rendition, which appeared on an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. In other media Stephen King cited the song as the inspiration for his novel The Stand, and its lyrics are quoted at the beginning of the novel. It also appears as the opening theme song for the 1994 TV miniseries based on the novel. It was subsequently used as the end credits music for the fifth episode of the 2020-21 miniseries adaptation. In the 1994 book The Discworld Companion, written by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs, the family motto of Mort of Sto Helit is revealed to be "Non Timetis Messor", dog Latin for "don't fear the reaper". This is referenced once more in Pratchett's 1997 novel Hogfather, the first reference in the mainline Discworld series. In 2010, Hubert Chesshyre designed Pratchett's coat of arms, which feature the motto "Noli Timere Messorem", a corrected Latin translation of "don't fear the reaper". In the film Halloween, the song plays in the car when Jamie Lee Curtis and Nancy Kyes' characters, Laurie Strode and Annie Brackett, are being stalked by serial killer Michael Myers. It is used again in the 2022 sequel Halloween Ends, playing over the final scene and ending credits. The 1994 film The Stoned Age features the song when one of the main characters criticizes the song as being "a pussy song" despite it being performed by Blue Oyster Cult. The 2022 horror film X by A24 has the song playing on the protagonists' van radio at the film's climactic mid-point. The slasher nature of the scene, as well as the film's setting in 1979, suggests an intentional homage by director Ti West to Halloween. The song was featured in the starting tracklist of the rhythm game Rock Band. Variations of the song are used throughout the 2021 video game Returnal: the vocal melody played on a piano appears as a key memory of the protagonist, an expansion of that theme is played on an organ by one of the bosses, and the original song finally appears unaltered in a flashback sequence. The 2006 video game Prey features the song, which is heard playing on a jukebox as Jen's bar is attacked. The 2022 Netflix series 1899 features the song in Episode 4 before the end credits roll. The 2013 Netflix series Orange Is the New Black features the song in Episode 26 (the last episode