10 Horror Movies Ruined Entirely By One Scene

If you're a fan of the Mortal Kombat video game franchise, there's a good chance it basically ruined The Babadook for you.

Much as Jennifer Kent's chilling meditation on grief, parenting, and yes, trauma, was raved about by critics, Kent and her team made one fatal misstep - they didn't create bespoke sound effects for the titular monster, but instead relied upon existing sounds.

Near the end of the movie when we hear The Babadook roar, the sound is borrowed from Mortal Kombat 3, where the exact same distinctive roar is used for the half-man, half-stallion kombatant Motaro.

For anyone familiar with the game, it's incredibly distracting to hear such a memorable sound effect recycled in a totally dead-serious horror movie.

More to the point, where horror movie villains are concerned, it's incredibly risky to use pre-existing sounds rather than having the sound team create a unique sonic signature for the character.

For all of the film's terrific craft otherwise, the pivotal climax falters because of one sound design choice. Yikes.