History Main / AbandonedCampRuins

[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]

--> “This isn’t a crime scene, it’s a work space,” stated Professor Heart. “The only disorder comes not from a struggle but from work being done. See how they left the paperwork all carefully weighted down? They left intending to come back and get to work again. Clearly they just haven’t been back since this morning.”

* ''{{VideoGame/Valheim}}'': At the beginning of the game, you'll run into houses and villages built by the people who came to Valheim before you, which are useful as they give shelter, resources and sometimes food (some villages have boars and berry bushes, others have beehives). However, the further you explore, the more you run into houses occupied by monsters or undead, until even the starting Meadows biome has villages chock-full of draugr. Fortunately they all still have resources inside (and in some cases are the only way to get them).

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': In the ruins of Hyrule Castle Town Link can find the remnants of a campsite presumably used by explorers attempting to search through Hyrule Castle.

* ''VideoGame/FatalFrameVMaidenOfBlackWater'': You'll find a couple of remains of old campsites on Mt. Hikami, left there by people who have come to [[DrivenToSuicide commit suicide]].

* In 1977, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_Girl_Scout_murders three Girl Scouts]] were raped and murdered at a summer camp by Gene Leroy Hart. That camp was permanently closed afterwards [[https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/usa/best-places-to-visit-usa-june/ and has stood abandoned ever since]], with rumors that it is a haunted site.

* In 1977, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_Girl_Scout_murders three Girl Scouts]] were raped and murdered at a summer camp by Gene Leroy Hart. That camp has stood abandoned ever since.

* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' gives us the ruins of [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Camp Wannaweep]], where Kim, Ron, and the rest of the Cheerleaders are lured into traps by Gill, a former camp bully mutated into a fish monster, ''twice''.

* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' gives us the ruins of Camp Wannaweep, where Kim, Ron, and the rest of the Cheerleaders are lured by Gill, a former camp bully mutated into a fish monster.

This trope is often common in HorrorFilms set in the wild. It shows that others have been in the area before TheProtagonist, and that the area is dangerous, no matter how good it sounded, or looked from the outside. Now that you're outvhere with the threat, you're in a fight for your life.

Nope, this is an Abandoned Camp Ruins. The tents have been ripped to shreds, the fire has long since burnt out, the food boxes are empty and the cars the campers came in have been smashed and are in no condition to go anywhere. And if there are any people left, expect them to be the partially-eaten/murdered remains.

This trope is often common in HorrorFilms set in the wild. It shows that others have been in the area before TheProtagonist, and that the area isn't friendly to outsiders, no matter how good it sounded, or looked from the outside. Now that you're here, you'd better have the skills to get out with your life.

You're lost in [[DontGoInTheWoods the woods]], it's the middle of the night, and all the creepy sounds of branches creaking and wind howling have you on the edge. Worse, you get the feeling you're being watched. Maybe it's a territorial [[SavageWolves wolf]] or [[BearsAreBadNews Grizzly bear]], maybe it's [[HockeyMaskAndChainsaw some mask-wearing chainsaw-wielding lunatic]], maybe it's some carnivorous [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti sasquatch]], or a {{Wendigo}}, or some other local Boogeyman the people in town told you about. Are the sounds getting closer?

Then you come across the Abandoned Camp Ruins.

The tents have been ripped to shreds, the fire has long since burnt out, leaving only the charred remains behind, the cars the campers came in have been smashed and are in no condition to go anywhere. And if there are any people left, expect them to be the partially-eaten/murdered remains.

You're lost in [[DontGoInTheWoods the woods]], it's the middle of the night, and all the sounds around you have you jumping into the stratosphere. Worse, you get the feeling you're being watched. Maybe it's a territorial [[SavageWolves wolf]] or [[BearsAreBadNews bear]], maybe it's [[HockeyMaskAndChainsaw some mask-wearing chainsaw-wielding lunatic]], maybe it's some carnivorous [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti sasquatch]], or a {{Wendigo}}, or some other local Boogeyman the people in town told you about. But surely none of those can be, right?

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident The Dyatlov Pass Incident]]: Sometime between February 1 and 2, 1959, 9 Russian hikers died under mysterious circumstances. Search parties found the group's campsite, their tent cut open from the inside - evidently, something had frightened the group enough that they fled in a hurry, inadequately dressed for the cold Russian winter. All 9 bodies were later found, some distance from the camp: 6 had died from hypothermia, while the remaining 3 suffered various physical injuries to the chest or skull. The case remains unsolved to this day.

* Invoked in ''Film/{{Fyre}}'', where some of the attendees at the Fire Festival, trying to camp overnight, ripped up the sleeping bags and urinated in tents nearest to them, so that nobody would get too close to them.
* ''Film/TheThing1982'': When [=MacReady=] and Doctor Copper visit the Norwegian base camp in Antarctica, they find the place ravaged. No structure is left intact, and much of it has been torched. The pair get one clue when they explore a storage hangar: something very like a FlyingSaucer is embedded in ice. Apparently, the two Norwegians pursuing the "dog" were the last two from this camp; all the others died in a fiery fight for survival.

* The WeirdWestern ''Film/Ravenous1999'' is about a group of soldiers at a [[BleakBorderBase remote frontier outpost]], setting out to rescue a party of snow-bound settlers in the mountains who have been forced by circumstances to [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty eat their dead]]. When they arrive at the cave where the settlers have holed up, there's no one left alive... but the soldiers' problems are only beginning.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' at the very end of the episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E8BoyScoutzNTheHood Boy Scout N' the Hood]]," while Homer, Bart, Ned, and Todd are rescued ([[AccidentalHero accidentally because of Homer]]), [[AsHimself celebrity guest]] for the father son rafting trip Creator/ErnestBorgnine, and the other Junior campers get lost during the river expedition and stumble into an abandoned summer camp to rest before continuing their trek. As they sing a round of "Bingo was his Name-O'," a slasher stalks the camp, and the last shot of the episode is horror music playing while the camera pans into a screaming Borgine.

[[folder:Literature]]
* Downplayed in ''Literature/{{Congo}}'': When the protagonists' expedition arrives to the place where the [[SendInTheSearchTeam the missing E.R.T.S. expedition they were sent to find]] was camped, the narration notes that in the weeks in between the missing team's last contact and the protagonists' arrival the whole site has been ReclaimedByNature and cleaned by the KillerGorilla tribe who killed the team, and aside from a couple of gadgets there is no trace left.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Videos]]
* ''WebVideo/BedtimeStoriesYoutubeChannel'' has this as a recurring feature in episodes featuring unexplained disappearances in remote areas such as forests, mountains, and deserts. Often, said campsite ruins would feature destroyed tents, but surprisingly intact supply storages, untouched bags, and no signs of the former inhabitants.
[[/folder]]

** In ''Film/NeverHikeAlone'', a hiker named Kyle [=McLeod=] discovers the ruins of [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Camp Crystal Lake]], which ends up turning him into a target for Jason Voorhees's latest rampage.

** In ''Film/NeverHikeAlone'', a hiker named Kyle [=McLeod=] discovers the ruins of [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Camp Crystal Lake]], which ends up turning him into a target for Jason Voorhees? latest rampage.