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[[File:BEK.jpg|frame|[[Nightmare Fuel|DON'T GO TO BED]]]]
{{quote|''He had the blackest eyes - the devil's eyes.''
Traditionally, a cheap and easy way to show that a character is evil is the use of coloured contact lenses in live action, or coloured or [[Glowing Eyes of Doom|glowing eyes]] in animation. Since the 1990s, however, a new trend has emerged - the '''Black Eyes of Evil'''.▼
▲{{quote|''He had the blackest eyes - the devil's eyes.''|'''Dr Loomis''' in John Carpenter's ''[[Halloween (film)|Halloween]]'', about [[Complete Monster|Michael Myers]].}}
▲Traditionally, a cheap and easy way to show that a character is evil is the use of coloured contact lenses in live action, or coloured or [[Glowing Eyes of Doom|glowing eyes]] in animation. Since the 1990s, however, a new trend has emerged - the Black Eyes of Evil.
These days, when someone is [[Demonic Possession|possessed by demons]], [[These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know|dabbling in the dark arts]], psychically dominated by evil aliens, or gone evil in some other way, their eyes will go perfectly black with no whites at all.
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{{examples}}
* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'' for the (former) page image, of course. The eyes change depending on the media, though. The anime goes for cat eyes, as do the sound novels. The manga artists change between this trope and cat eyes.
▲== Anime and Manga ==
▲* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'' for the (former) page image, of course. The eyes change depending on the media, though. The anime goes for cat eyes, as do the sound novels. The manga artists change between this trope and cat eyes.
* [[Ken Akamatsu]], rare in most anime and manga, which opt for [[Red Eyes, Take Warning]], prefers black eyes to make his characters in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' look scary. He's also quite fond of [[Black Eyes of Crazy]], too.
** Evangeline, in particular, does this whenever she wants to scare people.
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* Combining Dou (anger) and Sei (calmness) ki in ''[[Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple]]'' causes severe damage to the body, which notably causes a temporary blackening of the eyes. {{spoiler|One of Ryuto's eyes is now permanently black and he is also wheelchair bound because of this technique. Shou Kanou's right eye also turned black and he implied that the damage wouldn't be as severe in his case. It's unknown if this is actually true or not.}}
* In the manga version of ''[[The Big O]]'', Beck gets this after attacking Roger with the Gigadeus and getting blown away by a Chrome Buster. It's especially creepy as the chapter is structured in such a way that it's hard to tell if it's [[All Just a Dream]] or not (the imagery is ''trippy'' for the series), and {{spoiler|the part with Beck's eyes turning black is just a line and a full shot of Beck's head taking up a whole page. The last page. Which you have to ''turn the page for''. And comes out of nowhere, but was hinted at as Beck kept asking Roger what Big O was showing him.}}
* In ''[[Fairy Tail]]'', when Gemini takes the form of a human, sometimes, one or both of its eyes transform back into Gemini's original solid black eye. Although not particularly disturbing on Gemini itself, when the eye is on a human...man, it's scary! In the anime, in the scene when Gemini is posing as Gray cackling evilly and transforming into Lucy, Gray's transformation face could qualify as a [[Nightmare Face]].
* ''[[Bleach]]''
** Anyone with an inner hollow will gain black sclera with [[Eyes of Gold|yellow irises]] when their hollow powers are being brought out (Visored, Ichigo, {{spoiler|Ginjou}}).
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** Kiryu from the 5D's manga.
==
* [[X Wing Series
▲* [[X Wing Series|Baron Soontir Fel]] was, after Vader's death, the best Imperial pilot. He's not evil, though, and the solid black eyes only show up in [http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/367889.html one panel], when his eyes are in shadow. But it's a panel where he looks ''very'' sinister.
** [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Paltr_Carvin General Carvin], who, in a B-plot in those comics, is part of the Imperial Tribune, which briefly ruled the Empire after ousting Sate Pestage, and served to command and obstruct [[Manipulative Bastard|Ysanne Isard]] until she dealt with them, was always, ''[http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/1229/swrsmr212.jpg always]'' shown with shadowed eyes...until Isard's plans culminated, the other two tribune members were killed, and he was [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/File:Isards_plaything.jpg brought before her], beaten and bloody, but [[Defiant to the End|defiant]] enough to tell her he wouldn't be her plaything, and she smiled and told him he might become all manner of things once he reached the Lusankya facility.
* Dream, a.k.a. Morpheus, eponymous protagonist of the Neil Gaiman comic ''[[The Sandman|Sandman]]'', also has completely black eyes, in which, at times, pinpricks of light like distant stars can be seen, as it is said that, by staring into his eyes, you can see the vast emptiness of eternity. He isn't evil, however, or not a typical villain at least, but he can be uncaring (to the point of cruelty) and takes very long to forgive a perceived slight.
* Marvel Comics Sentry as [[Super-Powered Evil Side|The Void]]
==
* The vampires from ''[[30 Days of Night]]''.▼
▲* The vampires from ''30 Days of Night''.
* During the first exploration of Carl Stargher's mind in ''[[The Cell]],'' he manifests as a pale king with gaping black voids in place of eyes.
* In ''[[The Covenant]]
* In ''[[Finding Nemo]]'', when Bruce the shark gets the taste of blood, his pupils grow to the point where his eyeballs become completly black, like that of a real shark. Up until this point, he lacks irises, but the pupils are surrounded by white, like a common animated character.
* Pinhead and the rest of the cenobites from ''[[Hellraiser]]'' movies always have either black, shark-like eyes or more subdued [[Black Eyes]] with white sclera, depending on the director and makeup artist.
* Possibly one of the earliest examples in film was in ''[[The Mummy's Hand]]'' (1940), in which the mummy's eyes are completely black - an effect achieved by laboriously painting over the film in post-production.
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* In ''Push'', whenever the evil pusher uses his powers, his pupils stretch so his eyes turn entirely black. The good pusher, by comparison, will only stretch her pupils so the irises are barely visible.
* Though technically literature at one time, the script of [[Stephen King]]'s ''Storm of the Century''—sold in book form, before it was made into the film it was designed to be (and likely afterward, depending on the director) -- had a [[Big Bad]] whose eyes, upon [[Demonic Possession|possessing]] others, turned swirly black.
* In ''[[X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes]]'', as the main character continues using the x-ray eyedrops, his eyes begin changing colour: at first, they're only silver irises on black, but by the end of the film, they're entirely black.
* The Dark Queen in ''[[Mirror Mask]]'' sports pitch-black eyes, as does her daughter. When Helena is used as a replacement for the Princess and given an appropriate makeover, her eyes turn black as well.
* Although it seems to take a while after the onset of zombification, the titular [[Zombie Strippers]] eventually develop pure-black eyes. Their flesh also begins to rot and their fingers turn black and sharpen into claws. Because the virus in the film affects men and women differently, this only seems to happen to female zombies.
* ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]'': You know the thing about a shark, he's got... lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye.
* In the 2009 ''[[Sherlock Holmes (film)|Sherlock Holmes]]'' film, a temporary version is used when Lord Blackwood is talking to Holmes in his cell. He's standing just out of the light, so that the areas around his eyes are completely shadowed and all that is visible is the evil glint.
* In ''[[Ink]]'' (2009), the Key Master Incubus has eyes that are pure black and they occasionally flare white with interest.
* In Oliver Stone's ''[[Nixon]]'', CIA director Richard Helms' eyes appear to turn completely black for a second due to a coincidentally-timed light reflection, right after Nixon muses that there are things worse than death, and right before Nixon continues that there's such a thing as evil. Needless to say, Helms' real-life relatives had some issues with that scene. Although Helms definitely was a ruthless bastard in real life, implying he was a soulless force of pure evil may have been pushing it.
** To be fair, the scene was removed for the theatrical release and [[
* In ''[[From Hell]]'', when Sir William Gull realizes {{spoiler|he has been found out as Jack the Ripper by Inspector Abberline}}, his eyes turn black as he goes berserk and attacks {{spoiler|the Inspector}}. Seeing as Sir Gull is a normal (if deranged) human being, this seems to be just for shock value. Possibly a reference to the comic, when during {{spoiler|his death}} Sir Gull has a long out-of-body-experience that carries him all over the world and across time.
* The first ''[[Halloween (film)|Halloween]]'' has a quote that directly details the antagonist's eyes - and this is before Michael Myers dons ''that'' mask, which has nothing more than the two black, gaping, deathly holes for eyes.
* Shivers the Clown from the ''Fear of Clowns'' duology has a disorder that causes his eyes to appear almost completely black.
* ''[[The Thing (film)|
** This is commonly used in fannon and fan art involving Jed.
* Katherine Ross' doppelganger in ''[[The Stepford Wives]]'' (they're supposed to be empty eye sockets, but there was a minor [[Special Effects Failure]]).
▲== Literature ==
* [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[Coraline (novel)|Coraline]]'' has the Other Mother, who has Black ''Button'' Eyes of Evil, along with all of her minions. They can actually be any color in the film, but apparently, black is "traditional."
* The Ra'zac and Lethrblaka from the ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]''.
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* The [[Big Bad]] of Terry Goodkind's [[Sword of Truth]] books has these as part of being a Dream Walker. If that wasn't creepy enough, everyone knows when he's looking at them, even though his eyes are effectively black spheres. It's never explained.
* In [[Garth Nix]]'s early novel ''[[The Ragwitch]]'', the eponymous villain is described as having "black, black pupils." The horror.
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls Novels]]'', Sul describes {{spoiler|Umbra as having eyes "like holes into nothing."}} However, Vuhon's eyes are pure white, instead.
* ''[[Discworld]]'':
** Vorbis, the villain of [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[
** As are the eyes of Trymon, the villain of ''[[The Light Fantastic]]'', after reading seven of the eight spells of the Octavo.
** And
* A sign of possession by some kind of alien superweapon in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]] novel "The Fall of Yquatine".
* Subverted by the Harshini in ''The Hythrun Chronicles''
* Infected people transforming into the monstrous {{spoiler|vampires}} in Chuck Hogan and Guillermo del Toro's novel ''[[The Strain]]'' gain "dead black" eyes, among other things. In the case of a Goth-Metal singer, people didn't even notice at first, they thought he still wore his pale make-up and black contact lenses...
* Though the most prominent character with black eyes in the [[Modern Faerie Tales]] books, Kaye Fierch is not evil. A lot of the other [[Fair Folk]] have black eyes and evil traits.
* The villain of [[Joe Hill]]'s ''Heart Shaped Box'' has eyes that look like they were scribbled out with a black Sharpie; another character refers to the black blotches as "sunglasses of the living dead".
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{{quote|"When had all the white vanished from his eyes? Now it was like staring into two vast pits. She turned dizzy, as if she might fall, when she met his gaze."}}
==
* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' was one of the first to use this trope. When telepath Lyta Alexander makes psychic contact with the [[Big Bad]] Shadows, her eyes turn pure black. Naturally, they return to normal when contact is broken.
** After prolonged contact, she also began to weep black tears.
** They also momentarily turn black when Lyta needs to intimidate a Mars Resistance leader.
** It always seemed clear to me that the black eyes were a signal that she was channeling her Vorlon programming rather than anything to do with the Shadows specifically. Obviously contact with the Shadows would require her to use her Vorlon-enhanced skills rather than her natural human ones, but the black eyes also turn up when she is controlling telepaths aboard the earth ships in orbit around Mars in "Endgame" (over half a season after the Shadows and Vorlons had both departed the galaxy).
** It is also an interesting use of Black Eyes of Evil, since they come from the Vorlons, who were portrayed as the good guys through the first half of the show and were never actually evil, just misguided. Much like the Shadows.
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica
* ''[[Being Human (UK)]]'' has the vampires using all-black eyes as a [[Game Face]].
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' - when Willow goes overboard with magic, she gets these, most notably in her Dark Willow phase, when not only her eyes but her hair changes..
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* The BBC's [[Jekyll]] uses this as one of the warning signs that Hyde is about to show up, and they're one of the few cosmetic changes made to show the difference between the main character's two personalities.
== [[Music]] ==
* "Blackest Eyes" by [[Porcupine Tree]] is a song about serial killers with the lyrics "''Swim with me into your blackest eyes''".
* 2D from [[Gorillaz]] has these, although this case would be some sort of subversion, since he's generally nice and often a source of comic relief. Also, the trope is [[Justified Trope|justified]], because they're apparently not really black eyes, but [[wikipedia:Hyphema|eight-ball fractures]], caused by having them dented into 2D's eye sockets, which gave him his nickname (2 Dents).
▲== Tabletop Games ==
* Dark Fantasy and Modern Horror roleplaying games from the 1990s onwards love this trope, from ''[[Old World of Darkness]]'' to the German game ''Arcane Codex'' (where this is actually a trait buyable at character creation called "Eyes of Hell" that indicates the character is a half-breed who has demonic blood).
* The Excrucians of ''[[Nobilis]]'' have a variant on this. Falling stars drift through their otherwise-black eyes.
* This was a symptom (along with greasy black tears) of the [[Magic: The Gathering|Phyrexian oil]] in ''Time Spiral''. Naturally, the people living in black-aligned places got the worst of it.
* Used with the [[Night Lords]] of the ''[[Warhammer
** Generally averted in the tabletop game, where they all wear helmets, and [[Fridge Logic|probably need them in most conditions]].
* In ''[[Magic: The Gathering|Magic the Gathering]]'' The vampires of Innistrad - most notably, Sorin Markov has [http://www.wizards.com/mtg/images/daily/ftl/ftl78_sorin.jpg black sclera and golden irises.]
==
* Karzahni from [[Bionicle]] was first described as having empty, black eyes. Later, a book illustration gave him brightly glowing yellow eyes (and took other liberties with his colors), and his eventual figure sported red eyes. The change is somewhat justified in the figure's case, as it represented his mutated form, which didn't look anything like what his original description suggested. There's also the fact that Karzahni constantly rebuilds himself, so he may have possibly changed his eyes...
==
* Artwork of the [[American Kirby Is Hardcore|American/European style]] of [[Sonic the Hedgehog|Dr. Robotnik]] usually depicts him with [https://web.archive.org/web/20071111063038/http://eggmanempire.sonicworld.net/downloads/images/official/soa/chaosartwork.png no eyes at all, with two pitch black eye-sockets instead.]▼
▲* Artwork of the [[American Kirby Is Hardcore|American/European style]] of [[Sonic the Hedgehog|Dr. Robotnik]] usually depicts him with [http://eggmanempire.sonicworld.net/downloads/images/official/soa/chaosartwork.png no eyes at all, with two pitch black eye-sockets instead.]
* In ''[[Chrono Cross]]'', the boss "Hell Orcha" has black eyes with [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|red pupils]].
* A few of the character designs for the mutant enemies in ''[[Destroy All Humans!]]'' feature black eyes.
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* In ''[[Embric of Wulfhammers Castle]]'', this afflicts all those who {{spoiler|drink the demonic scotch.}} It also afflicts {{spoiler|Ecinacea, due to her having been replaced by an [[Eldritch Abomination]].}}
* If you are trying to reach the happy ending in ''[[Afraid of Monsters]]'', you have to fight {{spoiler|your Doppelgänger}}, who has completly black eyes.
* The [http://www.cave.co.jp/gameonline/esprade/chara/alice.html Alice Clones] from ''[[ESP Ra.De]]'' and the ''[[
* [[Okami]] subverts this. Ammy is the hero, but has pitch black eyes.
** Can become [[Nightmare Fuel]] if you look at her face when using the "Realistic Wolf" [[And Your Reward Is Clothes|karmic transformer]].
* Celesto Morgan from ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'' has a case of this whenever he uses his dark Seer powers.
* Found on Captain Vole of ''[[Girl Genius]]'', an ex-[[Super Soldier|Jagerkin]] (no, we're not sure how that works either) who is hell-bent on killing any Heterodyne that comes his way, including Agatha.
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* In ''[[Our Little Adventure]]'', [http://danielscreations.com/ola/comics/ep0270.html kobolds would be cute if their eyes weren't large, black, soulless eye sockets.]
== [[Web Original]] ==
▲== Web Original ==
* The Lovercraftian [http://grimreviews.blogspot.com/2008/12/zalgo-comic-chronicles.html ZALGO edits], which originated on [[Something Awful]].
* The Dark Queen's true form in ''[[Sailor Nothing]]''.
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* [[Big Bad|Malachite]] from ''[[Suburban Knights]]''.
▲== Western Animation ==
* Feathers McGraw, the sinister penguin in [[Wallace and Gromit|The Wrong Trousers]], has solid black eyes. Interestingly, his eyes are entirely natural.
* During a hallucination sequence in the ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'' tie-in feature, ''Tales of the Black Freighter,'' the mariner's eyes turn an inky black.
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* Subverted with Jake in ''[[Adventure Time]]''. He's not evil, usually...When he thought he was evil, his eyes went swirly.
* Not so much "real" life, but a popular urban legend/modern day campfire tale: people have reported encounters with "black-eyed kids" (also known as "black-eyed beings" and "black-eyed children", or just BEK), which are pretty much [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|exactly what you would expect]]—creepy kids with pure black eyes who are said to mean humans no good at all. The original BEK tale can be found [https://web.archive.org/web/20140103014000/http://www.ufofreeparanormal.com/stories/viewstory.php?sid=210 here].▼
▲== Real Life ==
▲* Not so much "real" life, but a popular urban legend/modern day campfire tale: people have reported encounters with "black-eyed kids" (also known as "black-eyed beings" and "black-eyed children", or just BEK), which are pretty much [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|exactly what you would expect]]—creepy kids with pure black eyes who are said to mean humans no good at all. The original BEK tale can be found [http://www.ufofreeparanormal.com/stories/viewstory.php?sid=210 here].
* [[wikipedia:Aniridia|Aniridia]]. You lack an iris, the colored portion of your eye. As a result, you can't see very well, if at all.
* [[wikipedia:Hyphema|Hyphema]], better known as an "eight ball hemorrhage", where blood pools inside the eye and blacks out one's vision.
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* [[Jaws (film)|Ever look at a shark's eyes?]]
** Or a falcon's. They're also [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Peregrine_Falcon_head_shot.jpg really huge].
** Or, apparently, a [
** [http://www.cracked.com/article_19282_5-advanced-technologies-still-catching-up-to-invertebrates_p2.html Moths]: pitch black and ''[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071126115318.htm the least reflective surface on earth]''.
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20061114034152/http://www.bocn.org/images/factfile/files/BarnOwl+habitatBOCN(2).jpg Barn] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20130219023059/http://www.thedailygreen.com/cm/thedailygreen/images/aq/barred-owl-www-lg.jpg Barred] [[Owl Be Damned|owls]].
** Quite a few animals, actually.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Eye Color Tropes]]
[[Category:Obviously Evil]]
▲[[Category:Eye Tropes]]
[[Category:Tropes in Black]]
[[Category:Uh-Oh Eyes]]
[[Category:Color-Coded for Your Convenience]]
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