Creepy Basement: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''Hey daddy-o / I don't wanna go / Down to the basement

 

Let's face it. The darkness is scary. Even if you aren't terrified of it by itself, it can sometimes give you a horrible feeling that you're [[Being Watched]], because you just can't see if there's something there. Children everywhere feel nervous about [[Things That Go Bump in the Night|the closet]] or the [[Never Sleep Again|space under the bed]], but while those little bits of darkness are unnerving, there is a place yet creepier. A room where the darkness is the color of pitch, with no little lights ''anywhere'', where even standing still and waiting for your eyes to adjust doesn't help. That room, home of the really, really really scary dark, is the basement.

 

See also [[Torture Cellar]]. If there's a monster locked down there, see [[Madwoman in the Attic]] or [[Room Full of Zombies]].

{{examples}}

* Rei from ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' grew up in a dark, dingy, creepy basement in NERV headquarters, isolated from most human contact, and lives in the same fashion as a teenager.

* England's basement in ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' ''definitely'' qualifies as this.

 

* In ''[[Monsters, Inc.]]'', Randall keeps a terrible machine called the "Scream Extractor" in the company's basement, complete with steel and metal surroundings and pipes that release steam every so often. (He frequently spends a lot of his time down there as well).

* ''[[The Goonies]]'' featured a grotesque [[Gentle Giant]] named Sloth held in the basement of an abandoned restaurant where the bad guys were staying.

* ''[[Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay|Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay]]'': Harold and Kumar, on the run from the law, end up hiding in a [[Deep South|Texan couple's]] dark, dingy basement. Earlier the couple had been joking about keeping their deformed incest baby locked up in there, which doesn't help. {{spoiler|[[Double Subverted|Turns out they weren't joking.]]}}

 

* There's one in the ''[[Goosebumps]]'' book "Vampire Breath". Arguably there's more of those in the other books as well, such as in the book, appropriately titled, "Stay Out Of The Basement", because the father had been growing evil mutant plants down there. Kids find unfinished basements scary, so it makes sense to include them in a kids' horror series.

** There's also the bizarre "I Live In Your Basement", which - just read the summary [http://www.bloggerbeware.com/2006/05/61-i-live-in-your-basement.html here].

{{quote|"Our mam used to wallop us if we went down to the cellar," said Medium Dave. "She had her still down there."

"Yeah?" said Catseye, from somewhere far off. "Well, ''our'' dad used to wallop us if we tried to get out." }}

* In the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' series, you have the Chamber of Secrets, which is basically Hogwarts's basement.

 

* The ''[[Are You Afraid of the Dark?]]'' episode called "The Tale Of The Dark Music" was mainly focused on a boy named Andy who moved into a new house and it had a basement that he was scared to go into but he had to anyway to do laundry and like. While down there he discovered that playing music would wake up a demon that lived in the cellar for a long time. He fed the local neighborhood bully to the demon and it told Andy that it would give him anything his heart desired. All he had to do was, in the demon's own words, "Feed me..."

** Also, the episode "The Tale Of The Nightly Neighbors" had a family of vampires moving into a neighborhood, and the youngest vampire is kept in the basement with bottles of blood stored everywhere.

** And how about that one in ''Oubliette''?

* In the ''[[Cheers]]'' episode "Diane's Nightmare", Diane dreams that characters in the show one by one go down into the bar's basement and disappear, presumably murdered by the homicidal character Andy Andy.

* A [[Running Gag]] has Jackson in [[Hannah Montana]] not want to clean the basement as a punishment as "there are [[Spiders Are Scary|spiders]] down there".

* One shows up as Jeff, Troy, and Abed make their way out when escaping from the zombies in ''[[Community]]'' episode "[[Community/Recap/S2/E06 Epidemiology|Epidemiology]]".

{{quote|'''Jeff:''' Oh great. A dark basement. I was just thinking we should be doing this in a dark basement.}}

 

* In ''[[Laura Bow]]: The Colonel's Bequest'', the killer hides the corpses of his victims in the creepy, dark basement which can only be reached through a secret passage.

* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask|The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask]]'' there was a little girl's father who had a curse on him from working so close around Gibdos(zombies). He was cursed so that he looked like a Gibdo and to keep his daughter safe he locked himself up in a wardrobe in the basement of their house.

* Mom in ''[[The Binding of Isaac]]'' has a huge basement filled with all sorts of mutants, demons, dead bodies, undead bodies, and the occasional physical incarnation of one of the Seven Deadly Sins. And Isaac, a young boy, has to fight through this place, completely naked, with his tears as his only weapon.

 

* One of these is the setting of the "Borrowers" story arc of ''[[Skin Horse]]''.

{{quote|'''Daisy:''' Be careful now, Cooper. Night time is a dangerous time.

'''Cooper:''' Really?

'''Daisy:''' Well, right now, ''the whole world is the basement''. Except that if you freak, ''there's no staircase to scramble up''. }}

 

* ''[[Dead Ends]]'' has the St. Ingrid's basement that just happens to be {{spoiler|full of murdered zombie girls.}}

 

* ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]:'' The Kankers hang out in the basement instead of going to classes for the most part when they are at school. They even decorated it to their liking in graffiti and various other nicknacks. Naturally, the other kids try to steer clear from it, especially the Ed's who the Kankers all have massive crushes on.

** And of course Eddy had to ask, "What did they do with the janitor?" [[Squick]].

** One episode in which Susie's sister Alisa babysat Tommy and Susie, everyone thought that there was some monster down the basement, and they put a table in front of the door to keep it down there. Unfortunately, the monster had gotten out and was running around the house. It was really just Susie's older brother and his friend playing a prank on everyone.

{{quote|'''Randy Carmichael:''' ''(after coming home at the end of the episode)'' Hey, what's this coffee table doing in front of the cellar door?}}

{{quote|'''Fozzie:''' This place reminds me of the [[Temple of Doom]].

'''Kermit:''' ''gulp'' Um, Fozzie, [[You Just Had to Say It|did you have to say that]]? }}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Settings]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]

[[Category:Horror Tropes]]