History Main / DarknessEqualsDeath

* ''Webcomic/{{TREVOR}}'': While the medical facility at first appears to be well-lit, parts of it become ominously dark.

* In ''VideoGame/Destiny2: Forsaken,'' this applies in some of the Ascendant Realm challenges. The Ascendant Realm is often dark and dimly lit, and full of enemies, from Hive to Shadow Thrall to Taken to nigh-invulnerable Abyssal Champions.
* A section of ''VideoGame/BrothersATaleOfTwoSons'' takes place in the darkened woods leading to a graveyard. The titular duo is being stalked by a pack of wolves, which Naia staves off using a torch. The task is to keep the separately controlled Naiee far enough away from the edge of the torch's light that the wolves don't grab him.
* In ''VideoGame/OriAndTheWillOfTheWisps'', the darkness in Mouldwood Depths, a byproduct of [[TheCorruption the Decay]], literally consumes those who remain in it too long.
* ''Videogame/{{Phasmophobia}}'' plays with this. On one hand, ghost attacks are usually heralded by a complete blackout, or uncontrollable flickering of all available lights (and blown-out candles), and sanity drops while in darkness (if it bottoms out, ghosts tend to go for the kill). On the other, darkness will let you see paranormal activity more easily, letting you get done faster with the mission, and standing in the light too long will court the ghost's ire. And completely inverted with Jinn-type ghosts, as those get ''especially'' aggressive and dangerous when the lights are on and will endeavor to keep them on; darkness will keep you safer in these cases.
* About half of the gameplay in ''Film/{{Juon}}: Film/TheGrudge - Haunted House Simulator'' is collecting flashlight batteries, because [[TenSecondFlashlight they drain incredibly quickly]]. And once you're out of light, Kayako instantly kills you in the darkness.
* ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'': The ''VideoGame/DontStarve'' crossover introduced a special world seed that makes a world with the latter game's mechanics. One of which being that standing in pitch-blackness for a long amount of time will have the player character be damaged by something. It's easy to keep the darkness away by holding up a torch, but torches extinguish in the rain in worlds made with that seed.

* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' has something similar, if you enter a dark area with no lightsource, you "hear the skittering of tiny insects on the floor" a few seconds later, and you will be hit with a constant stream of 1 damage every half second or so.(new players start with 10 hp, the best of the best have 99, to put that in context)

* {{Inverted|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/TheAether'', where the most dangerous common mobs spawn in broad daylight, but none spawn underground except in the Dungeons, and even those spawns are Dungeon features rather than random monsters.
* The developers of ''VideoGame/MirrorsEdge'' deliberately made lower areas darker than the sunlit rooftops. Which just goes to show how well the game mirrors the real-life effects of sunlight and solid objects that block sunlight!
* ''Darkest Fear'' by Rovio Mobile is based on this trope; the puzzles all revolve around navigating your way around the shadows [[spoiler: (which contain photophobic, flesh-eating mutants)]] by manipulating various light sources.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Penumbra}}'', there is a perfect example in which you have to run down a hall in which the lights are turning on and off. You have to ALWAYS be in the light, as if you step into darkness, something launches out of the wall and eats you.
* "Lowlife", the third chapter of ''VideoGame/HalfLife2: Episode One'', takes place entirely in the dark, with throngs of headcrab zombies ''everywhere'' and a TenSecondFlashlight and very occasional flares as your only light. As Alyx will only shoot at foes that you light up, you have to learn to conserve your auxiliary power so you aren't caught flat-footed in the dark, surrounded by monsters while waiting for the power to recharge.
* ''VideoGame/BlackSnow'' has some sort of pitch black cloud thing that consumes anything that stays too long in the dark, and apparently murdered or consumed everyone on the research station being investigated by the protagonist. Much of the game's suspense revolves around having to enter a dark area according to light patterns, with a limited number of flares, or blind luck and a prayer that the darkness doesn't kill you. [[spoiler:It turns out that the ambulatory darkness is a very lethal swarm of fungal spores that cannot thrive in light.]]
* ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'' (and similar stealth games) is effectively an inversion of this trope, for all your enemies. In one level, Sam's helpers aid him in eliminating a squad of enemies by cutting the power. As the lights go out, they're easy pickings. Conversely, an early level in the second game, ''Pandora Tomorrow'' plays the trope straight against Sam, where he must stay inside the beam of a searchlight [[OneHitKill or he dies instantly]], courtesy of an enemy sentinel with NightVisionGoggles and a SniperRifle.
* In the ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'' expansion pack ''Perseus Mandate'', from what we hear in a recorded message, the top dogs of the Nightcrawler army believe this. However, light does not help or hamper any of Alma's apparitions.
-->'''Nightcrawler Commander:''' ''We've lost six men to to the creatures in the shadows. Avoid the dark, if you can.''
* The Darkness is an entity unto itself in ''VideoGame/AlanWake''. It possesses people and objects that can only be fought off by shining a light at it.
* In ''VideoGame/KingsQuestVIHeirTodayGoneTomorrow'', when you fall into the lower level of the Catacombs, it is pitch black. You are likely to be [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe split in half]] by the Minotaur if you don't produce a light quickly.
* In ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry1InTheLandOfTheLoungeLizards'', wandering into dark alleyways results in Larry getting beaten to death by a mugger.
* Inversion: If you don't turn your flashlight off in the "We Can See in the Dark, Can You?" level of ''VideoGame/PathwaysIntoDarkness'', you will be constantly attacked by [[GoddamnedBats Goddamned Rats]].
* ''Franchise/SilentHill'' zig-zags this trope like a circlestrafing first-person shooter player. The DarkWorld of the town contains much harder fights, including most of the bosses, but [[OptionalStealth turning off your light and treading lightly]] is a valid and effective way to play.
--> ''Don't be afraid of the dark. Be afraid of what it hides.''
* Inverted in ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent''. While staying out of the light too long will reduce your sanity, it is also the only place you are safe when being attacked by the monsters.
* In ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestIIVohaulsRevenge'', if you go into dark caves without a light source, you will be eaten by a Cave Beaver or Cave Squid.
* ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'', and many other RealTimeStrategy games have the FogOfWar. FinaglesLaw guarantees that if you run a unit into the Fog without looking ahead, it ''will'' get attacked.
* The {{UsefulNotes/SNES}} ''VideoGame/JurassicParkSNES'' tie-in game had a primitive first-person mode which activated inside buildings. Wandering into a darkened space before obtaining the night-vision goggles meant a swift death, even if there were no dinosaurs inside once the player obtained the goggles.
* The ''VideoGame/AmbridgeMansion'' series plays this trope to the hilt - something as simple as [[spoiler:looking out a window]] or [[spoiler:opening a cupboard]] can get you ambushed.
* ''VideoGame/DejaVu1985 II'': Wandering around the empty bar without a light could randomly kill your character.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfKyrandia'' features a segment in Serpent's Grotto, a place that consists mostly of a series of caverns with [[FantasticLightSource Fireberry]] bushes growing at strategic points. The Fireberries themselves emit light, and warmth from Brandon's hand causes the berries to decay and lose their glow over the maximum of three screen transitions; if he drops them on the cold floor, the decay stops and the glow remains constant. So Brandon must explore the Grotto by dropping Fireberries on the floor to light up otherwise pitch-black rooms, then come back for more. Get caught in a room with no bush and no berries, and the results are predictably unpleasant.
* In ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles'' Sandopolis Zone Act 2, you must keep the lights on by pulling on certain handles to kindle the torches. If you spend too long in the dark, the ghosts will swoop down to attack.
* One of the worlds in ''VideoGame/KirbyMassAttack'' has levels that revolve around obtaining torches and use them to light candles and other appliances, and feature enemies that will kidnap your Kirbies easily, and can only be made vulnerable by exposing them to a light source.
* Las Plagas in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' are vulnerable to sunlight, so Ganados are much weaker and can't release them from their bodies in the first chapter, that takes place in daytime. Starting on chapter 2, the sky is darkened by a rainstorm, and then night falls.
* This happens to Brad, one of your allies in ''VideoGame/DeadRising''. A struggle between him and the main villain ends with him thrown into a pitch black maintenance tunnel. Crawling with thousands of the undead.
* Averted (to an extent) in ''VideoGame/Mother3'', as [[spoiler: after the end of the game, the world is basically reborn into a much better place. All you can see of it is darkness and the word "END?"]]
* In ''Hydlide'', if you enter a cave without the lantern, you will randomly die. And then, after getting the lantern, you see that there was nothing killing you.
* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest'': "What a horrible night to have a curse".
* Dark areas in the ''VideoGame/{{Descent}}'' series often contain DemonicSpiders, especially the [[InvisibleMonsters invisible type]].
* In ''VideoGame/BrainDead13'', the final confrontation takes place entirely in blackness. And [[spoiler:since Fritz appears to settle the score once and for all]], it can mean death for you if you don't act quickly.
* In ''VideoGame/TheDarkness'' and its sequel, the dark is a the protagonist's messiah and his enemy's looming fate. God forbid if they managed to piss him off as much as they did when they killed his Aunt Sarah. Indeed, whenever it is dark in the room, Jackie can fully put those reptiles on his shoulders to good use. However, this can be rather bad considering that any strong light sources will strip Jackie of his power (and eyesight), [[spoiler:not helped by the fact that all light sources go from being accidental in the beginning of the games to being strategically placed and very hard to mitigate]].
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', quests involving Nocturnal and Hermaeus Mora sometimes include sections where straying from the light causes constant damage.
* In ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'' there is an underwater dungeon where piranhas attack you for massive damage when you leave the light emitted by volcanic vents or portable bioluminescent plants.
* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'': Feral Ghouls, especially [[BossInMookClothing Reavers]] if ''Broken Steel'' is installed, tend to lurk in dark subway and utility tunnels. In the DLC ''The Pitt'', the darker areas of town are swarming with [[DemonicSpiders Trogs]], and in one of the solutions to the quest, you disable the floodlights keeping them out of Uptown, so that they massacre the Slavers.
** Similar to the Trogs, ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas: Lonesome Road'' also has darkness-dwelling DemonicSpiders in the form of [[MoleMen Tunnelers]].
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'' has daemons, monsters that can only spawn and survive at nighttime. They tend to stay away from towns and cities that bathe their streets in artificial lights, but they are much more active and dangerous in the wilds. [[spoiler:Late in the game, [[TheNightThatNeverEnds the sun goes out]], leading to daemons becoming active at all hours. Cities and towns remain safe thanks to their lights, but at this point, humanity is living on borrowed time before they run out of power.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Miasmata}}'', while the monster that inhabits the island will hunt you regardless of what time of day it is, the game's aversion of HollywoodDarkness makes it very dangerous to travel at night where you will be at much greater risk of getting lost, walking off a cliff, dying of illness before finding shelter, or being ambushed by said monster who will now be much harder to see.
* In ''VideoGame/RaymanOrigins'', the level "Swimming with Stars" takes place at the bottom of the sea, where there are Darktoons that will reach out and attack you if you're in darkness. They're repelled by the bioluminescent sealife in the level.
* In ''VideoGame/MegaManX8'', [[spoiler:Lumine]]'s last attack, Paradise Lost, is a TimedMission revolving around this. You have 30 seconds to avert this, and the intensifying music outlines just how screwed you are if you don't hurry.
* In ''VideoGame/DontStarve'', any time a player character is in total darkness[[note]]Night vision or going to sleep will keep the night monster away just as well as normal light, oddly enough; you're only in danger if you're awake and can't see[[/note]] they are vulnerable to being attacked by a shadow monster that can take off half your health in one strike. First they'll remark on how dark it is, then you hear a sinister hissing noise, and then you get hit. Most non-natural light sources in the game have a limited duration after which they need to be replaced or refueled, except for Willow's lighter. Torches are the most readily available option for low-level characters, but you can't hold a weapon and a torch at the same time; you can beat monsters with the torch if absolutely necessary but it does very little damage. There's also the fact that, unless you have a full SanityMeter, shadowy hands will reach out of the darkness to snuff out ground-based light sources.
* In ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankAll4One'', in Rossa Fields, you have to get through a very dark path where the only light source is a glowing crystal that you carry with your Vac-U, which can be replenished with crystal chunks on the ground or a charging station (although there's a trophy for not using any of the stations except the first one). Enemies will fly by and try to take chunks off of the crystal, so your group needs to make sure the enemies are killed and the lights stay on. What happens if the lights don't stay on? You and your teammates get eaten by [[http://ratchet.wikia.com/wiki/Venixx Venixx]], that's what.

* Inverted in ''VideoGame/SilenceOfTheSleep''. At one point in the final stretch where you're trudging through a rainstorm, you can only move when it's totally dark. When lightning strikes and lights up the screen, you have to stand perfectly still or the roaming monstrosities can catch you.
* The main mechanic of the short indie game ''VideoGame/TheLastLight'' is that the ''[[FogOfDoom thing]]'' in the subway kills people who venture into the darkness. You have to manage power distribution in certain areas, keep your TenSecondFlashlight charged and have a good number of flares to get to the end.
* ''VideoGame/{{Tattletail}}'': Stay in the dark too long, and Mama Tattletail will catch you, especially since being in darkness makes Tattletail freak out. Being in the light (not counting your flashlight) also means you're safe, as the power goes out when she's attacking.
* The light going out in ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' causes enemies to be more likely to surprise you, deal more damage and inflict more stress. Both sides get a bonus to critical chance, and you make more money, but in general it's best to bring extra torches unless you are reckless, desperate, or [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential feeling sadistic for whatever reason]]. The developers even put in a monster to discourage torchless runs: the Shambler, a horrifying shoggoth-esque DamageOverTime factory that will beat the living hell out of even a well-equipped, high-level party, but which drops some of the best items in the game if you do manage to kill it.
* Happens quite literally with the Azurite Mine in ''VideoGame/PathOfExile''. If you stray too far from any light source (the Crawler, the lamps placed along completed paths, or dropped flares), the darkness itself inflicts a stacking debuff that drains your life, getting faster with each stack until you die or get back to a source of light. While there are upgrades to carry more flares, extend their duration, resist the darkness damage and such, delving deeper into the Mine will require you to keep upgrading your darkness resistance and light radius, in order to counteract the penalties to them incurred at greater depths.

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* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': In the ComicBook/{{Huntress}} feature the petty thief who goes to tell his boss Herbie that he and the guys lost their loot in a confrontation dropping and breaking his flashlight and being left in the dark is a bit of forshadowing about [[BadBoss how his boss is going to react]]. He does get the light to work for one more brief second, just in time to see that he's about to be eaten to death as his boss' pets are inches from his face in mid leap.

* ''Fanfic/AgreementAndDisputation'': Watson casually mentions that he can't identify the opium den he entered to find a patient, because they all look the same at night. Holmes feels utter shock at the revelation that his gentlemanly fellow lodger willingly took on such a dangerous task and emerged unscathed.

* ''Film/IronMan1'':
** The beginning, when the terrorists are searching for Iron Man right before the killing starts.
** The sequence when Pepper goes into Section 16, where the Iron Monger awaits in the dark.
* ''Film/JurassicPark'' has it with the raptors in the power station.

* The 2002 Anna Paquin film, Darkness, fits this trope to a T, as the unseen killers can only attack when there is no light.
* ''Film/IAmLegend'', when Sam (the dog) follows a deer into a building.
* It is the outright basic gimmick of ''Film/DarknessFalls''. The "tooth fairy", a ghost of a woman who was heavily burned in life, experiences extreme pain and can be eventually destroyed when exposed to light, but can essentially [[VillainTeleportation teleport anywhere else.]] The main character manages to survive his first encounter with the tooth fairy as a child, and then never goes into the darkness again until he's an adult.
* Happens in ''Film/DeepBlueSea'' -- female scientist goes into her dark, half-submerged room for files. A ThreateningShark sneaks in and tries to kill her.

* During the failed operation to remove Octopus' tentacles in ''Film/SpiderMan2'', a nurse is dragged screaming toward a dark area of the room.
* Beautifully inverted in the movie ''Theatre/WaitUntilDark''. Audrey Hepburn plays a blind woman who knocks out all the lights to give herself the advantage over her attacker, since, as a totally blind woman, she can function just fine in the dark. Too bad she forgot one. [[spoiler:You probably would, too. In the refrigerator. She thankfully does manage to unplug it at the last second, and darkness equals her attacker's death instead of her own.]]
* ''Film/PitchBlack'' was designed from the ground up to utilize this trope, and every single death in the movie did in one way or another.
* Subverted in the 1980 movie version of ''Film/TheShining'' where Jack kills [[spoiler:Halloran]] under the ''only lit lamp'' in the hall.
* ''Film/TheZombieDiaries'' has a group of survivors looking through an abandoned house where they enter a dark room and... well, you get the idea.
* Subverted in ''Film/{{Scream 2}}'', where [[spoiler: Randy]] is killed in broad daylight, and in the middle of a very active college campus. For everyone else in the series though, this trope very much applies.
* Another Christian Bale example in ''Film/{{Equilibrium}}'': during the raid on the sense-offender's camp/base in the Nether, Grammaton Cleric Preston arranges for the power and light to the last pocket of resistance to be cut, bursting into the room just as it goes dark. After several seconds of gunfire intended for him, the room is completely dark, with the sense-offenders whisper to each other as to whether they got him. Then Preston opens up using his GunFu, illuminating himself and small other parts of the room with muzzle flash, wiping out the mooks. It's all very beautifully done.
* A variation occurs in ''Film/TheMist''. Surely, at daytime the mist is not dark, but you still can't see that far in front of you. [[spoiler:Averted with the first person to walk into the mist, who is seen very alive at the end]].

* The monsters in ''Film/{{They}}'' only exist in the dark.
* Weaponized by the protagonist in ''Film/TheBookOfEli'', Eli leads a gang of post-apocalyptic thugs into a dark overpass and slaughters them. [[spoiler: It turns out that the darkness was only half of it, since Eli was blind he wasn't handicapped by the shadows like they were, and the overpass served to heighten his already blindness-compensated sense of hearing, allowing him to react superhumanly fast.]]
* In ''Film/BansheeChapter'', several video recordings show various research subjects injected with a chemical designed for mind control purposes and restrained in a darkened room, with only a single light showing where they are. Then something unseen yanks them into the dark, where they vanish without a trace.
* In ''Film/VanishingOnSeventhStreet'', a power outage in Detroit has allowed shadow creatures to invade and grab nearly everyone who doesn't have a light source on them. Here, the dark ''itself'' is out to get you.

* ''WesternAnimation/Incredibles2'': The BigBad sends Mr. Incredible into a dark, empty room. Since this occurs immediately after TheReveal, the audience knows full well what's about to happen. [[spoiler: Sure enough, he's attacked by a brainwashed Elastigirl and ends up becoming brainwashed himself.]]
* In ''Film/TheMummy1999'', Benni is trapped in the treasure room as the room is sealed off underground. Flesh-eating scarabs come out as the light is cut-off, leaving only his one torch. As it dies, so does he.
* ''Film/Masquerade2021'': After the burglars cut the power to Casey's house, Sofia wandering downstairs to investigate in the dark was never going to end well.

* ''VideoGame/{{Zork}}'' had a species of monsters called Grues, whose entire purpose was to pop out of nowhere and eat people who wandered around without a light. Some early drafts had BottomlessPits, following Colossal Cave, but it was pointed out that a lot of the bottomless pit locations made no sense; one was in the attic of a house that was otherwise perfectly intact.
* The bottomless pits were brought back for the prequel, ''VideoGame/ZorkZero''. The game's ending reveals that [[spoiler:filling in all the bottomless pits is what caused the grue infestation in the first place.]]

* Parodied in the InteractiveFiction game ''Enlightenment'', where the goal is [[spoiler: to dispose of all your light sources so a grue will eat the troll that's guarding the dungeon exit.]]
* In the Scott Adams text adventures, wandering around in the dark without any lighting for too many turns will cause you to trip and break your neck.
* In ''One Eye Open'', this is the general rule. Entering dark hallways almost always results in your death. Lit up areas are usually safe.

* Creator/HPLovecraft's "The Haunter of the Dark" features a monster that can be hurt or banished by light, and which goes after the protagonist during a thunderstorm that knocks out the lights.
* Every death in ''Literature/DeadFriend'' (a.k.a. ''The Ghost'') happens on a dark night in a dark room. For an extra kicker, there's usually a storm outside too.
* {{Subverted}} by ''Literature/{{Lamplight}}'', where total darkness is the ''only'' place safe from the book's antagonists, who [[spoiler:depend on artifical light in order to exist]]
* In ''Literature/{{Phantoms}}'', you might as well sign your own death warrant before you go into the shadows. Not that being in the light makes you much safer, but at least you'll ''see'' what's about to eat your face.

* Halfway through ''Literature/TyrannosaurCanyon'' a character hides from a stalker in a dark vault, reasoning that a) it'll afford an opportunity to see the stalker through the window without being seen, b) the vault's security will prevent the stalker from following, and c) even if the stalker enters, the prey will be able to use superior knowledge of the surroundings to his advantage. He's only right on the first count.
* Hearteater and his minions in ''Literature/TailchasersSong'' revolve around this. They live underground and are only able to come out at night, because the sun burns them. Their plan is to destroy the sun. For most of the book they're built up as terrifying, unknown monsters, but they're seen clearly for the first time when they attack and kidnap Tailchaser and his friends in the middle of the night. They nearly kill them and then force Tailchaser into slavery, building tunnels in the darkness for Hearteater (though cats having good night vision means that they're not in complete darkness).

* ''Ten Candles'' is a horror role-playing game with this as a mechanic. The game is played in a dark room lit by only ten tea candles. Players roll from a pool of dice to determine success or failure, but on a "botched" roll a die is removed from the players' dice pool and one of the candles is extinguished. When all the candles go out, any surviving player characters get one last action before their inevitable death.

* While not present in the game itself per se since zombies can attack you whether or not you're in the dark, the level design of ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' uses this association to guide players where to go. Since darkness is instinctively avoided, players tend towards the well lit areas that eventually lead to the safe house.

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/AloneInTheDark2008'', where the main characters randomly end up in a dark room lit only by the fire of their automatic guns; they wipe out the evil attempting to kill them. Those not in the darkness, in well lit areas, will end up dead by the end of the scene.
* Averted most of the time in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'', many of the zombie monsters attack you in very brightly lit areas, allowing you to see them in their full horrifying glory (and making you jump all the more when they actually do attack you in the darkness). Just because the lights go out, doesn't mean you're about to be attacked. In fact, it's a 50-50 chance.
* Played straight in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'', where the Necromorphs are much less inclined to attack in bright areas.
* In ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'', the player has limited power and is trying to survive a wave of amoral animatronics trying to stuff them into a suit lined with gizmos and electronics, killing them in the attempt. If the power runs out, the lights go off, Freddy Fazbear himself appears and plays an OminousMusicBoxTune, leaving the player helpless to do anything but wait for [[InstantWinCondition [=6AM=]]] or their death by JumpScare, whichever comes first.
* In ''VideoGame/AncientDomainsOfMystery'', if a player is "doomed", they have a small chance of being eaten by a grue when in the dark in [[ShoutOut homage]] to Zork.

* In the ''Series/{{Lost}}'' video game, in the cave level something would invariably stalk and kill you if you walked around long enough without a light source.
* [[InvokedTrope Explicitly used]] in the UsefulNotes/WiiWare game ''VideoGame/Lit2009''. The objective is to cross the nearly pitch-black rooms of the school by creating paths of light with lamps, computer monitors, flares, etc. Stepping into an unlit area is instant death. You also have a TenSecondFlashlight, but that's only used to scope out the surroundings and figure out how to proceed - it won't protect you as you move.

* Tumbling down a dark staircase by going in without a light source was one of the ways you could die in the ''VideoGame/LauraBow'' series of adventure games.
* Used very literally in the first ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' game. Whenever you entered a dark patch of the (outside) environment, the Kryll (a swarm of flesh-eating bats) would consume you in around three seconds. Thankfully this also worked on enemies, so you could shoot out lights above enemy positions and watch the carnage ensue.
* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' has something similar, if you enter a dark area with no lightsource, you "hear the skittering of tiny insects on the floor" a few seconds later, and you will be hit with a constant stream of 1 damage every half second or so.(new players start with 10 hp, the best of the best have 99, to put that in context)
* ''VideoGame/{{Spelunky}}'s'' dark levels are one of the worst threats in the game, concealing enemies and traps in the shadows just beyond the Spelunker's tiny circle of light. Oh, and you have a limited supply of flares, which go out instantly if you touch water. Fortunately, the developer has mitigated this somewhat by making certain level features function as light sources.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' the game mechanics make hostile mobs spawn where it's dark, while sunlight burns the undead ones like Zombies and Skeletons, and makes Spiders non-hostile unless provoked.

DaylightHorror is an ''{{inver|tedTrope}}sion'' of this trope. Administrivia/NotASubversion. Not to be confused with DarkIsEvil, although it can invoke this. Often overlaps with NiceDayDeadlyNight. In VideoGames, can lead to a TimedMission if combined with a TenSecondFlashlight. Often found hand-in-hand with NocturnalCrime, with FrequentlyFullMoon tagging along close behind. Related to LightsOffSomebodyDies, although the effects in that trope tend to be more immediate.

* In ''VideoGame/DistortedTravesty 3'' dark areas are where the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0czGDbvwUko terrifying insta-death monsters prowl]]

* According to the logs of the ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'', [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-280 SCP-280]], the "Eyes in the Dark", retreats from sources of light, but in the darkness, it's an absolute nightmare, where it will hunt down humans and tear them apart with its claws strong enough to ''tear through steel''. Try to turn on the lights to defend yourself? It'll teleport away if it's exposed to sudden lights and retreat for another ambush. Because of this, its containment chamber has to be completely dark. [[NightmareFuel Oh, and it was first found in a location where it massacred a family of five in their home.]]

* Subverted in ''Videogame/AloneInTheDark2008'', where the main characters randomly end up in a dark room lit only by the fire of their automatic guns; they wipe out the evil attempting to kill them. Those not in the darkness, in well lit areas, will end up dead by the end of the scene.

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}''

* Averted (to an extent) in ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'', as [[spoiler: after the end of the game, the world is basically reborn into a much better place. All you can see of it is darkness and the word "END?"]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'': Feral Ghouls, especially [[BossInMookClothing Reavers]] if ''Broken Steel'' is installed, tend to lurk in dark subway and utility tunnels. In the DLC ''The Pitt'', the darker areas of town are swarming with [[DemonicSpiders Trogs]], and in one of the solutions to the quest, you disable the floodlights keeping them out of Uptown, so that they massacre the Slavers.

[-[[caption-width-right:350:"My torch just went out!"[[note]][[CaptainObvious No, it didn't.]][[/note]]]]-]

* Averted in ''Pinball/WhoDunnit''. When Nick goes into the basement of Tony's Palace, he gets ambushed by an axe-welding attacker. Nick narrowly dodges the blow and gives chase, starting Basement Multiball.

* ''VideoGame/DejaVu II'': Wandering around the empty bar without a light could randomly kill your character.

* About half of the gameplay in ''Film/{{Juon}}: Film/TheGrudge - Haunted House Simulator'' is collecting flashlight batteries, because [[TenSecondFlashlight they drain incredibly quickly]]. and once you're out of light, Kayako instantly kills you in the darkness.

In real life, associating darkness with impending doom is just one of the many evolutionary survival techniques that makes us fear the dark, many predators that could take down humans are nocturnal hunters and humans have poor night vision in comparison.

* [[InvokedTrope Explicitly used]] in the UsefulNotes/WiiWare game ''VideoGame/{{LIT}}''. The objective is to cross the nearly pitch-black rooms of the school by creating paths of light with lamps, computer monitors, flares, etc. Stepping into an unlit area is instant death. You also have a TenSecondFlashlight, but that's only used to scope out the surroundings and figure out how to proceed - it won't protect you as you move.

** Rumia. She is a subversion though, as she [[RequiredSecondaryPowers can't see in her own darkness]], and [[TheDitz is too stupid to eat anyone in the first place.]] ZUN has once stated that Rumia was specifically intended to be an inversion of the trope. Because DarknessEqualsDeath and DarkIsEvil, audiences tend to expect characters with dark-based powers to be extremely powerful, so he made Rumia a weak stage 1 boss instead. It says something that Cirno, the ButtMonkey of the setting, could wipe the floor with her. ZUN did leave open possibility that [[RestrainingBolt there's more to Rumia than meets the eye]], though, through her amulet. The fanmade "EX Rumia", which is what happens when said amulet is taken off, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLvK5YiQhCs usually plays the trope very straight]].
-->'''Rumia:''' Are you the kind of person I can eat?

* In the British TV Movie ''The Eyes Have It'', assassins take over a school for the blind during a break, to turn it into a shooting post. They kill the only sighted person and pretty much ignore the helpless students. The students cannot wait for nightfall and have to use their teamwork and superior knowledge of the school to fight back.
* ''The Resurrected'', a 1991 film adaptation of ''Literature/TheCaseOfCharlesDexterWard'', recreates the scene in the novel where the hero has to navigate his way out of a subterranean laboratory/oubliette of failed BodyHorror experiments after dropping his lamp, using only a [[TenSecondFlashlight torch with fading battery]] and a pocketbook of matches.

-->-- '''The Haunter of the Dark''' by Creator/HPLovecraft

* A recurring trope in InteractiveFiction genre games:
** In ''VideoGame/ColossalCave (ADVENT)'', walking around in the dark without a light source caused you to fall in a pit and break every bone in your body. Which is apparently fatal.
** ''VideoGame/{{Zork}}'' had a species of monsters called Grues, whose entire purpose was to pop out of nowhere and eat people who wandered around without a light. Some early drafts had BottomlessPits, following Colossal Cave, but it was pointed out that a lot of the bottomless pit locations made no sense; one was in the attic of a house that was otherwise perfectly intact.
** The bottomless pits were brought back for the prequel, ''VideoGame/ZorkZero''. The game's ending reveals that [[spoiler:filling in all the bottomless pits is what caused the grue infestation in the first place.]]
** ''VideoGame/{{Dunnet}}'' mashes these up: you ''trip over a grue'', fall, and break every bone in your body. (It is implied that the grue proceeds to eat your corpse, given the prior warnings about being eaten.)
** Parodied in the InteractiveFiction game ''Enlightenment'', where the goal is [[spoiler: to dispose of all your light sources so a grue will eat the troll that's guarding the dungeon exit.]]
** In the Scott Adams text adventures, wandering around in the dark without any lighting for too many turns will cause you to trip and break your neck.

* ''Videogame/{{Phasmophobia}}'' plays with this. On one hand, ghost attacks are usually heralded by a complete blackout, or uncontrollable flickering of all available lights (and blown-out candles). On the other, darkness will let you see paranormal activity more easily, letting you get done faster with the mission, and standing in the light too long will court the ghost's ire. And completely inverted with Jinn-type ghosts, as those get ''especially'' aggressive and dangerous when the lights are on and will endeavor to keep them on; darkness will keep you safer in these cases.