History Main / MonsterCloset

Primarily a FirstPersonShooter trope. It's mainly present in older first-person shooters as it's becoming largely [[DiscreditedTrope discredited]], due to better storytelling techniques or replacing it by offscreen or onscreen spawning. Some classic and throwback first-person shooters still play it straight.

Say you're a SpaceMarine in a completely normal space facility. You pass by an innocuous piece of wall, and then suddenly - ''[[DoomDoors SHOOM]]''! The wall opens behind you to reveal a 2-foot by 2-foot square completely empty except for a demonic space monster trying to burn the back of your head off.

Compare TeleportingKeycardSquad, MookMaker and ChestMonster. Not to be confused with ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight. [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Has nothing to do with]] being closeted.

Say you're a SpaceMarine in a completely normal space facility. You pass by an innocuous piece of wall, and then suddenly - ''[[DoomDoors SHOOM]]'' the wall opens behind you to reveal a 2-foot by 2-foot square completely empty except for a demonic space monster trying to burn the back of your head off.

** They did it with ''VideoGame/Doom3'', where it stretched believability to the breaking point. "They're breaking through the walls!" (radio transmission).

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' explains it by way of the monsters getting into unused drywalled-off corridors due to random teleporting. And at least one common enemy creature, the [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong headcrab]] is an ambuish predator that intentionally seeks out dark corners to lurk in. ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' played this up to near-SurvivalHorror levels of tension and creepiness in places.

** It can also lead to unintentional hilarity when a witch spawns in a closet. Open door, toss in molotov, close door, wait for the screaming to stop. Repeat as needed.

Primarily a FirstPersonShooter trope. It's mainly present in older first-person shooters as it's becoming largely [[DiscreditedTrope discredited]], due to better storytelling techniques or replacing it by offscreen or onscreen spawning.

* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' did it a lot. The TropeCodifier, along with TeleportingKeycardSquad. Often times rooms would be just a pedestal with an item on them, but taking the item opens up all the walls to reveal nasties. If you see a key or very good item, expect the baddies to pop out as soon as you get it.
** They did it with ''VideoGame/{{Doom 3}}'', where it stretched believability to the breaking point. "They're breaking through the walls!" (radio transmission)

* Before ''Doom 3'', the ''VideoGame/{{Descent}}'' series was the king of this trope. You could often find dozens of these in every single level. ''Descent'' also justifies the trope as the robots setting traps for you, and since they are, in fact, ''mining robots'', it makes sense that they could carve small rooms out of the walls of the level for this purpose.

** ''Machinima/FreemansMind'' points out that not only is this the reason the facility is falling apart, but that an alien could [[TeleFrag teleport into a person]]. [[ParanoiaFuel At any time.]]

* There are plenty of monster closets in the High Entia Tomb in ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}''. The "monsters" that jump you are ancient machines built to guard it. And there's a twist too, exactly one of them is more than just a closet: it's an actual secret passage that leads to a hidden area.

* ''VideoGame/DinoCrisis'': A raptor [[WallMaster leaps out of an electronics zone in the wall]] during the Underground lab segment. It's hard to see what it was doing there.