...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!
The Eyes Have It
- 118 statements
- 22 feature instances
- 14 referencing feature instances
| The Eyes Have It | type |
FeatureClass | |
| The Eyes Have It | label |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It | page |
TheEyesHaveIt | |
| The Eyes Have It | comment |
One of the scariest things you can see on film is something you know is not alive acting as if it is; statues move, eyes of dolls pop open, parts of the architecture animating of their own accord. This can happen as someone is watching it, or out of the corner of the eye, ceasing as soon as the character looks right at it. It doesn't matter, it is more than enough to send some unstable souls over the edge into madness (followed quite often by death). Note that this trope is particularly effective and chilling when the audience never knows if what they're seeing is real, or all in the character's head. And while such occurrences usually result in the demise of the witness, it's not required that they literally keel over due to fear. Quite often, the imagery of the moving/living inanimate implies a guilty conscience, if not outright stated. Subtrope of Malevolent Architecture. Almost always produces Nightmare/Paranoia Fuel. (Although if done badly, this leads to Narm.) Often related to Your Mind Makes It Real and Clap Your Hands If You Believe. Despite the trope name, it doesn't always have to be eyes. And while a particularly visceral, textual description is possible, this trope almost always appears in visual media. Compare Uncanny Valley. Related to Demonic Dummy, Perverse Puppet, Portrait Painting Peephole and Living Toys. Sometimes overlaps with Eye Awaken, though that trope usually only applies to living (or at least sentient) creatures. Not to be confused with the Charmed (1998) episode of the same name, which makes use of Eye Scream rather than this trope, or the Criminal Minds episode, also with the same name, which also makes use of Eye Scream. |
|
| The Eyes Have It | fetched |
2023-11-28T14:16:32Z | |
| The Eyes Have It | parsed |
2023-11-28T14:16:32Z | |
| The Eyes Have It | processingComment |
Dropped link to tropenamers: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Eyes Have It | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_21a612df | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_21a612df | comment |
In The Haunting (1999), not only does the ghost of Hugh Crain cause his house to come alive in various ways, but in one scene, a pair of stained-glass windows in Eleanor's bedroom are seen to turn into colossal, glaring red eyes. | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_21a612df | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_21a612df | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Haunting (1999) | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_21a612df | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_2af4f467 | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_2af4f467 | comment |
Another non-horror example: in the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero episode "Skeletons in the Closet", the figure in a painting of one of Lady Jaye's and Destro's ancestors follows her as she passes by, indicating that it's just Destro Hiding in Plain Sight. | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_2af4f467 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_2af4f467 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_2af4f467 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_2fe871a2 | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_2fe871a2 | comment |
The animatronics in The House With a Clock in Its Walls are so creepy and unnerving that they scream to be this trope, to the point that when they finally do come to life just before the Hostage Situation that leads up to the climax, it's almost a relief. Almost, because even once the long-held shoe is dropped, they are still disturbingly nightmarish. | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_2fe871a2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_2fe871a2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The House With a Clock in Its Walls | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_2fe871a2 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_38f43772 | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_38f43772 | comment |
Brahms: The Boy II: In one scene, when Liza walks by Brahms, his eyes are visibly seen following her. | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_38f43772 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_38f43772 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Brahms: The Boy II | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_38f43772 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_3953baf0 | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_3953baf0 | comment |
Non-horror example: in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney), after taking the life of Quasimodo's mother and taking on the mother of all guilt trips by the Archdeacon, Judge Claude Frollo sees the eyes of every statue on the cathedral facade, most especially those of the Virgin Mary, seemingly glaring at him in righteous condemnation. Amazingly, however, he's able to shrug this off and dump the foundling on the churchman instead. At the end of the film, one of the gargoyles comes alive to roar a fiery wrath right in his face. This time, he's not so lucky. | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_3953baf0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_3953baf0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney) | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_3953baf0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_3b34143f | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_3b34143f | comment |
Harry Potter: When Slytherin's locket is opened, it contains a pair of living (and red) eyes. Unlike the previously encountered horcrux, it doesn't manifest itself fully, only able to project images of Harry and Hermione mocking Ron. | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_3b34143f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_3b34143f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Harry Potter | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_3b34143f | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_452b566 | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_452b566 | comment |
Henry's baby in Eraserhead. While it isn't completely still, most of its other movements are stiff and artificial enough to make it look like it wasn't alive anyway. The eyes mainly move to remind you this thing is alive and is apparently some kind of human in order to add to the wrongness. Also the small cabinet and the tree cart. | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_452b566 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_452b566 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Eraserhead | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_452b566 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_45501b8c | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_45501b8c | comment |
When you grab the Morph Ball at the start of Super Metroid, the scowling eyes and mouths of the nearby statues glow... and then, as you leave, they turn to look at you. | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_45501b8c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_45501b8c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Super Metroid (Video Game) | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_45501b8c | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_6cf91dbb | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_6cf91dbb | comment |
Rose Red features a scene where a statue of Ellen Rimbauer in the mansion garden rips off her own face, the eyes of which then open. The poor witness dies of a heart attack soon after. | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_6cf91dbb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_6cf91dbb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Rose Red | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_6cf91dbb | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_73b4d4c1 | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_73b4d4c1 | comment |
In the Call of Cthulhu supplement The Asylum and Other Tales, adventure "The Auction", when the Brazen Head is activated, its metal eyelids open, revealing living eyes inside the sockets. | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_73b4d4c1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_73b4d4c1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Call of Cthulhu (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_73b4d4c1 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_95afea41 | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_95afea41 | comment |
An example where much more than eyes is used: Young Sherlock Holmes, the scene where the knight in the stained-glass window leaps down to do combat with the poor priest. Notable because it is specifically later revealed, like other deaths in the film, to be caused by a hallucinogenic drug. What the priest saw was in fact all in his mind, but since it made him flee the church and run under the wheels of a moving carriage, he still ended up just as dead. | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_95afea41 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_95afea41 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Young Sherlock Holmes | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_95afea41 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_96b31d87 | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_96b31d87 | comment |
In the Age of Steam novel Dead Iron, a room of Strangework mantics is absolutely still, except for eyes following LeFel and Mr. Shunt. | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_96b31d87 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_96b31d87 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Age of Steam | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_96b31d87 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_a2eee785 | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_a2eee785 | comment |
In Shanghai Knights, there's a scene where the dynamic duo are searching through a library, and someone is in the walls, using the old gag where they look out the pictures through the eyeballs to watch what's going on. In a couple shots, the eyes look like they could really be the eyes in the painting moving. | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_a2eee785 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_a2eee785 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Shanghai Noon | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_a2eee785 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_b0c66bf6 | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_b0c66bf6 | comment |
Black Swan uses a lot of this thanks to mirrors being used in virtually every shot, where the reflections sometimes don't perfectly match the real people, increasingly so as the film progresses and the protagonist's sanity collapses. One non-mirror example happens near the start when one of the images on a wall of pictures blinks, and towards the end, when the protagonist has suffered a complete mental breakdown, we see the entire wall of pictures moving and talking. | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_b0c66bf6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_b0c66bf6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Black Swan | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_b0c66bf6 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_b4911c1b | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_b4911c1b | comment |
The stalking menace in Barrow Hill turns out to be a mobile stone from an ancient ring of Celtic monoliths. | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_b4911c1b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_b4911c1b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Barrow Hill (Video Game) | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_b4911c1b | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_bd9edbdd | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_bd9edbdd | comment |
Ghostbusters II: | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_bd9edbdd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_bd9edbdd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Ghostbusters II | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_bd9edbdd | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_c43df4d8 | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_c43df4d8 | comment |
Doctor Who: In "The Awakening", a stone carving in a church starts blinking and later belching smoke due to the alien imprisoned behind it. In "The Family of Blood", Sister of Mine is trapped in every mirror in existence (possibly throughout time as well), appearing, as Brother of Mine puts it, as "that thing in the corner of your eye that goes away as soon as you look". The statues in "Blink". The way they move between the strobes of light, caught in new and more hideous poses as the sequence progresses so you can see they're alive, but you can't see they're alive, well... It's not nice. The Trope Namer comes from the Doctor commenting on the eyes in the walls of a hallway moving in "The Almost People". |
|
| The Eyes Have It / int_c43df4d8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_c43df4d8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Doctor Who | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_c43df4d8 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_d72572ba | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_d72572ba | comment |
In Condemned: Criminal Origins, there is a level that takes place in an abandoned department store, with lots of plaster mannequins standing about, modeling old cloths. Wait, what was that motion in the darkness over there...? | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_d72572ba | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_d72572ba | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Condemned: Criminal Origins (Video Game) | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_d72572ba | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_da9348f | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_da9348f | comment |
Clash of the Titans (1981): The head of the statue of the goddess Thetis falls to the floor. The eyes of the head open, indicating that Thetis herself is controlling it. | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_da9348f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_da9348f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Clash of the Titans (1981) | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_da9348f | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_e25322af | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_e25322af | comment |
Parodied in a Homestar Runner Halloween cartoon when the eyes of a painting literally follow Homestar across the room. He notices, and takes down the painting, revealing that it has holes in the eyes, behind which are "a pair of weird, one-eyed crows". | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_e25322af | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_e25322af | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Homestar Runner (Web Animation) | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_e25322af | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_f4697e4d | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_f4697e4d | comment |
A great deal of the fear dealt out by Chucky in Child's Play (1988) derives from the power of this trope, at least before the doll starts running around openly trying to kill everyone. | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_f4697e4d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_f4697e4d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Child's Play (1988) | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_f4697e4d | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_f4ba2731 | type |
The Eyes Have It | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_f4ba2731 | comment |
Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]: The Pinocchio-based world, Prankster's Paradise, has a creepy-looking clown face in the background of a corridor whose eyes follow you. It does nothing but watch. It's based on the giant talking head from the Pleasure Island scene from the original movie, whose eyes do move and follow the kids, but here, it's somehow more terrifying! | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_f4ba2731 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Eyes Have It / int_f4ba2731 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] (Video Game) | hasFeature |
The Eyes Have It / int_f4ba2731 |
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.