History Main / AbandonedHospital

* ''Literature/{{Asylum}}''. A partial instance in this book. Daniel Crawford enrolls in a boarding school that used to be a mental asylum. He and his new friends explore some undiscovered corners of the building where they find some mementos had been left behind from the building's days as an asylum.
* ''The Blackstone Chronicles'', a series of short horror stories by John Saul, revolve around an abandoned insane asylum whose patients and former staff end up connected to a series of murders. It was later made into a computer game.

Even without all these things, hospitals are pretty creepy to begin with. One reason is because hospitals are associated with illness and death, as well as being places that really should be clean. Other reasons why hospitals scare many people include: diseases, the stale, blaring white atmosphere; doctors poking and prodding you with weird and often painful instruments like [[AfraidOfNeedles needles and syringes]], and the [[ShockinglyExpensiveBill thousands of dollars you have to pay after treatment]]. There is also the fact that, despite every attempt to prevent it by the staff, a good amount of death inevitably happens at a hospital, which doesn't help to assuage any creepiness. On top of all that, a hospital shpuld be one of the last places to be abandoned in a crisis, since you would need to treat the wounded and sick even more during an emergency. If even the hospitals have been abandoned, things may have ''really'' [[GoneHorriblyWrong gone]] [[FromBadToWorse south]].

The creepy abandoned hospital/[[BedlamHouse mental institution]] is a common setting in horror. Dirty tiles, broken cabinets, corpses in bloodstained lab coats/nurse uniforms, and rusted metal bed frames are all common themes. Other themes include [[ColdBloodedTorture grisly]] {{m|adScientist}}edical [[PlayingWithSyringes experiments]] and [[BodyHorror deformed, inhuman monsters]] shambling about, as well as using medical equipment as [[TortureCellar torture devices]].

Even without all these things, hospitals are pretty creepy to begin with. Maybe because hospitals are associated with illness and death, as well as being places that should be clean. Or perhaps it's because most people are afraid of hospitals for several reasons: germs; the stale, blaring white atmosphere; doctors poking and prodding you with weird and often painful instruments... not to mention the [[AfraidOfNeedles needles...]] There's also the fact that, despite every attempt to prevent it by the staff, a good amount of death inevitably happens at a hospital, which doesn't help to assuage any creepiness. On top of all that, a hospital is likely one of the last places to be abandoned in a crisis, since you would need to treat the wounded and sick even more during an emergency. If even the hospitals have been abandoned, things may have ''really'' [[GoneHorriblyWrong gone]] [[FromBadToWorse south]].

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': Much of the action of "The Silent Land" centers around a supposedly haunted abandoned TB hospital.

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'':
** Arsonist-turned-killer Leonard Brooks takes one of his victims to the now abandoned hospital where his mother, who worked in the burn unit, used to take him with her when she couldn't find a sitter.
** Another perp lives in the back of the now-closed funeral parlor where his mother was the mortician. When the team show up to question him, they enter through the front door and find everything covered in dust.
* ''[[Series/DestinationFear2019 Destination Fear]]'': A given for some of the investigations.

-->-- ''Series/TheStand1994 '', spray-painted hospital sign

* ''VideoGame/ClockTowerIITheStruggleWithin'' for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation had a scenario set in a mostly abandoned hospital. The only people left were you and a few others. Oh, and the occasional zombie.

* ''Film/28DaysLater'': Protagonist Jim wakes from a four-week coma to discover he's the only living person in the hospital, and one of only a few still alive and sane outside it.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Siren}} Siren: Blood Curse]]'' has a very frightening segment where you play a defenseless little girl in the Saiga Hospital where everyone else is a Shibito.

It would make sense for the owners of the abandoned hospital to sell off everything of value, and maybe dismantle part of what's left for scrap metal and glass. Or some poor petty thieves will scavenge anything recyclable that's left. So logically, an abandoned hospital should look more like an abandoned and crumbling block of flats...which, again, rather leads one to wonder just ''what'' could have happened to cause this particular hospital to have its equipment and furnishings forgotten about...

It would make sense for the owners of the abandoned hospital to sell off everything of value, and maybe dismantle part of what's left for scrap metal and glass. Or some poor petty thieves will scavenge anything recyclable that's left. So the abandoned hospital should look more like an abandoned and crumbling block of flats.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Siren}} Siren: Blood Curse]]'' has a very frightening segment where you play a defenseless little girl in the Sagai Hospital where everyone else is a Shibito.

* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' has a late-level mission set in a dilapidated hospital... filled to the brim with people who've been driven insane by Mother Mayhem. The various Facemakers shops in ''[[VideoGame/CityOfHeroes City of Villains]]'' look exactly like this, down to a corpse in a body bag on the front porch, but the chain is an active and very busy concern. One wonders why more villains don't suffer post-operative complications.

* ''VideoGame/Condemned2Bloodshot'' -- After receiving a brick to the head from a [[EvilSoundsDeep gravel-voiced]] hobo with [[GlowingEyesOfDoom glowing eyes]], protagonist Ethan Thomas enters a [[AlternateUniverse spooky evil world]]. As you proceed through this other world, you find yourself entering a decayed asylum, which slowly turns into a black sludge nightmare complete with black slime monsters popping out of the ceiling and walls to come and get you.

* ''VideoGame/GOingIntoTheUnknown'' have you explore one near the end of the game, though it's not as abandoned as it appears given the amount of zombies in it.

* ''VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead: OVERKILL'''s second chapter, "Ballistic Trauma", is set in a mutant-infested hospital. It actually manages to be a little creepy, considering the boss of the level is a cross between [[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon Alma Wade]] and [[VideoGame/Left4Dead the Witch]] who shows up repeatedly across the level.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'':

* The first Map Pack of ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyWorldAtWar'' contains a VideoGame/NaziZombies map called Verrückt, which takes place in the abandoned Wittenau Sanatorium. In the game proper, a sanatorium located in the outskirts of Berlin is the setting of part of "Ring of Steel", which Reznov, Dimitri, Chernov, and Commissar Mharkov have to fight through in order to advance. Another sanatorium is the setting for the multiplayer map "Asylum".

* In ''Film/{{Mirrors}}'', Mayflower was this before it became a department store. Complete with [[TortureCellar rooms sealed in the basement]] where [[ColdBloodedTorture disturbing]] [[MadScientist psychiatric experiments]] were carried out, and a massacre of the inmates which led to its closing.

* ''Roleplay/RubyQuest'' is set in one of these and plays with how abandoned the "abandoned" really is. Sure, no one's using it as a hospital ''right this exact second'', but it's implied that Ruby is doing-slash-discovering some of these things for the second or third time, raising the question, "How, exactly, does she end up back at the start with no memory of doing this stuff if the hospital isn't operating on some rudimentary level?"

* The HiddenObjectGame "Nightfall Mysteries: Asylum Conspiracy" is set at, you guessed it, an abandoned insane asylum. Well, ''mostly'' abandoned.

%%* The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, WV.

* ''Series/{{Scream|TVSeries}}'' has Lakewood General, which features in the fourth episode of the first season. Back in the day, when it was open, it was where the late SerialKiller Brandon James was treated for his deformities. Now, it's where the current killer has set up their lair... or rather, a mock-up of one they intend for the main characters to find as part of the overall game they're playing.