SCARIEST MUSIC CUE?

If the million dollar background music didn't do it for me, hearing that final answer lock-in sound does it for me. Hearing that sound, the drumroll in the background, and the suspense from the host just sends shivers up and down my spine. The klaxon wasn't bad for me unless it happens in an episode where the contestant is in the final third of the money tree because by that point I'm so invested in the game that I wanted to see the next question, only to be left on a cliffhanger.

The million dollar lose sound spooked me when I was a kid playing the 2nd edition PC game. Yet as I got older watching Ken Basin's blunder and the Australian Hot Seat, I wasn't so spooked by it. Listening to it on its own is what still gets me.

Question 15 wrong.

I certainly agree on hearing the million lose que being one of your worst nightmares, but I don’t find the que itself very scary. The thought of it is, but the music not really.

To me, the scariest que in my opinion is the Double Dip answer №2 que.
It just says “Allright brave guy, this is what you wanted. Can’t walk away now. Your hard earned money hangs by a silk thread. Good luck. *evil laugh*”.

I’ve never had a reaction to the klaxon, but the Q15 incorrect cue is gut-wrenching and the first Double Dip incorrect cue is super nerve-wracking. Still love them both, though.

I notice a lot of folks (both in this thread and in other places, YouTube and wherever) think the million lose cue is the scariest one. That or the klaxon. Oddly, I've never had a reaction to either. In fact, I always kinda liked both. I thought the klaxon was a great way to convey 'We're done for today' (it has a feeling of finality to it, it's hard to describe) and the million lose cue very dramatically yet perfectly sums up that feeling of 'epic fail' (like, if 'epic fail' were to have a sound associated with it) that comes from losing the top prize. Tangentally related, but ever since I heard it at the end of the Llewelyn-Bowen's run, surprisingly, the $/£500,000 lose cue also works surprisingly well to convey 'oh no, what have you done'/'epic fail' as the million lose cue. 

(This is the cue I'm talking about, just in case you wanted to hear it)



My pick for scariest cue has to be this. 




I've never ever been a fan of the clock format (or any other format besides the original one with the hot seat, really), but this music is, in my opinion, one of the most suspenseful themes to have ever been used on the show. 

The intensity of the suspense really picks up around the 15 second mark, although it does a great job of climbing slowly we get closer to that point. After the 15 second mark, the intensity builds exponentially and really skyrockets by the 7 second mark. It is the musical personification of 'panic', in my opinion. 

Every time I hear this cue used on the show, I always get goosebumps as we get closer to the single digit. The visual I've always had in my head when I hear this cue is of a person running down a corridor. The lights slowly go off behind him, resulting in utter and complete darkness. They keep running towards this open window, which is slowly closing. They struggle to run and make it to the window in time before it shuts on them and they're forever confined to the darkness. At the 5 second mark, the person summons all of their willpower for one final push. But it's not enough. At 0 seconds, the window slams shut, the lights completely go out, and the person is condemned to the rest of eternity in darkness and isolation, the last chance at freedom being ripped away from their hands at the last possible second. (Vivid imagination, I know)

My runner up for scariest cue is, as some commentators here have said, the Double Dip cue (that includes the first answer cue, the wrong first answer cue, and the second answer cue). That also does a really great job of conveying suspense. I think it was put to its greatest use when that guy got the final question wrong on KBC (in India) where all three of those cues were followed up by the epic million final answer cue and then the million lose cue. It's quite an epic combination of cues there and one that is certainly very memorable.

Thank goodness you didn't grow up watching the 2011 Turkish version, that version plays the klaxon twice in quick succession. I grew up watching old episodes (mostly 2001-04 but some 2008) on Challenge, who usually edited out the last bit, but when I was ten I watched the episode (2001 I think) in which Zulma Dudgeon had just got to the hot seat and the klaxon sounded right before the closing credits. Needless to say, it was unexpected for me and I was absolutely terrified.

Yeah. On the other hand, Greece took it up to eleven by using a vocal remover effect on it. All I'm saying is, thank goodness there was no top prize loser in, say, Ecuador, so we never heard it again. To me, though, the main million loss scenario that gave me chills would be a choice of 3 between Vladimir Jefremov (Russia, 2011), Şeyma Özin (Turkey, 2013) and Luis Prazines (Brazil, 2023). The Russian one is because the answer flashes before the cue and that lulled me into a false sense of security thinking it wouldn't play, but it did later. Also the ominous pause, and the applause makes the moment seem epic to me. The first Turkish incident is because the studio was silent for about 15s beforehand, like in the Greek incident. The Brazilian one is because it pretty much exactly replicates Jefremov's loss twelve years earlier as Luis had also set is safety net on 800,000 rubles sorry, R$300,000. In addition, the audience screaming in shock reminds me of when it happens in the Japanese version. I was half-expecting the "Study!" graphic to flash on screen.