...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!
Mundane Horror
- 132 statements
- 25 feature instances
- 36 referencing feature instances
| Mundane Horror | type |
FeatureClass | |
| Mundane Horror | label |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror | page |
MundaneHorror | |
| Mundane Horror | comment |
The usual horror tropes (fantastic monsters, ancient curses, Ax-Crazy maniacs, etc.) do not always work because this is too distant from what we may encounter in everyday life. Therefore some creators use the Mundane Horror. The idea is to portray a seemingly comforting and everyday scene, but with some minor details which somehow "do not fit" and have very dark implications (i. e. that the character is really in a Dark World, or we're looking Through the Eyes of Madness, or it is all a Dying Dream). A common way to do this is to take a normal scene then apply effects to it. For example, a group of children jumping rope is innocuous or even heartwarming in normal contexts. Slowing the footage down, making it black and white, desaturating the colour balance, blurring parts or all of it - or a combination thereof then altering the soundtrack so it's Creepy Children Singing an Ironic Nursery Rhyme instead of the normal lighthearted jumping cadence and you get a totally different effect from what is ostensibly the exact same scene. Often features a Wham Line or a Wham Shot, and may overlap with Crapsaccharine World; Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick; Surprisingly Creepy Moment; and Disguised Horror Story. Can sometimes result in Fridge Horror if you don't immediately see the weirdness. A frequent result of A Glitch in the Matrix. Contrast Mundane Made Awesome. Compare and Contrast Faux Horrific and Mundanger. |
|
| Mundane Horror | fetched |
2024-01-22T13:00:04Z | |
| Mundane Horror | parsed |
2024-01-22T13:00:04Z | |
| Mundane Horror | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
| Mundane Horror / int_15f2438d | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_15f2438d | comment |
Cleaning Redville: The game is about collecting garbage bags as you drive down the streets of Redville. Of course, the envelopes tied to sign posts suggest something isn't right with the job. That's because you may have been actually collecting dead bodies to dispose of at your place of work: a crematorium. | |
| Mundane Horror / int_15f2438d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_15f2438d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Cleaning Redville (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_15f2438d | |
| Mundane Horror / int_271c1469 | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_271c1469 | comment |
Death Parade is a Psychological Horror taking place in an Afterlife Antechamber where a Celestial Bureaucracy judge the deceased, who don’t know they’re dead yet. The main setting is in a bar called Quindecim that looks like an ordinary, classy bar with a live pianist and some guests sitting in the corners…until you look a little more closely and realize that the pianist and all those “people� are really just mannequins being controlled by puppet strings, and you are told that the strange looking bartender wants you to play a classic bar game in which you “stake your life,� and all the doors are locked… The games really are normal bar games with the usual rules, but they’re often decorated with bones and pulsing organs. Game pieces like billiards balls, bowling balls, or air hockey pucks are coordinated with the players’ own organs, and are often “linked� so that the person feels pain when their game pieces get hit. |
|
| Mundane Horror / int_271c1469 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_271c1469 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Death Parade | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_271c1469 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_2e052899 | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_2e052899 | comment |
In The Landlady by Roald Dahl, there's a nice small hotel with a friendly host. It has only two guests who are still there though they checked in more than a year ago, and are "known for one and the same thing" (having gone missing); the host gives her guests tea which tastes like Bitter Almonds. Guess the implications? | |
| Mundane Horror / int_2e052899 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_2e052899 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Landlady | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_2e052899 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_3740c00a | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_3740c00a | comment |
The Yellow Wallpaper. The narrator is in a room. It has really ugly yellow wallpaper with a pattern that almost seems like rather intricate prison bars. In fact, there could be a woman there... creeping around behind the paper... It would be a true shame if she were to stay trapped, wouldn't it? Or perhaps, the narrator has suffered a mental breakdown, and now she is the woman in the walls. | |
| Mundane Horror / int_3740c00a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_3740c00a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Yellow Wallpaper | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_3740c00a | |
| Mundane Horror / int_46009ec4 | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_46009ec4 | comment |
Mulholland Dr.: Two men are in a diner, discussing a dream one man had about being in the diner, terrified out of their minds because of someone standing behind the diner. Then, they get up and walk around to the back of the diner... | |
| Mundane Horror / int_46009ec4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_46009ec4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Mulholland Dr. | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_46009ec4 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_4991931c | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_4991931c | comment |
Coraline: The other world looks almost exactly like an enhanced version of the real world, but areas around the edges (and eventually, the whole place) looks unrealistic in an unsettling way, with the narration likening it to a photograph or a drawing. | |
| Mundane Horror / int_4991931c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_4991931c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Coraline | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_4991931c | |
| Mundane Horror / int_50b1087a | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_50b1087a | comment |
In Crouch End by Stephen King, a family couple drives into an unknown district of London. Initially it appears almost normal, but with some minor unsettling details (a strange newspaper headline, a cat with a mutilated face, three bikers who appear to have rat heads). These are the first indications that they are in a Dark World. | |
| Mundane Horror / int_50b1087a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_50b1087a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Nightmares & Dreamscapes | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_50b1087a | |
| Mundane Horror / int_5168c088 | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_5168c088 | comment |
Night of the Consumers is a very unsettling look at what life working retail is like. You will learn to fear the words "EXCUSE ME" and "PLEASE HELP ME" if you don't already. | |
| Mundane Horror / int_5168c088 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_5168c088 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Night of the Consumers (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_5168c088 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_546769dd | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_546769dd | comment |
This is part of what makes the best incarnations of The Slender Man Mythos (Marble Hornets in particular) so unforgettably terrifying, through the juxtaposition of the suburban mundane with the nightmarishly uncanny. The Operator isn't some distant, bloodthirsty demon from a monster movie who stalks the unwary at night or lurks in haunted houses...he pops up (often completely un-obscured) in broad daylight, in totally recognizable suburban surroundings, standing in front of that house across the street. Or as a small, seemingly inexplicable spot of static on your otherwise unrelated home video. Or beside that tree a little ways down the road. Or quietly lurking at the edge of the forest. Or outside your window. Or inside your house.... | |
| Mundane Horror / int_546769dd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_546769dd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Slender Man Mythos (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_546769dd | |
| Mundane Horror / int_5f42d257 | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_5f42d257 | comment |
Joker manages to make the Joker casually eating shrimp into something utterly revolting and unnatural. Also, if you pay attention to the background, you'll notice that some of the gargoyles on Gotham's buildings aren't actually gargoyles. | |
| Mundane Horror / int_5f42d257 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_5f42d257 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Joker (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_5f42d257 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_61484102 | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_61484102 | comment |
A Wrinkle in Time: Camazotz looks like a 50s Suburbia Planet, and then you notice that the kids all bounce their balls in exactly the same pattern in exactly the same tempo, the mailman throws newspapers into exactly the same spot on the walkways of the identical houses, and anyone who screws up their act gets taken away and tortured until they get it right. | |
| Mundane Horror / int_61484102 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_61484102 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| A Wrinkle in Time | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_61484102 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_6715932e | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_6715932e | comment |
Spirit Hunter: NG, the sequel to Spirit Hunter: Death Mark, is said in the official site to differentiate itself from its predecessor by taking place in ordinary urban locales (for example, an underpass and an office building) as opposed to the more traditional haunted locations of the original (such as a haunted forest and Hell Hotel). | |
| Mundane Horror / int_6715932e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_6715932e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Spirit Hunter: NG (Visual Novel) | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_6715932e | |
| Mundane Horror / int_68ff290a | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_68ff290a | comment |
The Playable Teaser for the canned Silent Hills is set in single looping corridor of a completely generic apartment flat, albeit one that's haunted and becomes incredibly nightmarish the more loops the player goes through, gradually implying a horrific and tragic backstory. | |
| Mundane Horror / int_68ff290a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_68ff290a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Silent Hills (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_68ff290a | |
| Mundane Horror / int_78fc0025 | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_78fc0025 | comment |
In episode 9 of Twin Peaks, Donna delivers a meal to an old lady Mrs. Tremond and her grandson. They say cryptic things, the grandson, who is "studying magic", makes creamed corn disappear from the tray, and the whole scene has a very unsettling feel. Next time Donna comes to visit them, they are not there, and a completely different person lives here. | |
| Mundane Horror / int_78fc0025 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_78fc0025 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Twin Peaks | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_78fc0025 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_793a2518 | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_793a2518 | comment |
Some of the more realistic levels of Sanitarium have this. A seemingly normal American town which has no adults and is full of disfigured children, a mental asylum with friendly guards and patients, with one of them cheerfully telling you that she "ate her husband with carrots and rice", etc. | |
| Mundane Horror / int_793a2518 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_793a2518 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Sanitarium (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_793a2518 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_7ea585fc | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_7ea585fc | comment |
The Exit 8 is set within one underground passage that seemingly has no exit. The game manages to get a lot of horror out of a single, well-lit, clean corridor since players have no idea what to expect when walking through it. | |
| Mundane Horror / int_7ea585fc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_7ea585fc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Exit 8 (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_7ea585fc | |
| Mundane Horror / int_829cc68f | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_829cc68f | comment |
Lost Highway: The main character goes to a party and is approached by a pale man with black lips and eyes. The sounds of the party go silent. The man then says they've met before, at the main character's house, and that he's there right now. | |
| Mundane Horror / int_829cc68f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_829cc68f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Lost Highway | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_829cc68f | |
| Mundane Horror / int_8f36f969 | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_8f36f969 | comment |
The Loud House: "One Flu Over the Loud House" is a Plague Episode parodying a Zombie Apocalypse, in which the Loud family gets the flu. The first visible sign that things aren't right is that the upstairs hallway looks different— it's dark, it's a mess (while a bit of clutter is normal in the Louds' hallway, this time it's so bad that even the furniture is knocked over), the ceiling light is askew, and "RUN!" is written on the wall with a backwards "R". | |
| Mundane Horror / int_8f36f969 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_8f36f969 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Loud House | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_8f36f969 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_9a0cb5f4 | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_9a0cb5f4 | comment |
Bob's Burgers: The episode "Video Killed The Gene-io Star" gives us Billy Bandana, a bland, monotone speaking man in a business suit who accidentally leaves his briefcase in the restaurant. Teddy and Linda obsess over the briefcase's contents to the point of actually breaking it open, much to Bob's displeasure. When they find it's full of walnuts, Bob immediately freaks out asking why someone would carry around a briefcase with nothing but walnuts inside. Billy Bandana eventually returns for his briefcase when Bob steps on a walnut shell. After Billy notes it sounded like a walnut shell was crushed, Bob bluffs by asking how Billy would know what that sounds like. He leaves with no answers about who he was and why his briefcase had walnuts in it, with Bob believing they're better off not knowing. | |
| Mundane Horror / int_9a0cb5f4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_9a0cb5f4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Bob's Burgers | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_9a0cb5f4 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_aaaf816f | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_aaaf816f | comment |
Mister Miracle (2017) frequently juxtaposes mundane domestic drama between Scott Free and his wife Big Barda with the backdrop of an apocalyptic war between the New Gods, to jarring effect. Even the most casual conversations are frequently disrupted by bizarre format shifts that make the reader question what the hell is going on. | |
| Mundane Horror / int_aaaf816f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_aaaf816f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Mister Miracle (2017) (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_aaaf816f | |
| Mundane Horror / int_ad8764db | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_ad8764db | comment |
Leyland Kirby's album Everywhere at the end of time starts out this way. At first, it's old ballroom music, repeated in loops and distorted to sound like it's decayed. As the album goes on, it descends into chaos, representing the theme of Alzheimer's disease. | |
| Mundane Horror / int_ad8764db | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_ad8764db | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Leyland Kirby (Music) | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_ad8764db | |
| Mundane Horror / int_b6b6098 | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_b6b6098 | comment |
Moshi Monsters: In the "20,000 Leagues Under the Fur" mission, one of the signs that the leader of the Super Moshis, Elder Furi, is seriously ill is that the smoke from his Volcano Lair, which is usually yellow, is purple. Another sign is that all his computers are displaying error messages. | |
| Mundane Horror / int_b6b6098 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_b6b6098 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Moshi Monsters (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_b6b6098 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_bab19888 | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_bab19888 | comment |
In Twixt, the protagonist, who is interested in the biography of Edgar Allan Poe, comes to the hotel "Chickering" where Poe used to stay. He is met by a very eccentric family couple who say weird things about "graves in the floor" and sing the song "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" which sounds decidedly creepy in the context. It turns out it was all a dream, and when he comes there at daytime, the building is abandoned. | |
| Mundane Horror / int_bab19888 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_bab19888 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Twixt | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_bab19888 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_dfd9448c | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_dfd9448c | comment |
"Pizza Madness" portrays the protagonist's pizza delivery job as though he had joined a cult in a more typical Cosmic Horror Story; the act of delivering pizzas consumes his every thought, he forgets the names of his friends and loved ones, and eventually he's driven to killing an older pizza delivery man that delivers "special orders" out of jealousy. | |
| Mundane Horror / int_dfd9448c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_dfd9448c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Pizza Madness | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_dfd9448c | |
| Mundane Horror / int_e2888530 | type |
Mundane Horror | |
| Mundane Horror / int_e2888530 | comment |
Jacob's Ladder is a masterpiece of "Uh, did I just see that?" moments. A nurse with a bone sticking out of her head, a creepy-looking sandwich in a fridge at a party, blood in a sink in a public toilet, etc. | |
| Mundane Horror / int_e2888530 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Mundane Horror / int_e2888530 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Jacob's Ladder | hasFeature |
Mundane Horror / int_e2888530 |
The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.
Copyright of DBTropes.org wrapper 2009-2013 DFKI Knowledge Management. Imprint. - Thanks to Bakken&Baeck for hosting. Contact.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.