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Tentative Light

 Tentative Light
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 Tentative Light
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Tentative Light
 Tentative Light
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 Tentative Light
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It's dark. The person we're watching is running out of light. The match is burning down. The candle's nearly done. Their flashlight's flickering. In any case, darkness is imminent. These are scenes often played for dramatic tension. Directors use these scenes in horror movies. Other times the lack of reliable lighting might be an inconvenience for the protagonist in a slapstick comedy for whom everything goes wrong. A hasty scramble to ignite a Hard-to-Light Fire may follow.
Ten-Second Flashlight is the "gameplay mechanic" version of this. Contrast with Blackout Basement, where fading light is a level's gimmick.
 Tentative Light
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2024-02-11T05:00:41Z
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2024-02-11T05:00:41Z
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Dropped link to PlayedForLaughs: Not an Item - FEATURE
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The chemical glowsticks from the Nancy Drew game The Curse Of Blackmoor Manor will fail at least twice in a game, no matter how recently you acquired or activated them.
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 Nancy Drew (Video Game)
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Life Is Strange: True Colors: The lantern at the mine only lasts so long until it dies and sends Alex back into the dark. Her sight adjusts soon though.
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 Life Is Strange: True Colors (Video Game)
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Tentative Light
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The First Encounter Assault Recon series has lots of setpieces with flickering lights when paranormal activity is involved, including those of the Heads-Up Display itself.
In the Vivendi expansions for the first game, F.E.A.R. Extraction Point and F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate, your headlamp will flicker along with the HUD, go out completely, and won't be usable until the supernatural setpiece ends.
In F.E.A.R. 2, the headlamp flickers at the slightest paranormal activity.
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Beni's fate in The Mummy is sealed as his torch burns out, leaving him at the mercy of the flesh eating scarab beetles surrounding him.
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 The Mummy (1999)
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Darkness Falls uses this a lot, as the villain cannot stand any sort of light.
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Tentative Light / int_30bdac51
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Tentative Light
 Tentative Light / int_3b7abee2
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Half-Life in general makes use of dark environments and the old Ten-Second Flashlight, but Half-Life 2: Episode One in particular features zombie-infested environments that are often pitch black; in some sections you have to use your torch to light up enemies for Alyx to attack, in others you have to make use of flares, flaming barrels and flaming zombies to try and keep the area lit so you can see attacking zombies who aren't straight in front of you. Things can get quite tense when your last light source is burning out, your torch is out of juice and you've only killed most of the zombies...
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Tentative Light
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The climax of House of Leaves. In an interesting twist, Navidson burns a book titled House of Leaves to give him light. And in doing so, he may have saved himself. Possibly.
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Tentative Light
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Housebound: The lights frequently flicker or shut off. Subverted, when we learn this isn't caused by a ghost, but by Eugene living in the walls and mooching electricity.
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Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In "Dooku Captured", Obi-Wan's lightsaber flickers and goes out entirely in the cave, which is a bit more foreboding than a regular flashlight doing the same.
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 Star Wars: The Clone Wars
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Tentative Light / int_53a73ca0
 Tentative Light / int_68ff28c9
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Tentative Light
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Silent Hill 2: In the second half of the game, when James picks up a key, his flashlight dies completely, and examining it gives the hint that it's out of battery. Luckily, in a previous part of the game, you inevitably get a fresh battery that fits the flashlight, so you can replace it immediately. After you do, it's revealed that the room you're in is now infested with Creepers, and the door is locked by a puzzle.
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Tentative Light
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The X-Files, "Darkness Falls": Loggers accidentally release an ancient swarm of killer insects, who wrap the loggers in cocoons and drain them dry. Fortunately, the insects only attack in the dark. Unfortunately, Mulder and Scully end up trapped in the mountains with a dying light bulb and no other light source.
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 The X-Files
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Tentative Light
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From the Avatar: The Last Airbender episode "The Cave of Two Lovers": Aang and Katara are separated from the others. They haven't found their way out of the cave and their torch is burning down to nothing. Turns out, the key to finding their way through the cave was to let their torches burn out, allowing them to see the dimly glowing crystals in the cave that marked the path.
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 Avatar: The Last Airbender
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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: "By Inferno's Light". At one point the light that Garak is working with becomes temperamental, which is bad news for him because in the confined space of the access tunnel he's working in, he's barely holding off a panic attack as is (he has severe claustrophobia). When the light flickers out, the panic attack ensues, and he's out of commission for a while.
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In Halo, you can turn on a flashlight to see the Flood coming, but in Halo 2 it'll automatically turn off after a while.
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For All Mankind. When astronaut Molly Cobb is cast adrift in space, she's too far away to be seen except for her flashlight. Then her flashlight goes out after she orbits through the night side of the Earth. So the spacecraft then turns on its beacon lights, enabling Molly is able to guide them to her.
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Phasmophobia: Obligatory with the presence of Electromagnetic Ghosts. Also, they can blow out candles.
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 Phasmophobia (Video Game)
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In the Klingon-centered Star Trek novel The Final Reflection, the protagonist and two of his officers are Locked in a Freezer by a traitor. One of the officers adjusts the display on her communicator to provide enough light to see by; its battery gives out just as they make their escape.
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Devil's Pass: The decades-old light bulbs in the bunker keep flickering on and off, and one tunnel goes completely dark just as the students enter.
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 Devil's Pass
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The Fifth Element: Korben Dallas needs fire to unlock part of the weapon that can take down the Big Bad. He has one match.
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 The Fifth Element
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Tentative Light
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Fraggle Rock: In "The Day the Music Died", the Fraggles enter a Forced Sleep when the Ditzies, the source of light in the underground world of Fraggle Rock, are inexplicably dying. The lantern Gobo carries keeps him awake, but when it goes out, it's all he can do to stay awake long enough to carry Wembley to the Gorgs' garden so the sunlight will wake him. The other Fraggles gather lanterns to keep them awake, but they fall asleep when the lanterns go out.
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Raiders of the Lost Ark: Indy and Marion are trapped in a tomb of poisonous snakes, and their torches are running out.
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 Raiders of the Lost Ark
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Tentative Light
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Alan Wake: Some Safe Havens break when Alan reaches them, plus he constantly has to change batteries for his flashlight.
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 Alan Wake (Video Game)
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Flickering lights are usually used to set the ominous scene in the early episodes of Dark (2017). This is later revealed to be an indicator of time travel going on in the area.
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 Dark (2017)
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The Murder Game: During the final Killer's game, one of the contestants' flashlights fails. Possibly not intended, but played for all it's worth anyway.
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 The Murder Game
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Tentative Light
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Doom does this with Goat's flashlight, shortly after they split up to cover more ground.
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In The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, many of the game's dungeons are dark enough that a light source is required. The torches and lanterns you can use have a finite, usually short duration. Spells such as Light and Night Eye are available, but are also temporary unless you enchant them onto an item as a constant effect.
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Stranger Things: In "The Massacre at Hawkins Lab", Hopper's improvised torch which he uses against the Demogorgon dies down at which point he throws the spear into the monster's mouth.
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 Stranger Things
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Tentative Light
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The Pact: Light fixtures and flashlights flicker and go out. The medium Stevie says that something is "taking the light."
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 The Pact
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Chernobyl: Three structural engineers in radiation suits venture into the lower levels of reactor 4 to assess the damage to the cooling pumps. All three are issued flashlights powered by 12-volt carbon-zinc batteries. All three lights fail within the first minute, due to the massive radiation making the air conductive. The engineers must feel their way around the pipes and debris in total darkness and hip-deep in heavy water.
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Ghost Stories (2017): As the lights go out around him, Tony's flashlight begins to flicker as well.
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 Ghost Stories (2017)
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Doctor Who: The Weeping Angels have the ability to feed on power from a distance, including artificially-generated light. The fact that your only defence against them is the ability to see makes this absolutely terrifying.
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In Escape from Butcher Bay, Riddick is usually equipped with an Infinite Flashlight mounted on a shotgun. After he falls into the Pit, however, his flashlight's battery is damaged, and he has six minutes to run through a maze of tunnels, fighting off wailing, naked ghouls, while his only source of light gradually dims. When Riddick finally receives his eyeshine, it's a godsend.
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In A Plague Tale: Innocence, besides Hollywood Torches, Amicia also has to deal with sticks which are burning up quickly.
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Subtle, and played for laughs in MDK2. It's never necessary to use Dr. Hawkins' lighter to do so, but you can activate it to provide a small amount of light around yourself. After a few seconds, it goes out and you burn yourself.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Tentative Light
processingCategory2
Horror Tropes
 Tentative Light
processingCategory2
Lighting Tropes
 Tentative Light
processingCategory2
This Index Glows
 Ghost Stories (2017) / int_52bdb4ad
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Tentative Light
 Séance / int_52bdb4ad
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Tentative Light
 The Cave / int_52bdb4ad
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Tentative Light
 The Goonies / int_52bdb4ad
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Tentative Light
 The Mummy Trilogy / int_52bdb4ad
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Tentative Light
 House of Leaves / int_52bdb4ad
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Tentative Light
 Chernobyl / int_52bdb4ad
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Tentative Light
 A Plague Tale: Innocence (Video Game) / int_52bdb4ad
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Tentative Light
 Alan Wake (Video Game) / int_52bdb4ad
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Tentative Light
 First Encounter Assault Recon (Video Game) / int_52bdb4ad
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Tentative Light
 Half-Life 2 (Video Game) / int_52bdb4ad
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Tentative Light
 Life Is Strange: True Colors (Video Game) / int_52bdb4ad
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Tentative Light
 MDK2 (Video Game) / int_52bdb4ad
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Tentative Light
 Phasmophobia (Video Game) / int_52bdb4ad
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Tentative Light
 Creature Comforts / int_52bdb4ad
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Tentative Light