View source for Alone with the Psycho

{{trope}}
The young police officer goes to visit the house of one of the suspects in a [[Serial Killer]] case. Meanwhile, back at the police station, the detectives put together the clues to see who the killer is.

Simultaneously, the two parties figure out the truth—the detectives through the DNA test, the officer [[Exploring the Evil Lair|through finding]] the [[Torture Cellar]]. The suspect ''is'' the [[Serial Killer]]. The detectives try to contact them, but [[Can You Hear Me Now?|their mobile isn't working properly]].

They're alone in the house with a serial killer. Will they survive? The answer to that is generally "yes".

The house-visitor is most often female and [[Fair Cop|attractive]], although there have been male examples.
{{examples}}

==  Anime and Manga  ==

* Happens in ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'', when Kyon is alone in a room with Asakura Ryoko who reveals to be a [[Stepford Smiler]] [[Knife Nut]]. She also uses her data manipulation skills to make the room inescapable. Luckily,  {{spoiler|Yuki Nagato, who is just as skilled with data handling,}} noticed it from outside and [[Big Damn Heroes|busted in for a rescue]]. This is par for the course as he also knows a girl who may destroy the universe whenever she gets PMS and another who kidnaps the entire world just to be alone with him.
* Inverted in ''[[Black Lagoon]]'', when Balalaika finds herself alone with [[Psycho for Hire]] Hansel. The inversion is that {{spoiler|Balalaika [[Curb Stomp Battle|quite easily]] has him killed}}.
* Conan's friend Mitsuhiko finds himself in this situation in ''[[Detective Conan]]'', when  {{spoiler|he goes firefly hunting in a forest... and the man who tags with him is a [[Serial Killer]]}}.
** Also happens to Conan himself, Ran, Sonoko and Officer Takagi.  {{spoiler|In Ran's case, she almost was drowned by said psycho; in a subversion, he didn't intend to kill her and just wanted an alibi. And in Takagi's, he ended up ''shot'' by the psycho, and only a [[Pocket Protector]] saved him from certain death.}}
* From ''[[Death Note]]'' this happens to Naomi Misora on two separate occasions, once in a prequel and once in the main story.  {{spoiler|She doesn't survive the second one.}}
** Subverted by Misa, L, and the whole Kira Investigation Task Force. [[Omnicidal Maniac|Not that he wouldn't want to do something about all of them...]] Though, um, [[Yandere|Misa]] ''is'' psycho too...
* Anyone who has an encounter with [[Complete Monster|Johan]] in ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]''  {{spoiler|usually does not survive the ordeal, although there have been notable exceptions.}}
** Perhaps the most notable example of this trope in ''Monster'' has to be the scene in which  {{spoiler|Dr. Reichwein counsels a mysterious patient, only to find out it's [[The Dragon|Roberto.]]}}
* A variant is done in [[Anatolia Story]]. Just as Prince Kail and his men catch a servant who spills the beans on who [[The Mole]] is in their group, {{spoiler|Yuri discovers that she's been alone with the evil queen's right-hand man, and had asked him [[Oh Crap|to help her find]] the [[MacGuffin]] the queen was looking for.}}
* Happens to  {{spoiler|Tohru}} in [[Fruits Basket]]. In that case, the psycho is  {{spoiler|Akito, who's going through a HUGE [[Villainous Breakdown]]. Tohru manages to turn the tables around via speaking to her gently and trying to offer her friendship. And then [[Death by Falling Over|Tohru falls off a cliff]]... and Akito soon has a [[Heel Face Turn]].}}


==  Comics  ==
* Uncanny X-Men 143 “Demon” in which newest X-Man/girl Kitty Pryde [[Are You Alone In The House]] is left alone to deal with an Alien-style demon.

==  Film  ==

* Really, most of ''[[Wait Until Dark]]'', but especially the climax.
* The climax of ''[[The Silence of the Lambs]]''.
** As well as Graham's confrontation with Lecter at the beginning of ''[[Red Dragon]]''.
* The ending of ''[[No Country for Old Men]]'' has the protagonist's wife encountering [[Psycho for Hire]] Anton Chigurh in her house even after {{spoiler|her husband's death. Subverted in that she doesn't survive the encounter.}}
* This happens to Detective David Mill's wife in the film ''[[Se7en]]''. Unfortunately, {{spoiler|Detective Somerset later finds [[Stuffed in The Fridge|her decapitated head in a box]]}}.
* Various scenes of ''[[Primal Fear]]''.
* Jane in ''[[And Soon the Darkness]]'' runs to the cop that unbeknownst to her  {{spoiler|is a rapist and murderer who raped and killed both a Dutch backpacker three years before and her friend Cathy}}. Subverted because [[Acquitted Too Late|Paul]]  {{spoiler|isn't really dead and saves her}}.
* Marvin Nash is tortured and almost killed by sadistic sociopath Mr. Blonde in ''[[Reservoir Dogs]]'' because of this trope.
* ''[[Fargo]]'' seems to be heading for this kind of climax when pregnant Marge Gunderson, the Brainerd, Minnesota sheriff,  {{spoiler|ends up at the remote cabin occupied by [[Psycho for Hire]] Gaear Grimsrud. She captures him easily}}.
* In ''[[Patch Adams]]''  {{spoiler|Patch's girlfriend and fellow doctor Carin responds to a call from a chronically depressed patient. After some creepy dialogue between Carin and Larry, we cut to a scene where the dean tells Patch he killed her and then himself.}} Quite a [[Shocking Swerve|shocking development]] in an otherwise upbeat movie. [[Truth in Television]] in that Patch Adams' {{spoiler|[[Real Life]] girlfriend died that way}}.
**  {{spoiler|Actually not his girlfriend, but his (male) best friend. Nonetheless still an element of [[Truth in Television]]}}
* Occurs (of course) in the climax of Hitchcock's ''[[Psycho]]''.
* Pretty much the entire latter half of ''Paperhouse''.
* Occurs at the end of ''[[Zodiac (film)|Zodiac]]''. Subverted in that  {{spoiler|while the character played by Jake Gyllenhaal is convinced the clues all add up, the truth is never revealed}}.
* Happens in ''[[The Element of Crime]]'', but gets subverted and perhaps even deconstructed in the most possible twisted way:  {{spoiler|detective Fisher and a potential victim of the child killer are waiting for him, in a small room. Suddenly, one of the killer's signature statuettes falls from Fisher's pocket. The little girl now ''believes'' she is Alone with the Psycho, and tries to flee… and in the ensuing panic, Fisher ends up killing her ''using the same method than the killer''.}}
* An inversion happens in ''[[Kiss the Girls]]'': the officer is visiting one of the victims and reveals '''''himself''''' to be the serial rapist/killer just as another detective is putting the pieces together back at the station. The killer manages to cut the victim's phone line just before the other detective tries to call.
* [[Sin City]] has a scene where Marv visits an old farm to search for clues and doesn't realize it is the home of the [[Serial Killer]]. He survives but the killer does defeat and imprison him for a time.
* The climax of ''[[Julia's Eyes]]''.
* When somebody puts on the Ring in ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Lord of the Rings]]'', they do this with Sauron being the psycho, so it's sort of on a cosmic scale.
* ''[[From Russia with Love]]'' has [[James Bond]] cornered by the psycho SPECTRE assassin, Red Grant, who was planning a sadistic fate for Bond after he got the Lector. Fortunately, he was enough of a sucker to be tricked into setting off Bond's tear gas booby trap in his attache case, allowing Bond to tackle him.
* There is a scene in ''[[The Avengers (film)|The Avengers]]'' where Tony entered his house by himself without his suit, knowing perfectly well that Loki was there waiting for him.


==  Literature  ==

* Near the end of ''[[Great Expectations]]'', Pip is captured and imprisoned by violently insane  {{spoiler|Orlick}}. Which makes this [[Older Than Radio]].
* In one of the ''Zack Files'' books, Zack and a friend were stuck in a house alone with an actor who turned out to be a vampire.
* In ''[[Z for Zachariah]]'', the main protagonist discovers the man she's nursed back from radiation sickness, possibly the only other living human being on the planet, turns out to be a controlling, borderline-sociopath who ''shoots her'' in an attempt to make sure she can't run away.
* In ''[[Crime and Punishment]]'', Svidrigailov locks Dunya in a room with him and a gun... because he loves her. Alone With the Psycho indeed.
* Seen in ''[[The Millennium Trilogy|Men Who Hate Women]]'' (English language title: ''The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo''), with the satisfying twist that  {{spoiler|the older man, Blomkvist, is the idiot who goes to interview the murderer alone and gets captured. The attractive young woman, Salander, is the one who figures it all out and races over to take out the killer and save her partner's life.}}
** Considering that the psycho in this case was  {{spoiler|promising him rape, torture and death by strangulation in a short time frame, it's probably a good thing Lisbeth had access to a golf club.}}
* In the novel ''Falling'' by [[Christopher Pike]], FBI agent Kelly Feinman thinks she has tracked down the Acid Man serial killer,  {{spoiler|Michael Grander. She goes to interview Michael's university professor, Gene Banks, to get background info to support her case on Michael. All the while she has kept her insights secret from the rest of the FBI. Professor Banks invites her to his apartment to supply information on Michael. While there, Kelly deduces Banks is the Acid Man and had all along planned to frame Michael. Banks holds her hostage and pours acid on her, with the FBI none the wiser.}}
* Mary Higgins Clark's  {{spoiler|Loves Music, Loves to Dance}} uses this trope in the climax.
* A variant is used near the climax of ''[[Otherland]]''. Australian cop Calliope Skouros goes to an apartment on the trail of a [[Serial Killer]] after backtracking a suspicious Internet search. Knocking on the door, she encounters not Dread himself, but his [[Unwitting Pawn|unwitting conspirator]], Dulcie Anwin, who has coincidentally just discovered Dread's secret and is in the throes of a [[Heroic BSOD]] over it. Skouros doesn't realize Dread is there until he stabs her in the back and subsequently shoots Anwin. {{spoiler|Both survive, but it's a very close call.}}
* This trope basically describes ''[[Misery]]''.
* In [[The Cabinet of Curiosities]], Smithback breaks into Dr. Leng's mansion expecting to rifle through an abandoned old house looking for clues to the murders 130 years ago. He finds he's stumbled onto the lair of the ''current'' killer and is quickly taken captive.
* And in [[Still Life with Crows]], (also by [[Agent Pendergast|Preston and Child]]) Corrie runs off to investigate the cave without calling Pendergast because she doesn't want to look foolish if she's wrong. She ends up running into the killer and taken prisoner.


==  Live Action TV  ==

* ''[[The Avengers (TV series)|The Avengers]]'', episode "The Joker" has Emma Peel trapped in a house with a psychopath {{spoiler|who is obsessed with her, and wants to drive her as insane as he is}}. The [[Recycled Script|script was recycled]] from a previous Avengers story, "Don't Look Behind You", which starred Emma Peel's predecessor, Cathy Gale.
* The climax to the first season of ''[[Dexter]]'' has {{spoiler|Dexter's adopted sister, Debra, kidnapped by her boyfriend - who also happens to be Dexter's biological brother; another serial killer obsessed with having a "family reunion" with his long-lost sibling}}.
** And the ending of the second season has {{spoiler|Doakes and Dexter sharing a few deep, emotional conversations, and even bonding a bit, while Doakes is Dexter's prisoner at the cabin.}}
* In season 2 of ''[[Carnivale]]'', Sophie becomes the house maid of {{spoiler|[[The Antichrist|a very particular psycho]]}}
* Played for laughs in ''[[Only Fools and Horses]]''.
* ''[[Criminal Minds]]'': When Reid and J.J. try to interview a witness at his house but get turned away, they realize moments later that their witness is in fact the UnSub (serial killer they're trying to catch). Rather than wait for reinforcements and let him get away, they [[Let's Split Up, Gang!|brilliantly decide to split up]] at which point {{spoiler|1=Reid gets knocked out and kidnapped by the unsub. Turns out the guy has multiple personality disorder, with his timid actual personality being cowed by his domineering father's personality, so Reid has to withstand days of torture, emotional distress and drug injections as the rest of the gang races to track down the UnSub's hiding spot.}}
** This seems to happen to Reid a lot, though usually he's not on his own:
*** In ''Damaged'', he and Hotch are interviewing a death row convict when it turns out {{spoiler|that the criminal planned the timing of their meeting so that the guards aren't present to stop him trying to murder them}}.
*** ''Somebody's Watching'' has him alone in Lila Archer's house with Lila and her stalker.
*** He and Prentiss are held hostage by a Christian cult in ''Minimal Loss''.
*** He also tries to do this at the end of ''The Fisher King''. {{spoiler|Hotch and Gideon don't let him.}}
** Prentiss uses her similarity to the unsub's victims to get into his house at the end of ''In Name and Blood'', and is nearly killed when he stuns her with a plank of wood.
** Also occurs with Hotchner at the end of season 4 and beginning of Season 5. However, {{spoiler|Hotchner, stabbed multiple times, is not rescued by his teammates, but rather by the Reaper, who ambushed him, and who takes Hotchner to hospital to makes sure that he survives to suffer.}}
** It was a seriously bad idea to let Elle go home at the end of Season 1...
** The end of ''Our Darkest Hour'' sees {{spoiler|Morgan and Detective Spicer (then, when the detective's killed, just Morgan) held captive by the Prince of Darkness. After incapacitating Morgan, the Prince leaves with Spicer's daugher Ellie, who he keeps with him until his death}}.
** In ''The Performer'', JJ visits the house of the victim's friend. In accordance with the trope, the team discovers that she's with the unsub while she's there, alone.
* ''[[Millennium (TV series)|Millennium]]'': this trope is used several times, most notably in the episodes "The Mikado" and "In Arcadia Ego". In both, Frank Black figures out where the killer is before the police do, and has a confrontation with the killer.
* ''[[Monk]]'' loves this trope more than his deceased wife. Usually it's Monk himself who has to be rescued, sometimes it's Natalie or his other sidekicks.
* Happens to Annie in Episode 5 (Season 2) of ''[[Life On Mars]]''.
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'': Sylar gets this twice with the Bennets. But the dog loves him... {{spoiler|actually make that ''three times'', and this time he manages to steal Claire's power.}} And back in the first season, Mohinder visits a powered human, unaware that the "Zane" he's speaking to is actually Sylar.  {{spoiler|The real Zane's body is stashed in the kitchen.}}
** Any scene with Sylar and another character, really.
* In the season 2 finale of ''[[Veronica Mars]]'' Mac finds herself alone with  {{spoiler|Cassidy Casablancas,}} who Veronica finds out is responsible for the bus crash which killed their classmates and  {{spoiler|for raping Veronica at Shelley Pomeroy's party pre-season 1.}} This particular alone with the killer scenario seems to reference Psycho, with  {{spoiler|Cassidy intercepting a text from Veronica to Mac stating that he's the killer while Mac is in the shower, though nothing happens to Mac and he goes after Veronica instead.}}
* In the first season finale of ''[[True Blood]]'', Sam recognizes the [[Serial Killer]]'s scent from  {{spoiler|the jacket left in the bar by Rene, who's just driven Sookie home.}} Meanwhile, Sookie telepathically  {{spoiler|catches Rene thinking about his murder of her grandma}}.
* Happens quite often on ''[[NCIS]]'', and almost ''always'' ends in a [[What Kept You?]]. Gibbs, Tony, Ziva, even ''Abby'' (who is a noncombatant [[The Lab Rat|Lab Rat]]) have all taken their turn here at least once.
** Neatly subverted in the season five episode "Recoil." Gibbs, Tony, McGee, and Abby check Michael Locke's fingerprints against those of a murderer, while at the same time Ziva takes Locke with her to walk herself back through a previous incident in which she was almost killed. The scene cuts back and forth between the lab and the site of the incident and seems to be building to an Alone with the Psycho realization - especially when Ziva turns around and finds Locke standing behind her in place of her earlier attacker - but when the fingerprint results come back, it's not a match, and Locke is proved innocent.
** Also subverted in a third season episode where Ziva is in a log cabin and finds a missing woman who was to be the next victim. The [[Serial Killer]] is with Gibbs and the others.
* Used in an episode of ''[[New Tricks]]'', with the slight modification that the mild-mannered murderer was not even a suspect in the case at the time.
* In almost every episode of ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'', someone from the investigation team is directly endangered by the criminal.
* In the ''[[Seinfeld]]'' episode, The Opera, Elane creeps into the apartment of "Crazy" Joe Davola. a potentially murderous psycho who she's been dating and is, unbeknownst to her, stalking Jerry. She sees photos of her on the wall taken with a telephoto lens, and Davola invites her into his dark room. It is a surprisingly tense scene.
* In an episode of ''[[The Closer]]'', Chief Johnson goes to the docks to notify the ex-husband of a serial killer's victim that his ex-wife has died and ask him a few questions. Right in the middle of the notification, she gets a call from her team; {{spoiler|they just found the long-dead body of their top suspect}}. She quickly realizes that she's alone in the shop of the new most likely suspect, and tries to get out and call for backup without raising his suspicions. {{spoiler|It doesn't work; he attacks her, and she's forced to shoot him.}}
* ''[[Shameless]]'': This is how {{spoiler|Mandy Maguire dies}}
* ''[[Jekyll]]'' a variation of this occurs when Tom Jackman's assistant, Katherine, ends up trapped alone in their apartment after he transforms into Hyde. Worse still, Katherine has switched the power off as part of a very risky gambit to get past Tom's security, meaning that the security cameras that normally keep Hyde in line are also off; fortunately, after toying with her for a while, Hyde lets her live- so long as she explains why she drugged Tom and switched off the power in the first place.
* ''[[CSI: NY]]'' has done it twice, once with Stella in "All Access" and more recently with Jo in "Means to an End." Both cases resulted in the would-be killer being shot in self defense.
* ''[[CSI]]'' also did it with Catherine in season 3's "A Little Murder", when a uniform cop failed to clear the scene completely and Catherine got jumped.
* ''[[Supernatural]]'' had Dean assume the sad eyed little girl he comes across is another victim of the MOTW, turns out she and her family [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|are the MOTW]] in "The Benders".
* ''[[Wire in The Blood]]'' has this right out of the gate in the first episode, "The Mermaids Are Singing", all of the victims willingly let their killer into their house: they thought the killer needed help, including Tony for whom the killer had began to [[Stalker with a Crush|fixate on]]. This happens to Tony a lot throughout the series as he displays extreme empathy towards the killers, using his ability to see their POV to catch them but it also makes them fixate on him in return.


==  Video Games  ==

* This trope is applied in ''[[Baldur's Gate|Baldur's Gate II]]'' during the 'skinner murders' sidequest. If, after finding the necessary clues, you decide to present the implications of them to the watch inspector on the case first instead of confronting the suspect directly, you'll find the inspector's corpse stuffed in an oven in the killer's house when you finally do it yourself.
* The demo for the game ''[[Heavy Rain]]'' focused on a journalist entering a suspected serial killer's house and finding all the proof she needs, just in time for him to come home. Depending on the way the player, um, plays, the main options are for the journalist to hide and sneak out, just plain sneak out, get found but escape, and die.
** Happens more than once in the game proper. Including the DLC. Which probably IS the demo.
* ''[[Condemned]]'' has this in its second to last level, with a bit of a twist in that the psycho doesn't even get to the house until the end of the level, and the main character tricks him into thinking he is dead so he can take him by surprise.
* ''[[Clock Tower (series)|Clocktower First Fear]]'' lives and breathes this trope only with, not one, but ''two'' active psychos and a third one waiting in the wings in the sequel. Sure, it may not be played straight at first, what with Jennifer (the player) also having three friends with her, one of which , Lotte, is [[Action Girl|fighting competent]], but [[Peek-a-Boo Corpse|when the numbers could slowly dwindle down to just Jennifer,]], and the only ones left eventually are either the scissor-wielding-manically-laughing-deformed Bobby  {{spoiler|and his equally insane-satanic-vicious-Yandere-potential mother, Mary}}, this trope is played more straight.
* ''[[Action Doom Two Urban Brawl]]'' has a level where, at the behest of an old woman, you seek her lost son in a forest and come across a lonely farm. Exploring, you find a [[Room Full of Crazy]] with lots and lots of newspaper clippings about kid disappearances, an imprisoned and beaten cop in the basement, and eventually [[Good Old Fisticuffs|confront]] the [[Serial Killer]] himself in a barn full of butchered child corpses.

==  Web Comics  ==

* ''[[Penny and Aggie]]'' has an unusual variant presented in its "Missing Person" arc. Cyndi is trapped with {{spoiler|Charlotte}}, who has kidnapped her and is threatening her. However, despite being taped to a chair, [[Manipulative Bastard|Cyndi]] herself is very dangerous. {{spoiler|Eventually, her words drive Charlotte to slit her own throat. It's only the interference of an FBI agent monitoring Charlotte's house that she survives. The arc ends with Charlotte in prison and Cyndi in a mental institution. So technically ''either'' girl qualifies as the psycho here.}}
* ''[[Chopping Block]]'' likes to use its protagonist as the "psycho" in this situation. Naturally, the girl is much less likely to survive here.

==  Western Animation ==
* In the episode of ''[[Futurama]]'' where Fry was put into a Robot Insane Asylum, he was roommates with the psychotic Roberto. Note: the room was 10 cubic feet and Roberto liked to practice his stabbing.

{{reflist}}
[[Category:Solitary Tropes]]
[[Category:Older Than Radio]]
[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]