History Literature / TheDark

* DisabilitySuperpower:
** Jacob’s blindness is said to have enhanced his extrasensory faculty.
** Having been [[spoiler: blinded]] by [[spoiler: the Light]], [[spoiler: Bishop]] and [[spoiler: Jessica]] gain a deep extrasensory sensitivity.

A 1980 novel by Creator/JamesHerbert. Two years since Chris Bishop witnessed the aftermath of a mass suicide in Beechwood House, Willow Road, London, the district has seen several further suicides.

* AxeCrazy: The Dark insatiably rouses its victims to this.

* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: Policemen Les and Bob, stationed to Willow Road after the recent outbreak of violence, pursue an agonised howl to a darkened house, to find a Dark-crazed resident to have mutilated his wife’s dog.

** Jacob’s blindness is said to have enhanced extrasensory faculty.

* NotTooDeadToSaveTheDay: Back at the Beechwood site, as Edith’s attempt to summon spiritual aid from [[spoiler: Jacob]] comes to nought, [[spoiler: Jacob]]’s spiritual influence manifests in [[spoiler: a flare of cosmic light, which banishes the Dark]].

A 1980 novel by Creator/JamesHerbert. Two years since Chris Bishop witnessed the aftermath of a mass suicide in Beechwood House, Willow Road, London, the district has seen several further suicides. On behalf of Jacob Kulek, founder and president of the Research Institute of Parapsychological Study, daughter Jessica approaches Bishop, and persuades him to join an investigation of the house - in which he encounters a phantom reiteration of the murderous orgy overseen by Jacob’s old colleague, occultist Boris Pryzlak. At night, curiously concentrated patches of darkness entice Willow Road residents to crazed bouts of brutal violence. Agnes Kirkhope, Beechwood’s absentee owner, has the house demolished. Soon afterwards, the city finds itself shaken by mass-violence which seems, undeniably, to be caused by something in darkness itself…

* SpiritualAntithesis: Arguably to Herbert’s second novel, ''Literature/TheFog'' (1975). Whereas the titular Fog is bred artificially, released by accident and [[ScienceHero subdued through technical means]], the Dark, independently of matter, rouses innate tendency to violence, and is eventually [[spoiler: countered by Jacob’s posthumous attunement with the Light, a force which embodies peace]].

* HauntedHouse: In the 1930s, Beechwood hosted mystic rituals. Co-owner Dominic Kirkhope, with Pyszlak, later used the house for a violent ritual which ended in suicide.. On return to the house, Bishop encounters phantasms of the murderous orgy.

* DrivenToMadness: Following the death of daughter Lucy, and exposure of staged contact with her spirit, Lynne tried to kill herself and then Bishop.

* HighVoltageDeath: During a football match, thuggish player “Animal” is roused by the Dark rips out the cables of the junction box, sending the lethal current across the rain-soaked stadium.

A 1980 novel by Creator/JamesHerbert. Two years since Chris Bishop witnessed the aftermath of a mass suicide in semi-stately Beechwood House, Willow Road, London, the district has seen several further suicides. On behalf of Jacob Kulek, founder and president of the Research Institute of Parapsychological Study, daughter Jessica approaches Bishop, and persuades him to join an investigation of the house - in which he encounters a phantom reiteration of the murderous orgy overseen by Jacob’s old colleague, occultist Boris Pryzlak. At night, curiously concentrated patches of darkness entice Willow Road residents to crazed bouts of brutal violence. Agnes Kirkhope, Beechwood’s absentee owner, has the house demolished. Soon afterwards, the city finds itself shaken by mass-violence which seems, undeniably, to be caused by something in darkness itself…

** Having been [[spoiler: blinded]] by [[spoiler: the Light]], [[spoiler: Bishop]] and [[spoiler: Jessica]] gain a deep sensitivity

-->'''Jacob:''' Whatever energy light rays contain, be they from the sun or artificial, it may be that they counteract or negate the catalytic qualities of darkness.”

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Following the death of their five-year-old daughter Lucy, Bishop’s wife Lynne was driven to attempted suicide and homocide, whereupon he was forced to commit her to a “rest home for the mentally disorientated.”

* SentientCosmicForce:
** The Dark, a tangible assertion of the human capacity for depravity.

* SpiritualAntithesis: Arguably to Herbert’s second novel, ''Literature/TheFog'' (1975). Whereas the titular Fog is bred artificially, released by accident and [[ScienceHero subdued through technical means]] the Dark, independently of matter, rouses innate tendency to violence, and is eventually [[spoiler: countered by Jacob’s posthumous attunement with the Light, a force which embodies peace]].

* LightIsGood: Any kind of light can, at least for a while, protect against spectral malignancy of the Dark.

[[caption-width-right:324:"They believed in evil as a power in itself".]]

* AgentScully:[[DownPlayedTrope Downplayed]]; while Bishop believes in some kind of life after death, he aspires to empirically explain spectral phenomena.

* SpiritualAntithesis: Arguably to Herbert’s second novel, ‘’Literature/TheFog’’ (1975). Whereas the titular Fog is bred artificially, released by accident and [[ScienceHero subdued through technical means]] the Dark, independently of matter, rouses innate tendency to violence, and is eventually [[spoiler: countered by Jacob’s posthumous attunement with the Light, a force which embodies peace]].

* {{Poltergeist:}} As it grows in strength, the Dark explosively shatters a large window.

** -->'''Les:''' Murder, manslaughter, bloody house burning down - all in one night? It’ll be another hundred years before anything else happens down this road. They’ve had their lot all in one night.