History Main / AbandonedPlayground

* ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' has one on Route 14 devoid of children, although nothing weird happens there--just a friendly Pokemon battle.
** [[FridgeHorror But]] you can find a RareCandy hidden [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything behind the bushes]].

* ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' has one on Route 14, although nothing weird happens there--just a friendly Pokemon battle.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Film/JasonGoesToHellTheFinalFriday''. Outside of Jason's old, abandoned home is a small playground where the protagonists battle Jason at night.
* Used in ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' in a brief piece recapping how the future's going to turn out. Optional skulls added.
** The opening credits are of the same playground, as the whole thing burns in nuclear fire. Coupled with the music, the effect is powerful.

* The French short ''Replay'' explores the emotions of a boy in a Fallout-style dead and deadly world, and he finds his way to a park like this in a nearby ruined city. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-cFHeoXAw8 Watchable here.]]

* There's one in ''Film/TheExorcist'', too.
* Featured in a deleted scene of the ''Film/DawnOfTheDead2004'' remake, set right after Kenneth finds Anna. There are lots of toys lying around and a baby carriage too.
* The ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' movie ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' has one of these in the [[spoiler:newly destroyed by Alliance forces]] colony on Haven. River wanders through one and get a nice [[FramedSubject framed shot]] between a swing set that is on fire.

* The film of ''Film/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' features one of these as Harry runs away from the Dursleys' place at night. For some reason that is never explained, the swingset and merry-go-round start to move on their own.
* Several of the later scenes including the climax of the "Film/{{Hanna}}" take place in the decrepit remains of a Brothers Grimm theme park near Berlin. It is creepy as outlined in the trope description, but symbolically appropriate to the passing of Hanna's unconventional childhood.
* In ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow'', there is deserted trailer park including an Abandoned Playground behind the enemy lines.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'', this is what Pleasure Island ends up looking like after the boys are [[spoiler: turned into donkeys and rounded up by the Coachman]].
-->'''Jiminy:''' Where is everybody? This place looks like a graveyard.
* ''Film/TheDarkTower2017''. Roland and Jake find a derelict theme park entangled in a forest that has grown up around it. Jake has to tell Roland what it is, as to the latter it's just another strange construction from before [[AfterTheEnd the world moved on]].
* ''Film/AnnaAndTheApocalypse:'' This is where Anna gets her first kill in the movie. She stays there with John for a little while afterwords in order to figure just what the heck they're going to do.
* In the 'not abandoned, but empty' variant, ''Film/GingerSnaps'' has the sisters sneaking through a playground late at night in order to pull a prank-- it's here that Ginger [[spoiler: gets her first period and is subsequently bitten by a werewolf]].
* In ''Film/{{Preservation}}'', an old playground, covered in graffiti and obviously having seen better days, is located within the preserve. A couple of tense scenes take place here.

* The FictionalVideoGame in ''Literature/EndersGame'' has a creepy playground level, inhabited by children who turn out to be wolves. Ender has to kill them to proceed.
* The Literature/FatherBrown story "The God of the Gongs":
--> "A bird flew over it in silence. And I felt that no man would ever be happy there again."
* Creator/RichardBrautigan has one of these in ''Literature/AConfederateGeneralFromBigSur''. Lee's friend Elizabeth lives in a rustic cabin with her children, but when Lee and Jesse visit nobody's home. Jesse is slightly unnerved by the abandoned playthings in the yard including a game the children had made with dirt, abalone shells and deer antlers: "Perhaps it wasn't a game at all, only the grave of a game." (Elizabeth's all right, though; she turns up later in the story, and presumably the kids are fine.)
* ''Literature/{{Dexter}} is Delicious'' features Buccaneer Land, an abandoned amusement park Dexter and Deborah used to love when they were children. It has fallen into disrepair and is now home to a bunch of fake vampires [[spoiler:and real cannibals]].

* In Season 2 of ''Series/TheWire'', after Ziggy confesses to murder, his cousin Nick gets drunk in the old playground where they used to play and reminisces about it. In Season 3, drug kingpin Marlo holds court in an abandoned park/playground because it's difficult to bug.
* In one of the early seasons of ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'', Prue and Phoebe get stuck in one of these. [[spoiler:Home of all the creepy demon kids the Ice Cream Truck Man drops there, and The Nothing will slowly pick off anything that lives there.]]
* The Barracks on ''Series/{{Lost}}'' have a swingset, which was used happily by the Dharma kids (Ben, Charlotte) in the 70s. However, in present day it just serves as a reminder that the Others can't have children.

* In one episode of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' Sam notices that a playground is empty at four in the afternoon; it's the first sign that something is wrong with that town's children.

* ''{{Series/Dollhouse}}''. Echo is programmed to believe she's a baby's mother in "Instinct". At the end of the episode when she's forced to give the child up, she sits in a playground in the park at night with her handler.

* The PC game ''VideoGame/ThePath'' features one of these in the woods. The site is [[spoiler: where Ruby meets the wolf]].

* ''VideoGame/SilentHillHomecoming'' has an abandoned playground. [[spoiler:You can find a photograph by the slide!]]
** ''VideoGame/SilentHillShatteredMemories'' also has one, and in a possible callback you can find an Echo Photo and Echo Message there.
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' has several irradiated children's playgrounds.
** The most prominent example (because it factors into an early, and very long, quest) would be the town of Minefield. As the name implies, it's full of mines [[spoiler: and a sniper]]. The quest involves making it to a certain part of the playground and (optionally) taking back a mine with you.
** The DLC ''Point Lookout'' has an abandoned fairground.

** A more fictional example appears only in ''Clear Sky'', in the GhostCity of Limansk-13. Being an inner courtayrd's playground unlike Pripyat's, it's a much smaller one.
* ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps Call of Duty: Black Ops]]'' also has an empty playground. It's in the level "Rebirth", right in the middle of the area covered with [[DeadlyGas Nova-6]].
* There's some creepy old playground equipment, complete with squeaking swing, next to the restaurant at the gas station in ''Barrow Hill''.
* The playground in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' gets this treatment whenever [[TokenMiniMoe Ilya]] isn't around to play with you, particularly in the Heaven's Feel Route. Said route also has Shirou sit down on a bench to contemplate whether to save the girl or save the world.
* In an outdoor level of ''VideoGame/{{Metro 2033}}'' there is one of these, and when you enter it, you see a flashback of kids playing. When the flashback ends, some of the equipment is still moving and you see a Dark One observing you.
* In ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' there's an abandoned playground in the level of ''Hard Rain'', this serves as a landmark for the player(s) when they're getting back to the boat.
* There is a playground right outside the house on the first part of ''VideoGame/SlenderTheArrival''.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' has one on Route 14, although nothing weird happens there--just a friendly Pokemon battle.
* ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'' has several, but notable examples include the Atlantic Island Park in the Savage Coast region.
* The ''Subspace Emissary'' adventure mode in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'' features a level called the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Ruined Zoo"]], that certainly gives off this vibe. Here, you play as Lucas trying to outrun a [[AdvancingBossOfDoom Giant Porky Statue]].
* ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheCuriousVillage'': St Mysterie's abandoned amusement park. It was originally a gift to Flora from her father Baron Reinhold to cheer her up after her mother passed away. Sadly, it failed to make Flora happy. The park was eventually closed down after it failed to attract visitors.

* WebAnimation/HomestarRunner has Papa Cardgage's Puddin' Patch, from the WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEkZI8vGDxo "Licensed"]]. It's a sketchy day-care with cinder-block walls decorated with OffModel pictures of Strong Bad and the Cheat, a crossed-out "Restroom" sign, a barbed-wire fence, a ''ChalkOutline'' in the front yard, and no one there but [[CrazyHomelessPeople Senor Cardgage]] singing a vaguely-creepy nursery song:

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' -- Season 7, [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E6TreehouseOfHorrorVI Treehouse of Horror VI]], Segment: Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace. Bart battles Willy at night in a foreboding, nightmare playground which is empty until the battle.
** Parodied in another episode where Bart calmly strolls through one (with an IronicNurseryTune playing in the background), with complete GenreBlindness.

-->-- '''Music/{{Madonna}}''', "[[Film/ALeagueOfTheirOwn This Used to be My Playground]]"

* ''VideoGame/"ProfessorLaytonAndTheCuriousVillage'': St Mysterie's abandoned amusement park. It was originally a gift to Flora from her father Baron Reinhold to cheer her up after her mother passed away. Sadly, it failed to make Flora happy. The park was eventually closed down after it failed to attract visitors.

* In the movie ''Film/ChildrenOfMen'', Ki sits on the swing at an abandoned schoolyard during a quiet moment. It's wouldn't be notable except in another movie, but here the playground is abandoned because nobody on earth has been pregnant for decades and all children have grown up. This is especially significant for Ki because [[spoiler:she is pregnant]]

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** The ColdOpen of "Lie to Me", an episode with a theme of how the illusions of childhood give way to the BlackAndGrayMorality of the adult world. There's a boy who's been left at the playground. It's dark, and he's the last one there, and then Drusilla shows up. Fortunately for him Angel shows up and stops her.
** The episode where Buffy reaches her eighteenth birthday has an ActionPrologue of Buffy fighting a vampire in a playground at night, with all the 'leave childhood behind' metaphors that implies.

* In ''Disney/{{Pinocchio}}'', this is what Pleasure Island ends up looking like after the boys are [[spoiler: turned into donkeys and rounded up by the Coachman]].

* ''Film/{{Flatliners}}''. While David Labraccio is trying to track down Winnie Hicks so he can apologize to her, he goes to the school playground where he tormented her as a child. We see it as it was (with all of the children), then the children fade away leaving just the AbandonedPlayground, revealing that the scene we just saw was Labraccio's memory.

%%* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpyfW4LxaZ0 Water Wonderland]] near Odessa, Texas.

%%* Americana Amusement Park, shown in ''Series/LifeAfterPeople''.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4JwgmPEIDQ River Country]], the first water park at [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Walt Disney World Resort]], was closed in 2001 and currently sits abandoned but thanks to being really close to the other Disney parks and hotels in Orlando is visible from other locations. Abandoned for various reasons that included high levels of a potentially dangerous amoeba in the lake water that was used in the park, a law that protects tourists from local unfiltered lake water, and a large drop in attendance thanks to being pitted against the larger Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach water parks. Despite being closed for several years the lights are still on and the plumbing still works, there's abandoned furniture and clothing and toys lying around, the slides and stairs are overgrown with vegetation to the point of being barely visible, and the man-made river and pools are stagnant and/or nearly evaporated. Incredibly frightening if you find pictures people have taken of inside the buildings. Disney does intend to demolish the remains and place a hotel on the land.

* In ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', part of Stan's mind is represented by one of these. [[spoiler:We see it again later, only now it's not abandoned, and is in fact being used by Stan and his brother as children.]]

* Ride/SixFlags New Orleans. It closed in 2005 to prepare for Hurricane Katrina and never reopened. It's ''creepy as fuck'' and unfortunately it's due to be torn down in... who knows when.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4JwgmPEIDQ River Country,]] the first water park at [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Walt Disney World Resort]], was closed in 2001 and currently sits abandoned but thanks to being really close to the other Disney parks and hotels in Orlando is visible from other locations. Abandoned for various reasons that included high levels of a potentially dangerous amoeba in the lake water that was used in the park, a law that protects tourists from local unfiltered lake water, and a large drop in attendance thanks to being pitted against the larger Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach water parks. Despite being closed for several years the lights are still on and the plumbing still works, there's abandoned furniture and clothing and toys lying around, the slides and stairs are overgrown with vegetation to the point of being barely visible, and the man-made river and pools are stagnant and/or nearly evaporated. Incredibly frightening if you find pictures people have taken of inside the buildings.

* In one of the early seasons of ''Series/{{Charmed}}'', Prue and Phoebe get stuck in one of these. [[spoiler:Home of all the creepy demon kids the Ice Cream Truck Man drops there, and The Nothing will slowly pick off anything that lives there.]]

[[folder:Videogames]]

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4JwgmPEIDQ River Country,]] the first water park at Walt Disney World Resort, was closed in 2001 and currently sits abandoned but thanks to being really close to the other Disney parks and hotels in Orlando is visible from other locations. Abandoned for various reasons that included high levels of a potentially dangerous amoeba in the lake water that was used in the park, a law that protects tourists from local unfiltered lake water, and a large drop in attendance thanks to being pitted against the larger Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach water parks. Despite being closed for several years the lights are still on, the music still plays, and the plumbing still works, there's abandoned furniture and clothing and toys lying around, the slides and stairs are overgrown with vegetation to the point of being barely visible, and the man-made river and pools are stagnant and/or nearly evaporated. Incredibly frightening if you find pictures people have taken of inside the buildings.
%%* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpyfW4LxaZ0&feature=watch_response Water Wonderland]] near Odessa, Texas.

* In an outdoor level of ''{{Metro 2033}}'' there is one of these, and when you enter it, you see a flashback of kids playing. When the flashback ends, some of the equipment is still moving and you see a Dark One observing you.

* Geauga Lake Amusement Park in Aurora, Ohio. The park closed in 2007 after over 100 years in business under various forms after its parent company was unable to restore visitor traffic lost by a few years of ownership under Six Flags. Even though every ride was very quickly torn down--with one exception. Every building in the park including the main gate was left standing as late as 2016, nearly ten years later. The many themed areas of the park are still standing with signage and paths still in place twisting past run-down buildings and concrete footings where rides used to be located. Just one ride was left standing for nearly ten years, a historic wooden coaster named the Big Dipper, and video footage showed it also taken back over by nature. For ten years the park even stood across from a very busy water park called Wildwater Kingdom. When even that closed in 2016 everything there was demolished very quickly before it could reach the same state. A lot of Geauga Lake's buildings did finally get demolished in 2016 but the empty park remains as it is because of mismanagement by the city where it is located and the company that owns it.

* Lake Shawnee Amusement Park in West Virginia, the site of a desecrated IndianBurialGround turned into a settler farm which saw three settler children killed by Indians and several Indians killed by settlers in retaliation, turned into an amusement park in the 1920s. After six patrons were killed, the park shut down in 1966 amid rumours of the land being cursed and haunted, with the rides and structures still standing in varying states of disrepair. Tours are available in the days leading up to Halloween.

* This featured in Garth Ennis' ''Crossed'', particulary the early ads for the series.

** In ''Literature/{{Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban}}'', he sits in an abandoned playground after a fight with the Dursleys when the Grim appears. The playground is only empty because it's the middle of the night, but in [[Film/HarryPotter the movie version]], art director DaveMcKean makes the scene surprisingly creepy, even though it's daylight.