History Main / HauntingTheGuilty

* Alluded to in an issue of ''ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'', when Jubilee has Reno and Molochai, the hitmen who'd killed her parents, at her mercy. Wolverine tells her that one "paff" [[note]]The sound-effect/name of Jubilee's plasma fireworks [[/note]] to the brain stem and they'd be dead and it would seem like a regular heart attack, aside from two fairly healthy men experiencing it at the same time. Jubilee protests.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' episode "[[Recap/TheOwlHouseS3E2ForTheFuture For the Future]]", [[spoiler:Belos is haunted by the specter of his [[SiblingMurder murdered brother Caleb]] and the many Grimwalkers he's created from Caleb's remains. To drive the point home even further, Caleb perpetually has a bloodied dagger floating above his head. Belos denies his guilt, [[BlamingTheVictim blaming Caleb for his own death]], but his attempts to silence the ghosts only hasten his unstable body to weaken further.]]

* ''Literature/TheBookOfEve'': Brother Abramo is confronted by the ghosts of the people he has hurt throughout his life, causing him to confront his latent guilt.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': Invoked in "Poof, You're Dead". [[spoiler:Castle and Beckett set up an interrogation with Christian Dahl to find out if he murdered Zalman Drake. He brushes off the questions and threatens to lawyer up... until he sees a spooky apparition of Zalman in the mirror behind Castle and Beckett. He freaks out and accidentally confesses to the murder, allowing Beckett to arrest him. The apparition was actually Zalman's twin brother Edmund, appearing through the two-way mirror standard in police interrogation rooms.]]

** {{Inverted}} in "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS01E21TheQualityOfMercy The Quality of Mercy]]". Talia Winters reads the mind of a convicted SerialKiller scheduled for DeathOfPersonality (so that the court can be sure the mindwipe worked) and has a vision of all the killer's victims. Rather than appear haunted by them, the killer tells her to join the choir.
** {{Discussed}} in "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS02E03TheGeometryOfShadows The Geometry of Shadows]]" when Londo asks the technomage Elric to foretell his future. Elric says he sees Londo's hand reaching out from the sky, and thousands of voices calling his name from below.

** In the episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E74DeathsHeadRevisited Deaths-Head Revisited]]", an SS officer visits his old concentration camp, which has been turned into a museum, and he is led around by a former inmate, [[spoiler:until the officer realized he had killed the man back when the camp was operating. The victims of the war criminal pass judgement of insanity upon him]].
** In the episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E104TheThirtyFathomGrave The Thirty-Fathom Grave]]", a Navy ship discovers the wreck of a U.S. submarine from World War II. One of the sailors, who was the only survivor of the sub's sinking, is on the Navy vessel and has blamed himself for the disaster ever since. He begins to break down, swearing that he sees the ghosts of men who died on the sub, who are beckoning him to join him. [[spoiler:He's ultimately so overwhelmed that he throws himself into the ocean and drowns.]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

** ''Film/TheInvisible'' is essentially this trope played out from the perspective of the ghost. Nick is having an out of body experience while he's NotQuiteDead from Annie's beatdown of him. Once he realizes that she can hear him talking, he spends the rest of the movie haunting her so that she will find his body and rescue him.

[[folder:Literature]]

* ''ComicBook/LesInnommables'': Subverted with Colonel Lychee, who dreams of the Chinese people he had thrown alive into locomotive furnaces during WW2... with a big happy grin on his face.

** In ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar'', [[UsefulNotes/MarcusJuniusBrutus Brutus]] sees the ghost of Caesar, who he helped to kill, who ominously warns him of his fate in the upcoming battle.

** In ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar'', Brutus sees the ghost of Caesar, who he helped to kill, who ominously warns him of his fate in the upcoming battle.

* In the original unused concept for Ride/{{Disneyland}}'s ''Franchise/TheHauntedMansion'', the attraction would have featured a pirate named Captain Bartholomew Gore who murders his wife after she finds out about his bloody past. A show scene would have shown him in his bed being tormented by the ghosts of his past victims, including his wife, who he would try to shoot at with a pistol. The next show scene would have shown him DrivenToSuicide by the hauntings, hanging himself in the mansions' rafters.

* In the original unused concept for [[Ride/DisneyParks Disneyland's]] ''Franchise/TheHauntedMansion'', the attraction would have featured a pirate named Captain Bartholomew Gore who murders his wife after she finds out about his bloody past. A show scene would have shown him in his bed being tormented by the ghosts of his past victims, including his wife, who he would try to shoot at with a pistol. The next show scene would have shown him DrivenToSuicide by the hauntings, hanging himself in the mansions' rafters.

* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'':

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[[quoteright:275:[[ComicBook/{{Superman}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spmnghost.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:275:Superman is super guilty right now!]]

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-->'''Jubilee:''' You've killed people. You've killed so many, and...
-->'''Wolverine:''' Yeah. You wanna sit up some night and help me talk to all of 'em?
-->'''Jubilee:''' Oh. (Settles for a GroinAttack on both men.)

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* ''Fanfic/YesterdayUponTheStair'': Several ghosts that have been murdered often choose to hang around the murderer so they can see them get taken down. For example, Stain is haunted by all the pro-heroes he has killed, Muscular is haunted by the Water Hose duo, etc. This usually works to Izuku's advantage as he can use their advice to take them down. However, [[spoiler:it comes to bite him when one of the ghosts that haunts Overhaul still has UndyingLoyalty towards him even after he killed her, and is taking advantage of Izuku's assumption that she wants revenge to trick him.]]

* [[spoiler:Lucille]] from ''Film/CrimsonPeak'' is completely oblivious to the ghosts [[spoiler:of her past victims, mostly the wives of her brother Thomas and their mother]] that haunt Allerdale Hall, until the climax. [[spoiler:Lucille has just killed [[BrotherSisterIncest her brother/lover]] in a fit of jealous rage after he tried to stop Lucille from killing Edith, his latest wife. Lucille chases after Edith all over and then outside the mansion trying to kill the younger woman, but is briefly stunned when she sees her brother's ghost. That gives Edith the chance to win their fight and kill Lucille.]]

* In the original unused concept for [[Ride/DisneyParks Disneyland's]] Franchise/TheHauntedMansion, the attraction would have featured a pirate named Captain Bartholomew Gore who murders his wife after she finds out about his bloody past. A show scene would have shown him in his bed being tormented by the ghosts of his past victims, including his wife, who he would try to shoot at with a pistol. The next show scene would have shown him DrivenToSuicide by the hauntings, hanging himself in the mansions' rafters.

-->'''Rusty''': You came back from beyond just to tell me that I shouldn't feel bad and that I should keep training!
-->'''Ghost Cubone''': No! Give up! Go home! You were born to work in a deli!

Compare with ScrubbingOffTheTrauma and GuiltInducedNightmare, for other ways to show that a guilty character is troubled by what they've done. Also see HauntedHeroine for when it's the heroine of a story that's being haunted by her past and the uncanny events around her.

Compare with OutDamnedSpot and GuiltInducedNightmare, for other ways to show that a guilty character is troubled by what they've done. Also see HauntedHeroine for when it's the heroine of a story that's being haunted by her past and the uncanny events around her.