 19/58, or ~33%
• Subjective / Exaggerated: 9/58, or ~16%
• Noise described with no other context: 3/58, or ~5%
• Not scary: 8/58, or ~14%
• ZCE: 14/58, or ~24%
• Unclear: 2/58, or ~3%

So, it's clear there's an issue here. The misuse has stuck around for nearly a decade, following the previous TRS thread, which voted to make it in-universe. If you look at the discussion page, you'll see a lot of confusion and people pointing out misuse. This has gone on for years and clearly we need a stronger fix.

Now, I don't think making it YMMV and playing to the audience reaction will be worth it, since it's misused either way, and there's already Sensory Abuse, Nightmare Fuel, DarthWiki.Most Annoying Sound, and various spooky soundtrack and noise tropes. I'd rather keep this as in-universe, but we're going to need stronger measures to make it stick, like a rename, but I can't think of anything good off the top of my head.

1. AvatarTheLastAirbender.Tropes A To H: That bird that freaks out the Gaang in "The Swamp." Appropriately, it's called the Screeching Dodo. It's pretty harmless, though. — It scared a character In-Universe so it counts
2. Funny.Emerald City: After an argument, Langwidere abandons Jack on the side of the road. Horrifying screams begin to erupt from the trees.
   Jack: Oh, the Screaming Forest. THANKS!
3. Literature.Eighty Six Eighty Six Black Sheep are created using the brain scans of a recently deceased individual. As a result, they are constantly replaying their last thoughts at the moment of their death. The insane ramblings of these cybernetic ghosts can be extremely unsettling for anyone unfortunate enough to hear them over the para-RAID.
4. VideoGame.Murdered Soul Suspect - Hell Is That Noise: Demons emit an unearthly shriek before they attack. Most ghosts know to flee the area as soon as they hear it.
5. WebVideo.The Haunting: The metallic sound that starts around video #30, in universe. The main character describes it as a pressure that crushes him while he can hear it.

1. AwesomeMusic.Bo Jack Horseman: Death Grips' "No Love" plays during Bojack's drug binge, which only adds to the disorganized Mind Fuck of his self-discovery journey into his troubled psyche, kicking intermittently between hallucinations until it kicks into overdrive when BoJack is running through a wrinkled paper, with stop-motion techniques similar to Rejected, mixed with desperate pencil scribbles that sound like nails on a chalkboard.
2. AwesomeMusic.Wolfenstein The New Order: Deathshead's theme, just as terrifying and evil as the man himself. The screeching notes even sound like distorted screams.
3. Awesome.Dragon Ball Z Abridged: Dende. Mouths off. Mr. Popo. The sheer balls of it actually seems to earn him some respect.
   Popo: Well I'm gonna call you Little Green.
   Dende: Your funeral.
   [Beat and horrific cracking sounds as Popo's face contorts into a smile]
   Popo: I like you.
4. Characters.Arrowverse Central City Independent Criminals: When he's in his game mode (i.e. in his costume and wielding his dagger) he somehow emits a horrifying, insect-like noise, hence the nickname "Cicada".
5. Characters.Metroid Galactic Federation: They emit unsettling electronic tinkling noises as they patrol an area, and if they manage to catch Samus, their One-Hit Kill is punctuated with a harsh, shrill beep.
6. Film.Black Christmas 1974: Billy's phone calls are horrifying to listen to, replete with horrible wailing and animalistic moaning. It can be kind of hard to understand what he's saying some of the time, which makes his hinted-at backstory all the more mysterious.
7. Film.Escape Room Tournament Of Champions: The acid rain sprinklers in the City Streets room produce an eerie whine as they pressurize to start spraying, sounding almost like "Psycho" Strings. It only adds to the horror of the room, especially just before Brianna and Rachel die.
8. Literature.The Iron Tower: Modru's army is always proceeded by the sound of a drum whose sound is, of course, rendered as "Doom, doom". It frightens or at least unnerves most of the cast, at least up until Danner starts ranting about he would like to "shove that Ruck inside his own drum and pound it to a fare-thee-well" at which point Field Marshal Vidrion almost falls off the wall laughing.
9. NightmareFuel.Coronation Street: While Sunita and baby Jack were able to be saved, Molly eventually died from her internal injuries and gave Sally a Deathbed Confession about Jack's true paternity (Kevin) as she painfully wheezed out her dying words. Seems more tragic than scary...
10. NightmareFuel.Hollow Knight:
    1. The Grub Mimics. Imagine this: you've stumbled into the Deepnest, braving the terrors that lie within. Near the top of the labyrinth of web-choked tunnels, however, you discover an entire room filled with Grubs. Believing this to be your lucky day, you break the first jar. As you move towards the second jar, however, the Grub abruptly undergoes a a horrific transformation, its entire face erupting into a wicked set of three-pronged mandibles and eight spindly legs bursting from the stubs of its limbs. The thing then proceeds to charge at you in a frenzy, shrieking madly all the while. It isn't any less freaky when it's dead, either— upon death, it reverts back to its Grub disguise. Needless to say, you'll be suspicious of every Grub you find from here on out.
    2. On the main Grimm Troupe path, Dream Nailing Grimm. You run down a hallway to get your next batch of essence, when the sound of a heartbeat begins to play, the room gets more foggy, and you walk through the entrance to the arena. The beat picks up, and in a wave of flames the boss tears itself out from the supposed "heart" with the screen going black, showing only red text.
11. NightmareFuel.Godzilla MMD: King Ghidorah and Godzilla Earth facing off, with Ghidorah looming twice the height of the Monster King (making him over 600 meters tall) and emitting an UNEARTHLY SCREAM.
12. NightmareFuel.King Crimson: The live version of "Groon" from Earthbound features a heaping ton of dissonance, capped off by a drum solo from Ian Wallace being manipulated into a wall of pure sound through the use of a VCS3. It seems to go on forever, and is predictably terrifying. The inferior sound quality of the album only makes it worse.
13. NightmareFuel.Starship Troopers: The flying Hopper Bug. It's bad enough that it's essentially a Green and Mean Warrior Bug with wings, what's creepier is the strange, distorted elephant-like sound it makes, and it mainly kills its victims with its claws that can decapitate humans in one swoop, and similar to an Earth wasp, it has a pincer located on the rear end of its tail, which offers one of the worst displays of Arachnid violence when one Hopper Bug picks up Sergeant Gillespie and carries him up to a higher ground where it proceeds to seemingly stab him in the rear with the pincer continuously. The Hopper Bug wasn't just killing an enemy or picking up food, it was maliciously torturing Gillespie and planning a Cruel and Unusual Death for him if it wasn't for Rasczak performing a Mercy Kill.
14. NightmareFuel.Too Many Cooks: The part where the theme song becomes distorted/corrupted and the screen slowly becomes red as the Killer chows down on his victims is probably the most disturbing, unsettling part of the short.
15. NightmareFuel.Walrusguy: The sudden appearance of the baby from Eraserhead is not helped by the loud buzzing sound during the clip, cutting off the loud metal.
16. Quotes.Max0r:
    1. "Now, as I would soon learn, there is a reason this is a Secret Mission, because now it is able to escape. Oh, it's my YouTube career… [creepy breathing] I am in… great danger? Do not google Danger Force season two episode one... In this level, we need to find our way through the Backrooms without making too much noise. Because if you can hear it, it has definitely heard you. My favourite part is the persistent darkness and uh- horrifying droning noise as it creeps ever closer. Really ups the entertainment factor. Now of course, you "can" shoot it, but that will only send it back. It is inevitable. Do you have any games on your phone? Let's just uh... get the fuck out of here. I no longer wish to play in the Markiplier maze. Shinji, crank that Soulja Boy."
    2. Max0r: Bloodborne is a Lovecraftian horror RPG that no one understands by definition, where the player is free to attack hordes of human children at will and consume their innards. If that in-depth and engaging anti-baby gameplay appeals to you, keep listening, because it gets worse. In this game, you play as John Bloodborne, a foreigner incapable of speech without the use of sign language and stricken with Habsburg disease comes to the ancient city of London seeking treatment for the sins of his cousins. In doing so, he will begin hallucinating talking dolls, spider people, and the great—(eldritch screeching is heard)
17. Recap.Game Of Thrones S 7 E 7 The Dragon And The Wolf: The screeching, deathly roar of an undead Viserion heralds the long-feared White Walker invasion of the Seven Kingdoms. It's a terrifying contrast to the deep, guttural roar of the living dragons.
18. Recap.Half Life On A Rail - Hell Is That Noise: There's two times early in the level (the flooded tram area and the bottom of the rocket) where a distant, echoing scream, can be heard of some strange creature. We never find out what it was that made the sound.

1. BrokenBase.Team Fortress 2: Starting with 15th October 2014, all Valve servers have the sv_pure variable set to 1. This forces most custom files added to the game to not work properly. The base has already broken into two groups: on one end, we have purists and "Stop Having Fun" Guys who say it's going to be harder to cheat under those circumstances; on the other, casuals, modders, and pure haters who think that Valve just killed off the modding community, that it doesn't stop most cheating anyway, and that sv_pure 1 causes a lot of problems, such as bogging down the game even for players who don't use mods, and making the game sound like this for those who use them. (Warning: Turn your volume down.) Understandably, sv_pure 1 exists to stop Texture hacks/wall hacks and changing the sounds of weapons firing to make them quieter (generally speaking...there's too many blacklisted variables to list here). Annoying? Yes. Reasonable? Debatable.
2. EarlyInstallmentWeirdness.Music: Swans: The 1982 self-titled debut EP is vaguely creepy, saxophone-laced Post-Punk with a pronounced No Wave influence; their first LP, 1983's Filth, is far harsher, not unlike some sort of primitive hybrid of Industrial and Hardcore Punk. It is also far more unsettling. And then there's their second LP, 1984's Cop. "Brutal" does not begin to describe it. This is a subjective reaction to music.
3. MostWonderfulSound.Live Action TV: Both sounds are only scary because of what they're associated with, and these examples are inherently subjective.
   1. "EX-TER-MI-NATE!" Awesome for some viewers. For characters and other viewers? Not so much.
   2. There's an 'electronic heartbeat' sound associated with Dalek control rooms, which has remained the same since 1963, and can cause excessive cold sweats just before the Daleks appear.
4. VideoGame.The End Times Vermintide: Players tend to learn to fear (or at least respect) the sound of a Stormvermin Patrol. So when you go into a mission which sees you sabotaging the tunnels the skaven are using to move their forces, and see thousands of tiny figures in the distance below, all making that same chant, all marching toward the surface? You might be wishing you brought your brown pants. The sound doesn't actually seem scary aside from the association, and this is subjective
5. NightmareFuel.Dumbo: The disastrous end to the elephants' pyramid routine. The matriarch screams "OUT OF MY WAY, ASSASSIN!" as she chases Dumbo with all the other elephants on top of her. Dumbo trips and we zoom into the matriarch's Oh, Crap! reaction before the elephants knock over the tightrope and tent. Earlier during that same scene, a crowd of silhouetted people in the foreground all scream like a chorus of banshees as they scatter like roaches to escape the oncoming elephants. As the scene cuts to the outside of the tent as it collapses, the crowd is pouring out of the entrances in a solid mass.
6. NightmareFuel.Metal: The Body: Take the drone metal of Sunn O))) as mentioned below, and combine it with industrial tones and outright Harsh Noise and lyrics not so much screamed in a metal scream sense and more screamed like the singer is being slowly and painfully tortured, and you have The Body. Seems pretty exaggerated
7. TearJerker.The New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh: From "Tigger Is The Mother Of Invention," the destruction of Tigger's enormous implied-to-be-sentient wooden contraption. After it damages itself beyond repair to dig Piglet out of his snow-buried house, It expands and contracts violently with increasingly high-pitched and pained wheezing noises, before completely falling apart at the seams. This isn't helped by Tigger's heartbroken reaction afterward; staring at the remains in horror as if he's just watched someone close to him die. Feels a bit exaggerated to me
8. VideoGame.Dragon Ball Z Sagas: A lot of the soundtrack is very mood whiplashy and can come as a surprise when it changes from one song to another.
9. YMMV.Eggs For Bart - Hell Is That Noise: The high-pitched, horror movie-like trilling that Lisa makes when she's on the move; the louder it gets, the closer she is. The same thing applies to Homer's screams in Chapter 3 when he's chasing you. The fact that this is on a YMMV page is a giveaway.

1. Bloodborne.Tropes A To I:
   1. The Cleric Beast's screaming cry.
   2. The Carrion Crow's demonic cawing. So fucking loud!
   3. All the ambient sounds: Odd mutterings, random growling, the random crying baby...
   4. Vicar Amelia's agonized screaming is sure to linger with you once the fight is done.
   5. The Orphan of Kos is almost weeping throughout its boss fight, making it even more disturbing than it already is.
   6. The screaming and gibbering of the Research Hall Patients, which sounds less like those of monsters and more like human beings in agony.
2. Characters.Darkest Dungeon Monsters - Hell Is That Noise:
   1. Let the torchlight fade too much, and the chittering and hissing of reanimated bones stalking your heroes can be heard in the ambiance.
   2. If the torchlight goes too low, the growling, gurgling, and howling of the fungal horde and the Wealds monsters will slowly take over the ambiance.
   3. In a game filled with masterfully horrible audio, it takes a lot for the Crone's death scream to be on a different level of unpleasant.
   4. Let the torchlight go too low, and the sounds of squealing pigs closing in on you will slowly begin to take over.
   5. Let the torchlight fall too low, and the gurgling of the very agitated Pelagic society will replace the ambiance.
3. Film.The Block Island Sound - Hell Is That Noise: The sound that Tom's ghost makes to Harry. A huge, guttural wailing. It's hinted that it might be some kind of botched command, as eventually, Tom is able to talk and says that Harry must get a female sample.

1. ArtifactTitle.Music: Dubstep got its name after "Dub", an offshoot of Reggae known for its emphasis on various studio effects (most notably reverb) as well as the bass, and "2-step", a subgenre of UK Garage that eschews the four-on-the-floor rhythm in favor of a more jittery, irregular beat. While early dubstep tracks fits this name well, the "-step" part gradually became obsolete as producers leaned towards half-time beats (half the tempo of regular 2-step) and put more emphasis on "dub-" (sparse, reverb- and bass-heavy sound) ^note listen to this example and compare to the previous one. Eventually, the "dub-" part also became obsolete, as the genre drew influence from Heavy Metal and Post-Hardcore and became much more aggressive and noisy (what many people today think of as "dubstep" was after this transition), to the point where many old fans would much rather call the new sound a completely different name (such as brostep or filthstep). — This is just Sensory Abuse (which covers disharmonious and noisy sounds)
2. Awesome.Night Of The Demon: The music for this movie is a CMOA, as are the special effects. Try to watch the scene with Holden in the hotel hallway as the music plays, complete with the sound of massively heavy footsteps growing louder every second, and not feel a chill. — Just a loud sound
3. Awesome.Star Trek The Original Series: Scotty beaming all the tribbles from the Enterprise to the Klingon vessel— the Klingons would not have been happy with all the noise that tribbles make when they sense them. — Just a noise
4. Characters.A Certain Magical Index Academy Other: After the Robotic Reveal, every time the Doppelganger moves or walks is accompanied by mechanical whirling or a loud metallic "stomp" respectively.
5. Funny.Sponge Bob Square Pants Season 1: Mr. Krabs' absolutely bizarre cough.
   SpongeBob: Do you think Mr. Krabs ever does karate?
   Mr. Krabs: BLEUHAHEUGH!
6. Manga.Interviews With Monster Girls: Hell Is That Noise: The buzzing/humming sound Machi's flame emits in the anime, especially when she's flustered.
7. VideoGame.Observation: Shortly after rebooting S.A.M, and barely a moment after getting her bearings, a strange, extremely loud noise knocks Emma out and a mysterious signal takes S.A.M. offline. Some time later, they awaken once more and take stock of what's happened: Houston is still non-responsive, the station is still spinning, most of the crew is still missing, she has no idea where they are in relation to Earth, the station's power has largely gone out, and S.A.M.'s memory drives are corrupted. Emma and S.A.M work together to link up stations systems, put out a fire, and finally activate the outside cameras so they can assess the situation and figure out where they are.
8. WebVideo.British Home Entertainment: The appearance of Drazah Computing's logo is accompanied by loud church bells.

1. Awesome.American Dad: Roger screwing Hayley and Jeff out of the 50 grand they conned out of Francine and Stan by invoking Hell Is That Noise in Son Of Stan. — How does he invoke it?
2. AwesomeMusic.Lego Dimensions: Although none of the Genesis-era music got into the game (save the drowning theme for the Labyrinth segment of the level pack), this game's version of the Ice Cap Zone theme is a treat to listen to.
3. AwesomeMusic.Neon Genesis Evangelion: Also from End: "Escape to the Beginning", the background music for apocalypses. (Yes, more so than "Komm, Susser Tod".) For bonus points, it doubles as Hell Is That Noise. And then there's the lyrics...
4. Film.The Ruling Class - Hell Is That Noise: Try this on for size.
5. Film.The Purge 1: While the Emergency Broadcast announcing the Purge's commencement is cited as an In-Universe Hell Is That Noise, what really makes it home is the ungodly siren at the end announcing the suspension of law and order for the night. Have a listen, why don't ya, and good luck getting to sleep tonight. Despite referencing both in-universe and out-of-universe horror, nothing is actually explained.
6. Music.Bone Machine:
   1. Gothic Country Music: The album plays with this genre, though its instrumentation is a bit weirder.
   2. Hell Is That Noise: Many of the sounds on the album can make listeners wonder this. Answers range from unusual instruments to odd machines and random objects.
7. NightmareFuel.Mass Effect 2: Here is what happens if you let the timer run out in The Arrival. For those who couldn't make out the images, comes with many things including; burning skies filled with Reapers, cities being destroyed, decimated planets, Kelly's death (this one in particular), and your Squadmates from this and the previous game along with The Illusive Man calmly standing side-by-side and looking reverently up at Harbinger as he descends. Sweet dreams!
8. NightmareFuel.Night Gallery: "The Flipside of Satan" has the tapes JJ plays for the radio station, which go from bizarre "music" to a tape that summons all the demons in hell, demanding that they take “the condemned” (JJ). The syndicated version adds flashes of the spirit of his deceased lover, the black carriage that is apparently coming to claim his soul, and the creepy-looking face that flashes on the screen occasionally. What's so scary about the music?
9. NightmareFuel.Nightmare Ned: The gonkified Weird, Wild, and Wonderful are bad enough to look at, but they're even worse they start attacking and make creepy sounds.
10. Recap.Mighty Morphin Power Rangers S 3 EP 5 Ninja Quest Part 2: The creepy wailing in the Desert of Despair.
11. Series.Rescue 911:
    1. The tone in "Mystery Dispatch."
    2. The buzzing made by the swarming bees in "Swarm Save" and "911 Honeybee Horror."
    3. In many other stories, crackling or popping noises (due to electrical shorts) that alert homeowners to fire.
12. VideoGame.Spookys Saturday Scare: In "Antagonized", we see Specimen 14 doing a final strike by encrusting his axe through Boyfriend's skull, complete with an earraping noise and the screen getting stained in blood. What is the noise, and why is it scary? Is it just Sensory Abuse?

1. Awesome.Chrono Trigger The Musical: To clarify, the screech Lavos makes at the start of the battle isn't portrayed as "this is the sound of an infallible alien monster" like it usually is. This is a screech of pure frustration as if to say "I am done dealing with you cattle!" Props to everyone involved with the project: they actually managed to turn one of gaming's most infamous Hell Is That Noise examples into a shining moment of catharsis. — The wording indicates it's a subjective negative audience reaction to a screech but I'm not 100% sure

1. NightmareFuel.Final Fantasy VII Machinabridged:
   1. The noises the Nibelheim Reactor Mutant makes. It's no wonder Cloud refuses to elaborate on it further, despite Red XIII's insistence. ZCE
   2. Hojo's final moments deserve special mention. Even in his Helletic form, his voice, while deeper and twisted, was still recognizable. As he dies, he lets out a soft, almost proud "Sephiroth..." that sounds like it came from Satan himself. His departing laugh is equally disturbing, sounding far more demonic than his usual cackling. It's an effective reminder to the audience that, despite Hojo's moments of Black Comedy, he was evil incarnate, and his death is equivalent to a demon returning to the depths of Hell from which it spawned. Unsure. Seems like either an intentionally scary sound for the audience, or a subjective exaggeration.
2. VideoGame.Luigis Mansion Dark Moon - Hell Is That Noise:
   1. An eerie, low hum plays when there's an invisible Boo flying about. A noise to scare the audience
   2. The music that plays in the Garage and Haunted Graveyard certainly qualify. A ZCE