History Literature / TheDionaeaHouse

* FamousLastWords:
** Drew: The Door is Open.
** [[spoiler: Mark: I THINK SOMEONES HERE. I JUST HEARD SOMETHING.]]
** [[spoiler: Danielle: I wish I wasn't so scared of going back. I feel so empty...]]
** [[spoiler: Eric: Here we go.]]
** [[spoiler: Loreen: Damn gotta go talk more later]]

* YourCheatingHeart: Connie gets the wrong impression upon finding out that Eric is contacting Jen and assumes that he is cheating on her. [[spoiler:Ironically, the two women bond and become close friends after their respective lovers go missing.]]

Evidently, it was supposed to be made into a movie, but it unfortunately was in DevelopmentHell, and was scheduled for release in 2011 under the title ''The Occupants'', and at another point ''The Residents''. According to the creator it's dead for now. Whether or not [[IncrediblyLamePun the door is still open]] for it to be made remains to be seen. The website for Dionaea House went offline some time in 2019-20, but can still be found on archive.org. Eric Heisserer also began a loose tie-in on reddit, but it too has since vanished.

Evidently, it was supposed to be made into a movie, but it unfortunately was in DevelopmentHell, and was scheduled for release in 2011 under the title ''The Occupants'', and at another point ''The Residents''. According to the creator it's dead for now. Whether or not [[IncrediblyLamePun the door is still open]] for it to be made remains to be seen.

Although there has been no further word regarding the Dionaea House film and he's still not allowed to continue the story, Eric Heisserer began a [[http://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/2hi7e6/information_im_dumping_here_for_safekeeping/new writing project]] with a few small tie-ins to the House. Unfortunately it hasn't updated since 2014. The website for Dionaea House went offline some time in 2019-20, but can still be found on archive.org.

The first story, [[http://www.dionaea-house.com/ Correspondence from Mark Condry]], takes place in September-October 2004. It begins when Mark E-mails Eric about their mutual childhood friend Drew, who recently shot up a diner. They remember that when they used to hang out, there was a house that terrified Drew. He had to house-sit there for two weeks, and came back... different. Mark goes to Houston to check out the house, then to Idaho to investigate further. He finds that the exact same house, roof damage and everything, is in Boise. He investigates the house.

As of September 2014, it appears [[http://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/2hi7e6/information_im_dumping_here_for_safekeeping/ the House may have returned...]]

** [[spoiler: Even earlier, Kurt Malone and Nancy Hughes were consumed by the House and disappeared from the faces of the earth together shortly after Drew went to the deep end. Kurt's colleague theorizes that he went to Mexico due to financial problems, but Mark doesn't buy that.]]

* CameBackStrong: Loreen's notes state that flesh puppets that can't leave the house are especially quick and can sometimes be especially strong.

* CameBackWrong: Drew, and eventually [[spoiler: Danielle]].
** How about all of the flesh puppets, for that matter?

* [[spoiler: DownerEnding: Times four. Every protagonist to every plotline ends up dead or missing thanks to the house.]]

* EatenAlive: What happens to those who stay in the attic too long, [[spoiler:possibly Mark's ultimate fate, as human remains appear on a street shortly after he disappears.]]
* EldritchLocation: Aside from the fact that the same house exists in multiple places, there's the second floor that's not visible from outside the house. [[spoiler:This is where it gets the name "Dionaea House" from. Mark compared it to a Venus flytrap, which may have multiple heads but they all connect to the same roots. The second floor may be comparable to the roots, and the various houses comparable to the heads. While in the second floor, Mark manages to send Eric a text message at 5:77 p.m.]]
-->'''Loreen''': They're not houses! Stop thinking of them as houses!

* FlingALightIntoTheFuture: Loreen and the Filipino journalist.

* GlamourFailure: Loreen took an axe to the ceiling. [[spoiler:It ''bled''.]]

* HellIsThatNoise: Prolonged exposure to the house (or even chasing related leads) causes people, namely Mark, to develop a condition similar to tinnitus.

* MeatPuppet / PeoplePuppets: "Flesh puppets." According to Loreen, people partially-digested by the house are controlled via "strings." This is presumably the reason behind Danielle's final posts and the presence of Sweatsuit Guy and the twins that Loreen encounter.

* NeverFoundTheBody: [[spoiler: Mark, Eric and Cam are legally considered "missing," more than a year after their attempt to venture into the house, however it's possible that the arm and leg bones mentioned at the end of Mark's story belonged to him.]]
** [[spoiler: Kurt Malone (Drew's step-dad) was assumed to vanished to Mexico by his co-workers after he was consumed by the house.]]
* NoEnding: While some of the blogs clearly end with [[ApocalypticLog bad things happening to the writer]], others come to an abrupt end.
** Loreen Mathers blog in particular - Eric Heisserer wasn't necessarily done writing the story at the time, but it was while working on the Mathers blog that the possibility of making it into a film started, which forced Heisserer to stop writing.

* PacManFever: An odd case. Mark fondly remembers game nights with Eric, Drew and others from 1998. What was the console game of choice? Tecmo Bowl for the NES. Averted later on when Eric hears someone mentioning Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which was a new game at the time of writing.

* WhamLine: [[spoiler:ITS THE SAME ONE. THE HOUSTON HOUSE. SAME MARKS ON ROOF. SAME FENCE DAMAGE.]]

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Mark mentions the possibility of finding other friends Travis and Dave while looking for the House in Texas, but no other mention of them is made. Were they consumed by the house or did it fail to find them?

* AnAxeToGrind: Loreen purchases one when she can't find the attic [[spoiler: "and that's when it all went to Hell."]]

* AxCrazy: Drew, causing Mike to start investigating.

* BigBad: The House.

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Drew, has a lot of loveable quirks and is described as the "fanboy type," [[spoiler: which is why no one questions his even weirder behavior after he returns from the house.]]
* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Averted, no one is really close enough friends with Drew [[spoiler: to stay with him and prevent his corruption at the hands of the house or get him help afterwards. Mark later laments this.]]

* [[spoiler: DownerEnding: Times four.]]

-->'''Loreen''': They're not houses! Stop thinking of them as houses!

* GreaterScopeVillain: [[spoiler: Jared Lewis]], the man who went so far as to abandon his family to finish building the original House. And there's a Greater Scope Villain beyond that - Lewis is connected to [[spoiler:Jack Parsons]], an infamous ''real life'' rocket scientist, occultist, and self-proclaimed [=AntiChrist=].

* IndianBurialGround: Loreen reveals in her last blog entry that the house was built by a man named Jared Lewis, [[spoiler:a disciple of the famous real-life occultist Jack Parsons]].

* NiceGuy: Pretty much everybody but Loreen.

* NeverSleepAgain: The Madsons for the most part. They can and do sleep however as long as they can bundle up with several blankets (regardless of weather) and bar all the doors and windows of the bedroom they're in, even the closet doors.

* OntologicalMystery
* ParrotExposition: One symptom of being "digested," by the house. [[spoiler: Drew engages in this, but because he's already considered kind of weird, no one gives it a second thought.]]

* SelfDisposingVillain: [[spoiler: Drew kills himself after hunting down the Madsons.]]
* TemptingFate: Anyone who goes up to the second floor of the House or the attic.
** Loreen mentions posting photos and a floor plan of the House where she's staying [[spoiler: before her blog abruptly ends.]]

* {{Unperson}}: The House slowly and deliberately works to make its victims and other people associated with it into this. Somehow it got the [[spoiler:court records of Loreen Mathers' trial for murder disappeared]]. Or having Drew [[spoiler:kill the Madsons and then himself.]]

** GreaterScopeVillain: [[spoiler: Jared Lewis]], the man who went so far as to abandon his family to finish building the original House. And there's a Greater Scope Villain beyond that - Lewis is connected to [[spoiler:Jack Parsons]], an infamous ''real life'' rocket scientist, occultist, and self-proclaimed [=AntiChrist=].

A virally-spread Internet story told from 2004 to 2006 by [[Film/Arrival now-Oscar-nominated]] screenwriter Eric Heisserer, ''The Dionaea House'' consists of several stories told in various formats.

A virally-spread Internet story told from 2004 to 2006, ''The Dionaea House'' consists of several stories told in various formats.

* BadassBookworm: Loreen can beat up full grown men with clear size advantages over her (while tipsy, no less) and is also a teacher or professor. She is also both tough enough and shrewd enough to escape from the House, kill a flesh puppet AND stay off the House's radar for years. She even manages to compile detailed notes regarding the house's digestion habits and records her experiences via Livejournal [[spoiler: before possibly being caught, which she predicted would eventually happen.]]

** Loreen is initially so determined to stay off the House's radar, she gets herself committed and lives as a hobo just so no one can find her. [[spoiler: She forfeits any protection she had being homeless when she starts writing on her LiveJournal though.]]

* [[spoiler: WombLevel: The attic presumably, although the entire house could really be considered this.]]

** BiggerBad: [[spoiler: Jared Lewis, the man who went so far as to abandon his family to finish building the original House.]]

* FlingALightIntoTheFuture / HeroicSacrifice: Loreen knows that by writing about the House, she's risking her safety and she'll eventually be found by the flesh puppets and "dragged through the front door of a house that smells like bread and warm blood." It doesn't stop her from writing down what she knows anyway, hoping that people will learn enough about the House to avoid it.

* BadassBookworm: Loreen can beat up full grown men with clear size advantages over her (while tipsy, no less) and is also a teacher or professor. She is also both tough enough and shrewd enough to escape from the House, kill a flesh puppet AND stay off the House's radar for years. To boot, she even manages to compile detailed notes regarding the house's digestion habits and records her experiences via Livejournal [[spoiler: before possibly being caught, which she predicted would eventually happen.]]

* ObfuscatingInsanity: How Loreen seeks refuge from the House after murdering a flesh puppet. When she confesses to everything leading up to the murder of one of House's flesh puppets, the court determines that she's not-guilty by way of mental defect and place her in an asylum. Unfortunately, she doesn't do that good of a job pretending to be insane, as she's released only 9 months later.

** Loreen promises to post a floor plan of the house as well as known addresses for it [[spoiler: before her blog abruptly ends.]]

* WeaksauceWeakness: What does the omnipotent and omnipresent House fear? [[spoiler: Sharp objects. Danielle inadvertently drives off a string when she grabs a pair of scissors and Loreen escapes the House altogether by charging one of the House's "windows," with a bread knife.]] May or not be intentional.
* WhamEpisode: ALL of them qualify, but Loreen's story is the only one to have someone witness and describe the house's supernatural properties first hand and escape.

* YankTheDogsChain: John Madson had just transferred to a lucrative job and he and his wife had planned to settle down in Sugar Land, but the House had other ideas for them.

* {{Determinator}}: Pretty much all of the main cast.

** The House counts too, considering [[SuperPersistentPredator it never stops hunting for the Madsons]] [[TheBadGuyWins and eventually succeeds.]]

* CameBackStrong: Loreen's notes state that flesh puppets that can't leave the house are especially quick and strong.
** Referenced by Danielle: she becomes increasingly panicked after [[spoiler: Linney is almost carried away possessed by the House's strings]] and contemplates leaving. As soon as this happens, she hears a trap door open somewhere and what sounds like a herd of people barreling down a staircase. Not soon after, [[spoiler: Linney's parents "come home from work."]]

* NeverFoundTheBody: [[spoiler: Mark, Eric and Cam are legally considered "missing," more than a year after their attempt to venture into the house, however it's possible that Mark's remains were discovered.]]

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Loreen sounds like a huge jerk, but writes about the House for the benefits of others.

* NeverFoundTheBody: [[spoiler: Mark, Eric, Cam and Cam's friends are considered "missing," more than a year after their attempt to venture into the house while Kurt Malone (Drew's step-dad) was assumed to vanished to Mexico by his co-workers after he was consumed by the house.]]

* PacManFever: An odd case. Mark fondly remembers game nights with Eric, Drew and others from 1998. What was the console game of choice? Tecmo Bowl for the NES.

** Loreen is initially so determined to stay off the House's radar, she gets herself committed and lives as a hobo just so no one can find her. [[spoiler:She forfeits any protection she had being homeless when she writes on her LiveJournal though.]]

* FlingALightIntoTheFuture / HeroicSacrifice: Loreen knows that by writing about the House, she'll eventually be found by the flesh puppets and "dragged through the front door of a house that smells like bread and warm blood," but she still passes on her notes anyway, hoping that people will learn enough about the House to avoid it.

* BadassBookworm: Loreen can beat up full grown men with clear size advantages over her (while tipsy, no less) and is also a teacher or professor. She is also both tough enough and shrewd enough to escape from the House, kill a flesh puppet AND stay off the House's radar for years. To boot, she even manages to compile detailed notes regarding the house's digestion habits and records her experiences via Livejournal [[spoiler: before possibly being caught, which she even predicted.]]

** The Madsons leave the House behind and live a nomadic lifestyle, driving through the country nonstop for a whopping 5 or 6 years before finally being cornered by Drew. Lucy even gets pregnant and suffers a miscarriage but she and John just keep driving.

** Mark: [[spoiler: I THINK SOMEONES HERE. I JUST HEARD SOEMTHING.]]

* FateWorseThanDeath: The House can either [[spoiler: brainwash you into serving it and living how it sees fit or just straight up eat you.]]
* FlingALightIntoTheFuture: Loreen knows that just by writing about her encounter with the House, she's going to be found by the flesh puppets and "dragged through the front door of a house that smells like bread and warm blood," but she still passes on her notes anyway.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Loreen sounds like a huge jerk, but writes about the House so people will realize the danger it presents.

* TemptingFate: Anyone who goes up to the second floor of the House.

* HellIsThatNoise: Prolonged exposure to the house (or even chasing related leads) causes people to develop a condition similar to tinnitus.

* [[spoiler: MeatPuppet / PeoplePuppets: "Flesh puppets."]] According to Loreen, [[spoiler:people partially-digested by the house are controlled via "strings."]] This is presumably the reason behind Danielle's final posts, Sweatsuit Guy and the twins that Loreen encounter. [[spoiler: One of the flesh puppets even tracks Loreen for over half a year via her Livejournal and is implied to ultimately corner her mid-post.]]

* YankTheDogsChain: John Madson had just been hired by an oil company and he and his wife had planned to settle down in Sugar Land, but the House had other ideas for them.