Abandoned Playground: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:Pripyat-
There's just something about the image of a playground that's been abandoned and neglected: chipped paint, rusted or partially decayed metal frames, overgrown sandbox, empty swings swaying ominously in the breeze, the conspicuous absence of the normal [[Playground Song|sounds]] of children playing and laughing. Everything seems empty and broken, in contrast to the usual cheerful feeling that a place where children gather is supposed to invoke. The scene may be creepy, or just forlorn.
Sometimes this is used to illustrate the nostalgic longing for a disappeared childhood and the [[Growing Up Sucks|pain of growing up]], or the loss of innocence. Other times the Abandoned Playground is home to a [[Creepy Child]] humming an [[Ironic Nursery Tune]], or haunted by [[Undead Child|ghost children]], either [[Stringy
This could also include playgrounds that aren't actually abandoned, just empty. Visiting a place like this after hours when all the children have gone home can be equally strange and unsettling.
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{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
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* ''[[Friday the 13th (film)]]: The Final Friday''. Outside of Jason's old, abandoned home is a small playground where the protagonists battle Jason at night.
* Used in ''[[The Terminator|Terminator 2]]'' in a brief piece recapping how the future's going to turn out. Optional skulls added.
* ''[[Flatliners]]''. While David Labraccio is trying to track down Winnie Hicks so he can apologize to her, he goes to the school playground where he tormented her as a child. We see it as it was (with all of the children), then the children fade away leaving just the
* The French short ''Replay'' explores the emotions of a boy in a Fallout-style dead and deadly world, and he finds his way to a park like this in a nearby ruined city. Watchable [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-cFHeoXAw8 here].
* The playground at the beginning of the '70s version of ''[[Invasion of the Body Snatchers]]'' isn't abandoned, either, but something about it is just totally ''off'' and disturbing, maybe it's the sounds or something...
** Look carefully in that scene. Robert Duvall, in a priest costume, is on one of the swings.
* There's one in ''[[The Exorcist]]'', too.
* Featured in a deleted scene of the ''[[Dawn of the Dead (2004 film)|Dawn of the Dead]]'' remake, set right after Kenneth finds Anna. There are lots of toys lying around and a baby carriage too.
* The ''[[Firefly]]'' movie ''[[Serenity]]'' has one of these in the {{spoiler|newly destroyed by Alliance forces}} colony on Haven. River wanders through one and get a nice [[Framed Subject|framed shot]] between a swing set that is on fire.
* ''[[Koyaanisqatsi]]'' includes some shots of an abandoned playground in the abandoned Pruitt-Igoe housing project, just before its demolition.
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== Literature ==
* In ''[[
** And in ''[[Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (novel)|Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix]]'', Dudley and his friends show up there just before the Dementors arrive.
* The [[Fictional Video Game]] in ''[[Ender's Game]]'' has a creepy playground level, inhabited by children who turn out to be wolves. Ender has to kill them to proceed.
* The [[Father Brown]] story "The God of the Gongs":
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** ''[[Call of Duty: Black Ops]]'' also has an empty playground. It's in the level "Rebirth", right in the middle of the area covered with [[Deadly Gas|Nova-6]].
* There's some creepy old playground equipment, complete with squeaking swing, next to the restaurant at the gas station in ''Barrow Hill''.
* The playground in ''[[Fate/stay night|Fate Stay Night]]'' gets this treatment whenever [[Token
* In an outdoor level of ''[[Metro 2033]]'' there is one of these, and when you enter it, you see a flashback of kids playing. When the flashback ends, some of the equipment is still moving and you see a Dark One observing you.
* In [[Left 4 Dead]] 2 there's an abandoned playground in the level of ''Hard Rain'', this serves as a landmark for the player(s) when they're getting back to the boat.
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== Western Animation ==
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''
** Parodied in another episode where Bart calmly strolls through one (with an [[Ironic Nursery Tune]] playing in the background), with complete [[Genre Blindness]].
* On ''[[American Dad]]'', there was an abandoned playground in the vasectomy clinic video showing the wonders of a childless future.
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* Prypiat has a few that can be seen in documentaries. (But that comes with the whole "city of creepy abandoned stuff" thing.)
* Not sure if a theme park counts, but Six Flags New Orleans. It closed in 2005 to prepare for Hurricane Katrina and never reopened. It's ''creepy as fuck'' and unfortunately it's due to be torn down in...who the hell knows when.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4JwgmPEIDQ River Country], the first water park at Walt Disney World Resort was closed in 2001 and currently sits abandoned but thanks to being really close to the other Disney parks and hotels in Orlando is visable for other locations. Abandoned for various reasons that inculding high levels of a potentally dangerous amoeba in the lake water that was used in the park, a law that protects tourists from local unfiltered lake water, and a large drop in attendance thanks to being pitted against the larger Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach water parks. Dispite being closed for several years the lights are still on, the music still plays, and the plumbing still works, there's abandoned furniture and clothing and toys laying around, the slides and stairs are overgrown with vegetation to the point of being barely visible, and the man made river and pools are stagment and/or nearly evaporated. Incredibly frightening if you find pictures people have taken of inside the buildings.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpyfW4LxaZ0&feature=watch_response Water Wonderland] near Odessa, Texas.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130531025344/http://www.forgottenoh.com/Chippewa/chippewa.html Chippewa Lake Amusement Park] was a very well known abandoned park in the American Midwest. When the park was closed in 1978 all of the still functional rides and buildings were simply left on the property untouched and unmaintained for 31 years. Time took it's course and the everything soon broke down and were overgrown by plants and trees. The buildings became dilapidated and most burned down and or collapsed from fire damage in the mid-2000's. However, many rides and a single building (the hamburger stand) continued to stand in varying states of decay. Most famously the [https://web.archive.org/web/20120507205336/http://www.forgottenoh.com/Chippewa/chpwa-ro-ferris1.jpg Ferris Wheel] and [
** As of 2010-2011 the park is now being torn down. The hamburger stand and coaster have been demolished and the remains of buildings and rides will be likely be removed soon. The Ferris wheel and tumble bug ride are being saved to be possibly be restored.
* [[Schmuck Bait|Search with these words on Flickr.]]
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Subverted Innocence Tropes]]
[[Category:Abandoned Area]]
[[Category:Horror Tropes]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Index of Exact Trope Titles]]
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