"Illuminati death ritual choice of music" — Internet reacts to Oscars In Memoriam playing to Lacrimosa

The Oscars chose Mozart's mass titled Requiem as the music for the In Memoriam segment of the event, which was held on Sunday, March 2. For the unversed, this portion is usually meant to pay tributes to film industry artists who have passed away in the preceding year.

The segment began with Morgan Freeman paying tribute to Gene Hackman, who was found dead on February 26. Freeman said:

"This week our community lost a giant, and I lost a dear friend, Gene Hackman. He received two Oscars and more importantly he won the hearts of film lovers all over the world."

This segment at the Oscars paid tribute to several other names including Gena Rowlands, Maggie Smith, filmmaker Jeff Baena, Bob Newhart, Kris Kristofferson, Teri Garr, Cheng Pei-Pei, John Amos, Bill Cobbs, Joan Plowright, and Shelley Duvall.

What also caught the attention of netizens during the In Memoriam segment was the music choice. Several users took to social media platforms like X to express their opinions on the same.

Here are some popular responses found on the platform. A user tweeted:

"I’m sorry but Lacrimosa for a tribute seems like such an Illuminati death ritual choice of music but hey we cooking we vibing #Oscars."

Another user wrote on X:

"Who chose lacrimosa for the in memoriam!"

"Lacrimosa is an insane choice for in memoriam 😭," added a tweet.

"Lacrimosa for the In Memoriam song?!?," wondered another platform user.

A lot of other users shared their take on the music choice on social media:

"Lacrimosa is not the greatest choice for in memoriam music cause why does it sound like they’re gonna reveal who killed everyone."

"Mozart’s requiem lacrimosa for the In Memorium segment at the Oscars is lowkey diabolical tbh 😭," claimed another user.

It was in 1791 when Mozart composed a part of the Requiem. The mass was, however, incomplete at the time of his demise. Later, Franz Xaver Süssmayr completed it in 1792.

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The Oscars' In Memoriam segment did not mention Michelle Trachtenberg

While the In Memoriam segment paid tributes a number of late artists and professionals of the film industry, it reportedly did not include Gossip Girl star Michelle Tractenberg.

Michelle, who was found deceased on February 26 at her Manhattan apartment, was one of the names that were left out of the segment. Many netizens criticized the Academy Awards for omitting Michelle.

According to a March 2 article by Variety, a number of other personalities were excluded from the In Memoriam segment of the awards show. These included Tony Todd, Chance Perdomo, Alain Delon, Olivia Hussey, and Mitzi Gaynor.

Record producer Quincy Jones, who passed away in November 2024, also got a tribute during the event, as per Variety. The outlet further reported that this wasn't the first time that certain personalities were omitted from the segment.

According to Variety, every year a few of them would get excluded from the segment.

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The 97th Academy Awards was aired live on ABC starting at 7 pm ET. It was further set to stream live on Hulu.