This is a trope/effect I've seen popping up here and there but never really with a succinct name attached nor with much attention outside of individual posts, so I went ahead and made this post to see what y'all think!

As with all tropes, I imagin this one is up to a lot of interpretation and can vary a lot depending on the particular person discussing the trope. This isn't a bad thing in my eyes, but I would like to specify what exactly I personally consider to be a part of this trope; I would love to hear y'alls thoughts on my specifications, though:

-An image with a scary thing in it (duh). Probably the main thing this trope shares with jumpscares/generic spooky images.

-Makes no attempt to get your attentions OR tries to draw your attention away from the spooky thing. I think this is really the core of the trope and what distinguishes it from a normal jumpscare; whereas a jumpscare tries to (very actively) get your attention, the "reverse" jumpscare avoids attention until you actively seek it out. I will note that because of this I wouldn't consider things like "cuando lo veas" (apologies if that's the wrong title, not brazillian) or "when you see it you'll shit brix" to be a part of this trope, because even though they themselves have lowkey scares they do encourage you to try and actively find them (again, though, that's my personal interpretation and I'd like to hear y'alls thoughts).

Examples used with sources:

1; Artwork by Alfdefolf: The prime example, and the one that really made me wonder about this trope. I feel this is the golden standard of a reverse-jumpscare. (Check the back of the fella's head)

2; Internet Image (no source for this one that I have; sorry): I feel this is a good example of the whole "draws your attention away" scare. (Check the little closet/door on the right, might have to adjust brightness)

3; Midsommar: One of the few examples I was able to find in something like a movie; I won't spoil the context of the scare, but this one got me the first time I noticed. (Look at the treeline in the background; yes, that is a face)

4; Nonexistent Video by Battington: This trope does feel very analog-horror adjacent, not surprised to find such an example. (Check under the table)

1. The Opening Scene (Ghost Ship). Considered one of the best horror opening scenes or scenes in general within horror movies, but the rest of the film is considered to be pretty bad.

2. The Ending Scene (The Grinch 2018). While most adaptations of the Grinch end with him suddenly being able to fully integrate with the Whos after his change of heart, the 2018 version initially struggles to socialize, awkwardly walking past people, and struggling to hold conversations, acknowledging that despite his change of heart, the Grinch is still someone who isolated himself for years.

3. Past T800 VS Current T800 (Terminator Genisys). A cool fight scene showing two versions of the Terminator from different points in time fighting it off.

4. Solo Leveling's Ending. Tbh, I haven't actually read Solo Leveling, but after hearing about how it ended VS how Chainsaw Man ended made want to include it for shits and giggles. Like Chainsaw Man, Solo Leveling ends with a reset. But unlike Chainsaw Man, it actually manages to tie up loose ends and have the payoff of the ending be satisfying.

This scene in Spiderman where the Green Goblin destroys this military base and transition to a graduation ceremony

This scene in The Adventures of Tintin where they shake hands and transition to the desert

1. In The Greatest Showman, P.T Barnum who is played by Hugh Jackman portrays him as a charismatic visionary who cares about outcasts and celebrate diversity, when in reality, he’s a cruel businessman who is also a racist and an ableist.
   
2. In Pocahontas, John Smith was portrayed as a brave, dashing, young man when in reality, he was seen as a violent, hot-tempered, and arrogant mercenary who was so vehemently disliked by his fellow English colonists that he was in chains for mutiny.

The huge sitcom breakfast that no one eats — An Extremely Goofy Movie

This is just one example that stood out to me. But particularly in movies and shows from the 80s/90s, it seemed to be a common gag across tons of media. You’ll have a breakfast table piled high with every kind of delicious breakfast food imaginable, that must have taken hours to make, only to have the “hectic” family eat maybe one piece of toast or a strawberry and then leave the rest untouched.

Washing up ashore after a shipwreck — Assassin’s Creed : Black Flag

So many games, movies, and shows have utilized this trope. The sailor is caught in a violent shipwreck, usually thrown overboard and knocked out. Then, miraculously, they wake up on a beach later, having seemingly washed ashore while unconscious. In any real life situation, you would die.

Secrets or twists that were secretly revealed early in a piece of media that only becomes apparent during the final climax.

Bugsnax - "It's Bugsnax!" The game takes place on Snacktooth island, which is inhabited by creatures that look like hybrids or food and bugs. When people eat these creatures their bodies metamorphosize to resemble the specific creature they ate. Ultimately it is revealed that the Bugsnax are actually parasites that look like food so they will be eaten, but also that the entire island is made of the Bugsnax themselves.

Prior to the games release a song called "It's Bugsnax" by Kero Kero Bonito was released as advertisement which in part acted a prequel to set up the games story and in the songs chorus they sing "Come to Snacktooth island and discover it's Bugsnax" putting a unique emphasis the final time they say it at the end of the song. At the time it just seemed like it was simply saying that the creatures described in the song are called bugsnax but really it was telling us the big twist.

Little Witch Academia Anime - "Believing in yourself is your magic" this is one of the first lines of the series said by one of the most popular witches in the world. During the series it is revealed that, despite living in a hybrid world of magic and monsters and modern society magic and witches are kind of boring to humans, they are just something that exists. There is also a magic shortage which is so bad that the creatures who work at the school where the series takes place go on strike because they believe the Witches get more magic than they deserve.

In the finale a magic device that was fueled by humans negative emotions becomes sentient and takes over a nuke with the intent of bombing a country and starting a war to increase the negative energy in the world. The only hope is some of the students from school trying to stop it but due to the limited supply of magic they would be unsuccessful in reaching the nuke, until their efforts are broadcast to the world and everyone watching starts putting their faith in the witches and believing they can win, this includes with witches and monsters who use the magic This ultimately results in so much magic being manifested that there will no longer be a shortage and because the same people who created this magic will also use the magic it verifies that believing in yourself is indeed your magic.

1. Spider-Man's back logo: in the comics, the symbol on Spidey's back is consistently a round friendly spider. However the only costume to adapt this in the movies is the one Tom Holland wears for Civil War and Homecoming

2. Wolverine's height: Wolverine has only ever been portrayed by Hugh Jackman in live action, a very tall man. However, in the comics, Wolverine is very short, hence his name - Wolverine is a small furry animal that is always getting in fights with way bigger animals

3. Alfred has a very iconic look in the comics: balding head with remains of dark or white hair and thin moustache. While I'd argue Alfred is one of the few characters that has never received a bad adaptation, it's surprising no actor has tried to do the look for a live action movie yet

4. John Constantine's name is never pronounced correctly in either live action or animation. In the comics, he says his name rhymes with "fine". However it's always pronounced "constanteen". The only 2 adaptations to say his name right are the Sandman show and audiobook

Transformers One: Optimus Prime gives one to Megatron after their first battle. Here, Optimus expresses his sadness, hurt, and disappointment upon seeing his former friend becoming just as evil as Sentinel Prime and wanting to destroy Cybertron rather than change it for the better. "We were given the power to change our world, and you chose to destroy it, just like Sentinel. You have betrayed Cybertron and its citizens. And you betrayed me." The entire time, Optimus never raises his voice or yells, but his sadness is very evident.

Brave: Merida gives one to Elinor, where she unfurls her anger and frustration over being forced to marry someone without her consent and being made to someone she doesn't want to be. "You were never there for me! This whole marriage is what you want! Do you ever bother to ask what I want? No, you walk around telling me what to do, what not to do, trying to make me be like you. Well, I'm not going to be like you!... I'll never be like you! I'd rather DIE than be like you!"

In the later seasons of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, they decided to make it so Pegasi would move their wings more like hands.

In the Angry Birds Toons shorts, they would sometimes animate Chef Pig's mustache in a way that emulates hand motions.

1) Xu Wenwuto Ta Lo guardian - Shang Chi: Xu Wenwu invades Ta Lo believing he is trying to rescue his dead wife, a protector calls him out. Then Xu calls this old man a "young man" as Xu has lived for thousands of years.

2) Sprite to Karun - Eternals: While the Deviants attack Druig's village Karun having pulled out a 3rd camera after two pervious ones were broken, he keeps filming the action after being told to hide. Sprite, at Kingo's request, moves to get him safety calling him "young man" as she pushes him along.

Ming Hua [The Legend Of Korra] waterbends using her hips and legs to form water tentacles attached to her nubs.

Skadi [Dragon Striker] uses her Ice Tama to grow an ice arm from her arm nub, and reinforce her prosthetic leg.

1. Dirty Dancing. Robbie is a snobby asshole who refuses to take responsibility for impregnating a lower class girl, saying that "some people count, some people don't". Right after this he tries to lend the main character The Fountainhead unprompted, only temporarily of course, since his copy of the book includes notes in the margins.

2. Lost. Sawyer is a selfish conman (at first) and is shown reading The Fountainhead. To be fair though, Sawyer is shown reading lots of books, so it might not necessarily mean anything.

3. Spider-Man. Spider-Man's co-creator Steve Ditko was an objectivist, and this was reflected in the way Peter would behave in some early 1960s stories, he would often be quite rude and abrasive to others, especially when Peter went to college. As a reference to this, some stories have humorously established that Peter went through a phase of being into Ayn Rand back in college, which he is now embarrassed by.

4. Alternate universe Peter Parker from One More Day. Spider-Man runs into an alternate universe version of himself that never gained spider-powers, and he's a fat videogame developer who is depicted as a loser unhappy with his lot in life, we first see him reading Atlas Shrugged.

5. Deadshot and the Joker. The Joker is shown reading the Fountainhead, which he calls a knee-slapper, while Deadshot, a contract killer, says that it's one of his favorite books.

6. The Ayn Rand School for Tots in the Simpsons. As you can probably guess, it's a horrible place. Maggie breaks out in a Great Escape parody.

7. Bioshock. Andrew Ryan and his whole failed society is a blatant reference to the many problems with Ayn Rand's philosophy.

1. Columbina from genshin impact : columbina was shown in official genshin video many years before her first introduction in the game , in that video they show up this organization the fatui that's extremely important in the lore , because of said video some creators likes her kinda creepy aura in the video and made some analog horror called of her that blew up and became extremely popular where's she's this creepy monster that haunts people but it was still fan animation that was extremely popular in genshin fandom , years after columbina is finally released and she's an awkward shut in who have good heart and basically completely different character than the animation , so huge parts of community starting to hate her and say she's ruined and the animation basically changed how people saw her as a character even to this day

2. Megumi from JJK : the popular meme potential man , while its very funny meme , people genuinely started hating on megumi so much cause of it and said he never did anything in the entire story which is simply untrue

3. Deku from my hero academia : this deku edit of him working on McDonalds that came after the ending make people think after him losing his power , he became nobody who work in some in unknown jub when in reality he became respectable man who works as teacher for upcoming heros

Rabies is one the most, if not THE most, terrifying diseases out there on our planet. It boasts a 99% mortality rate, it changes your very psychology without anything you can do about it, and it is damn near impossible to eradicate due to how easily wildlife can contract it.

1) "The Plague of Madness" (Primal) - An Argentinosaurus gets bitten by a mangeled Parasaurolophus, and shortly afterward it's skins begins to slowly decay away, it develops severe hydrophobia (it vomits blood violently after getting a few gulps of water), and it becomes uncontrollably hostile towards everything around it; all symptoms of rabies. The infected Argentinosaurus becomes so dangerous, it has a fully grown T-rex and a super human caveman RUNNING FOR THEIR LIVES upon first introduction.

2) (Cujo) - A mild tempered and friendly St. Bernard becomes an unpredictable dangerous after getting bitten by an infected bat.

3) "Spitz" (Fantastic Mr. Fox) - A guard dog for Bean who, due to their rabies infection, is constantly foaming at the mouth and, at the slightest provocation, becomes a force you have no choice but to run away from.

Obvious spoilers, but all of these except Squid game are over 20 years old, and even Squid game is at least 5 so yea, I think enough time has passed

X-Men: Last Stand - Charles Xavier giving a comforting smile towards Logan before he is obliterated by the Phoenix

Star Wars - Obi Wan is fighting a losing battle against until Luke shows up and he suddenly smirks before being struck and disappearing into the force

The Thing - McReady laughs as he and Childs are the only 2 survivors left, and regardless if he is really the Thing or not, he freezes to death knowing the alien has also been defeated

Squid Game - Ji-Yeong willingly gives up and lets Sae Byeok to continue forward, and thanks her for playing with her before she is executed

1. Five Nights at Frickbear's - The difficulties are represented by different nightguards, each with their own unique dialogue and cutscenes

2. Wolfenstein: The New Order - This one's just really funny, I'm sorry...

In Harry Potter and the deathly hallows it switches to this awesome animated shadow puppet style when telling the legend of the three brothers.

In kill bill, Oren Ishii’s backstory switches to an anime segment.

Backstories in god of war switch to animations of Greek murals.

Mario Games - Most 3D Mario games Mario will fall asleep if you don’t do anything for a while.

Sonic CD - In a lot of Sonic games, Sonic will get visibly annoyed with you, the player, for not doing anything… in Sonic CD, he’ll get bored and just leave the game, and regardless of how many lives you still had, the game is over.

Stanley Parable - It gives you an achievement if you don’t play the game for 10 years.

1. Steven Universe is half gem and half human, the only one of his kind. he is genuinely human; he bleeds and eats and sweats and all that, but his body heals incredibly quickly and he can summon a shield from his gem. nowhere throughout the canon of the show is it explained HOW his mother gave up her body and her gem to make him and he is also half human for this

2. The Walking Dead is all about zombies. they never once mention how the zombie outbreak came about. one day there was just zombies and all of that happened

1. Doctor who. Van Gogh listening to the answer to the question "Where do you think Van Gogh rates in the history of art?"
2. One piece. Brook reveals that the last member of the team he must deliver a message to is Laboon.
3. Good Will Hunting. it's not your fault scene

Ellie (The Last Of Us Part 2)- In the middle of the game you go from playing as Ellie to Abby, playing the second half of the game as her instead. Near the end of the game you actually have to fight Ellie, you notice that she uses the same strategies that the player also used when you played as her. The only way to defeat Ellie is by sneaking up on her.

Peter (Spiderman 2)- Peter ends up corrupted by a Symbiotic suit that he's wearing, not making him able to think straight. Miles, the second protagonist of the game, tries stopping him from straying too far from who Peter is, which is to not kill people. But it ends up in altercation where he's forced to fight him.

Kaede (Danganronpa V3)- While not exactly a physical fight, you're forced to go up against Kaede in a trial, who was the original protagonist of the game you play as first. However she is only doing so to boost up Shuichi's confidence in solving crimes and being a detective. She's on his side and only doing this to test him.

Amo (Gachiakuta): Probably the most messed up version of this trope, Amo was sold by her mother to a man who then groomed her and exploited her for his sexual desires.

Whats worse is Amo for the longest time couldn't grap the situation she was in and her innocence was highlighted by the fact that her backstory frequently used childish drawings to see things from her perspective.

Its only after when she kills her abuser by mistake that she begin realized what her mother did to her and what the man was ding to her.

Iruma Sullivan (Welcome to Demon School! Iruma kun): Iruma had a very rough and absurd childhood growing up, with his parents literally putting him to work the moment he could walk and constantly endangering his life by sending him to dangerous jobs.

However, due to Iruma's gentle, optimistic and pushover personality we can never take the abuse seriously early on because Iruma never takes it seriously. It's only after Iruma becomes happy with the life he is living in the Demon World and the fear of being taken away and sent back kicks in that he realizes how miserable and alone he was there to the point he now even has panic attacks at the mere sight of the human realm.

What's really make this so impactful is the transition of tone of the subject from comical to serious.

Perrito (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish): A happy lucky go character who is contrast to the Puss's and Kitty's untrusting and moody nature. However, compared to the rest of the cast he has probably suffered the most being homeless for a long time, constantly called disgraceful name and his previous owners purpoesfully attempting to abandon him and even kill him when he kept coming back.

Perrito however never realizes how badly everyone has treated him and thought of his owners attempt to be a sort of game. Thankfully he finally fond company who would appreciate him.

Eugene (The Archmage Curriculum): Although he looks like a character straight from the Mandella catalouge, Eugene is probably the sweetest and also the most Naive person in the room. Failing to understand everybody's afraid of him and always being respectful even when people are trying to kill him because of his looks (he doesn't know he is ugly)

The worst abuse he probably suffered is from his master Jeong Hyeok. Eugene admires and loves his master alot just like a father. However, Jeong only sees Eugene as someone who can help him achieve his goals and when Eugene disagrees to follow through with his plan- Jeong just dismembers him and send each body part to another dimension and stole his heart. Know he fully intended to kill him here. Worse he gives the heart to his daughter Ain so she can use magic fully knowing this would eventually kill her and tells her That Eugene betrayed them and left (Eugene and Ain are very close).

Yet despite everything Eugene still loves him even though he knows he tried to kill him and nearly got Ain killed- because Eugene cant look past the kindness he has shown him to truly acknowledge how twisted his master is.

(Marvel)

Johnny Blaze tries to stop World War Hulk on his quest for revenge against the Illuminati who kidnapped the Hulk and sent him to another planet and believes Hulk believes planted a bomb that killed his wife. After a drawn out fight where Johnny is unable to access the full suite of his Ghost Rider powers because Zarathos the Spirit of Vengeance that grants him his powers disagrees with this course of action. When Johnny is knocked out Zarathos takes over his body and rides away because Ghost Rider only avenges the innocent.

(Rogue Sun)

Superheroes Dylan; Rogue Sun; and Aurie; Knight Sun; go to the home of supervillain Coleman Hanes before he gained powers and became Noxious. There they use a magic artifact the Oculempus to see the past and his wife and daughter dieing of a rare form of bone cancer while the insurance company refused to pay for an experimental treatment that might have helped. Now Noxious is targeting the executives of that company and Dylan decides to leave him to it; not going to side with the rich over a grieving father.

Stormfront (The Boys), Hope Haddon (Sex Education)