Search/Recent Changes
DBTropes
...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

Small Town, Big Hell

 Small Town, Big Hell
type
FeatureClass
 Small Town, Big Hell
label
Small Town, Big Hell
 Small Town, Big Hell
page
SmallTownBigHell
 Small Town, Big Hell
comment
"Pueblo Chico, Infierno Grande" in Spanish is an old and famous saying in Latin America, which is about a Small Town that has its own drama since everyone knows each other, and so when something happens (usually something bad), the whole town gets the news and everyone takes sides. If a couple gets into a fight and later get separated, people take sides with either of the ex-lovers. If someone dies, Everyone Is a Suspect. If a rumor is spread, it's a matter of days (or even hours) before the whole town gets the "news."
Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })This kind of plot is very much used in Latin America in Telenovelas, where all the action occurs. Also can be used in other media as well in other times, being also used in historical drama series and movies, before the big cities were founded. The plot is mostly Played for Drama, can be done for Laughs or Horror too, but mostly for Drama. However, it's not exclusive of Latin America, having various other similar plots like this one around the world.
The Spanish saying is very older and known, but the media goes Older Than Television: There're a couple of movies made in South America with this name, a Chilean one (1925) and an Argentinian one (1940).
This is not just famous in South America; Japan also has this phrase, but it refers not only to small towns but to the small communities each of us formed to (close family/friends circle) and how our actions can affect our circles for good or worse.
Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_2'); })Sub-Trope of Small Towns. If this is Played for Horror, then it's a Town with a Dark Secret, the Sister Trope. If this happens in the United States, then the "big hell" occurs in Everytown, America, except if it's Only in Miami. Not to be confused with Small Town Rivalry, which is about two towns in conflict. See also Close-Knit Community, which is also about small towns and communities, but not necessarily has to do with drama.
 Small Town, Big Hell
fetched
2023-02-27T07:28:50Z
 Small Town, Big Hell
parsed
2023-02-27T07:28:50Z
 Small Town, Big Hell
processingComment
Dropped link to DisappearedDad: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Small Town, Big Hell
processingComment
Dropped link to MagicRealism: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Small Town, Big Hell
processingComment
Dropped link to MenAtWork: Not an Item - IGNORE
 Small Town, Big Hell
processingComment
Dropped link to PlayedForLaughs: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Small Town, Big Hell
processingComment
Dropped link to Telenovela: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Small Town, Big Hell
processingComment
Dropped link to TownWithADarkSecret: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Small Town, Big Hell
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_277975b4
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_277975b4
comment
According to her friends and family, Miss Marple' village of St. Mary Mead is one of these, since whenever she's confronted with a particularly sordid crime she can always link the behavior of the people involved to similar behavior in the village populace.
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_277975b4
featureApplicability
1.0
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_277975b4
featureConfidence
1.0
 Miss Marple
hasFeature
Small Town, Big Hell / int_277975b4
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_2a632d4c
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_2a632d4c
comment
Colombia also is famous for this kind of plot, having some telenovelas like Café con aroma de mujernote Coffee with scent of woman (set in a town with coffee plantations) and Pasión de gavilanes note Passion of the Sparrowhawks, also known as "Hidden Passion" (set in a hacienda/mansion and the village close to it in the countryside).
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_2a632d4c
featureApplicability
1.0
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_2a632d4c
featureConfidence
1.0
 Pasión de gavilanes
hasFeature
Small Town, Big Hell / int_2a632d4c
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_3539a85f
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_3539a85f
comment
Needful Things: The sinister Leland Gaunt sets up shop in Castle Rock, and begins turning up the simmering personal and religious tensions between the townsfolk.
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_3539a85f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_3539a85f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Needful Things
hasFeature
Small Town, Big Hell / int_3539a85f
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_43394c76
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_43394c76
comment
Gilbert Hernandez's stories in the first volume of Love and Rockets, about the sleepy Central American town of Palomar, are clearly inspired by this genre.
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_43394c76
featureApplicability
1.0
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_43394c76
featureConfidence
1.0
 Love and Rockets (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Small Town, Big Hell / int_43394c76
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_47a6a4d6
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_47a6a4d6
comment
There's a Chilean Silent Movie called as "Pueblo chico, infierno grande" made in 1925, this movie occurs in a small town in Maipo zone and tells the life of a young married woman who has to bear the inhabitants' critics for hosting two young guys in her house. His husband instead passes most of the time in taverns, usually drunk.
There's another movie with the same name, but it's an Argentinian movie from 1940, which is about a Disappeared Dad who comes back to his hometown 10 years later to get back his wife and daughter.
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_47a6a4d6
featureApplicability
1.0
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_47a6a4d6
featureConfidence
1.0
 Silent Movie
hasFeature
Small Town, Big Hell / int_47a6a4d6
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_48177077
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_48177077
comment
'Salem's Lot: The close-knit town of Jerusalem's Lot, where everybody knows everybody and gossip spreads quickly via the town party line. Unfortunately, they almost all quickly fall under the sway of the vampire king Kurt Barlow.
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_48177077
featureApplicability
1.0
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_48177077
featureConfidence
1.0
 'Salem's Lot
hasFeature
Small Town, Big Hell / int_48177077
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_5153939c
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_5153939c
comment
Storm of the Century: Stephen King's "novel for television." With all of the shared secrets and rumors between the people of Little Tall Island, it's amazing they didn't start killing each other BEFORE Andre Linoge comes to town to set them against each other.
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_5153939c
featureApplicability
1.0
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_5153939c
featureConfidence
1.0
 Storm of the Century
hasFeature
Small Town, Big Hell / int_5153939c
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_5b344855
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_5b344855
comment
Wolverine - Saudade: A graphic novel about the X-Man goes to Brazil for vacation, where his motorcycle was stolen by Street Urchins, one of them with a secret. All the story occurs inside the favelas, the ghetto section of Brazilian cities full of delinquency and poverty that work as separated towns inside the cities.
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_5b344855
featureApplicability
1.0
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_5b344855
featureConfidence
1.0
 Wolverine (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Small Town, Big Hell / int_5b344855
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_63aba1a5
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_63aba1a5
comment
Boy's Abyss takes place in a small countryside town, but it is a dreary, soul-sucking place. The residents don't take kindly to outsiders and bully them relentlessly, their biggest tourist attraction is a river where two lovers committed suicide together, and it seems like everyone is up in each other's business, as they are wary of the main character because of his mother's promiscuous background and abusive father. Everyone stuck there wants to either leave or make the most of their situation, but they get by on doing this by developing toxic, codependent relationships with each other. The series later makes mention of the yakuza (which Gen's family is heavily implied to be associated with) and underage prostitution (which the protagonist's mother did to pay off her father's gambling debts) happening within the town.
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_63aba1a5
featureApplicability
1.0
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_63aba1a5
featureConfidence
1.0
 Boy's Abyss (Manga)
hasFeature
Small Town, Big Hell / int_63aba1a5
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_7f2f59ad
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_7f2f59ad
comment
The Punisher MAX: "Little Girls In White Dresses" has Frank get called to the rescue of a tiny backwater near the Mexican border that's been converted to the mass production of drugs, holding their children hostage if they don't cooperate. He even ends up facing Jigsaw again, although they don't speak or even identify each other. It ends with Frank shooting up the place, and the Big Bad getting ripped apart by the mob of freed villagers.
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_7f2f59ad
featureApplicability
1.0
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_7f2f59ad
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Punisher MAX (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Small Town, Big Hell / int_7f2f59ad
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_87e78bff
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_87e78bff
comment
Burden of Truth: The first season has the main protagonist, Joanna Hanley, returning to her hometown of Millwood to defend a pharmaceutical company being accused of causing numerous girls in the town to fall sick. It is ultimately revealed the source of the girls' sickness is the town's steel mill. Joanna also learns that she has a half-sister via an affair her father had with a woman who was underage at the time.
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_87e78bff
featureApplicability
1.0
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_87e78bff
featureConfidence
1.0
 Burden of Truth
hasFeature
Small Town, Big Hell / int_87e78bff
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_89fa77a
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_89fa77a
comment
Coronation Street: Weatherfield is a fictional suburb of Manchester, England, as far away as you can get from anywhere exotic, glamorous, sunny, and Spanish but it has a serious crime rate that must make it the murder capital of Britain. Weatherfield is seething with intrigue, jealousy, secrets, etc, and is packed with nosy people who make it their business to dig out other peoples' secrets.
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_89fa77a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_89fa77a
featureConfidence
1.0
 Coronation Street
hasFeature
Small Town, Big Hell / int_89fa77a
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_d80a12a1
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_d80a12a1
comment
The Kirlian Frequency combines this trope with Town with a Dark Secret and Buccaneer Broadcaster. Based on the fictional town of Kirlian, close to Buenos Aires (Argentina's capital), the series tells the story of a radio station which only works at night and relates all kind of obscure events that happens in this town, that could be monsters, aliens and other paranormal stuff, a kind of modern Tales from the Crypt.
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_d80a12a1
featureApplicability
1.0
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_d80a12a1
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Kirlian Frequency (Web Animation)
hasFeature
Small Town, Big Hell / int_d80a12a1
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_e6318baf
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_e6318baf
comment
Midsomer Murders: It seems every village and town in Midsomer County is one of these, with murders carried out in response to the theft, adultery, embezzlement, blackmail, prior murders, etc... The Queen of England herself asked why people even keep living there if they're just going to get themselves killed.
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_e6318baf
featureApplicability
1.0
 Small Town, Big Hell / int_e6318baf
featureConfidence
1.0
 Midsomer Murders
hasFeature
Small Town, Big Hell / int_e6318baf

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Small Town, Big Hell
processingCategory2
Drama Tropes
 Small Town, Big Hell
processingCategory2
Settings
 The Punisher MAX (Comic Book) / int_36f7a5c9
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Wolverine (Comic Book) / int_36f7a5c9
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Perry Mason (Franchise) / int_36f7a5c9
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Needful Things / int_36f7a5c9
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 'Salem's Lot / int_36f7a5c9
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Boy's Abyss (Manga) / int_36f7a5c9
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Alma Gêmea / int_36f7a5c9
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Black Snow (2022) / int_36f7a5c9
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Coronation Street / int_36f7a5c9
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Midnight Mass (2021) / int_36f7a5c9
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 Saramandaia / int_36f7a5c9
type
Small Town, Big Hell
 My Child Lebensborn (Video Game) / int_36f7a5c9
type
Small Town, Big Hell