History Main / OldDarkHouse

* Agatha Christie's ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'' took place in a mansion on an island, and the boat wasn't coming back for several days. Notably, the house has the finest modern amenities available in the era. Vera Claythorne comments on it.

You know that old, foreboding house up on the top of the hill, surrounded by thick forests, and [[ClosedCircle accessible only by a single bridge that has a tendency to wash out during every rainstorm]]? The one where the ornate wrought iron fences are red with rust and creaking and the stonework is crumbling? Where the old servants behave oddly. Yeah, that one. Have you ever noticed that it always seems to attract eclectic groups of strangers who get invited for the reading of a will or a dinner party with a mysterious host? And why is it that the strangers keep [[TenLittleMurderVictims getting killed off, one by one]], during the night? It must be one of them doing it. But which?

** The eponymous "Bad Dream House", which the family moves into in the first segment from the [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E3TreehouseOfHorror first "Treehouse of Horror" episode]], is one of these. It turns out to be haunted by a malevolent spirit a la ''Literature/TheAmityvilleHorror''.
** This is played with on one episode where Homer's Aunt has passed away, and her will demands that the Simpson family must spend a night in an allegedly haunted house. Cut to the family entering the house, Homer declaring "There's no such thing as ghosts." The next morning, the family is well-rested, refreshed, having slept better and the water was better too.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' crowner: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/ImagePickin/ImageSuggestions40
%% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread.

* The show ''Series/{{Psych}}'' has an episode which is an homage to Old Dark House films in general and the movie Clue specifically, with guest appearances from several of the stars of Clue.

* ''VideoGame/{{Lucius}}'' plays this trope much like the Dark Brotherhood mission from Oblivion. You play a child of the devil who must kill everyone else in the house without arousing suspicion.
* The [[BigFancyHouse Verlac mansion]], in [[LovecraftCountry the title town]] of ''Videogame/{{Anchorhead}}'', has [[SecretPath hidden passageways]], [[SpookyPainting unsettling paintings]], windows painted shut, and a [[spoiler:[[MadwomanInTheAttic Madman in the Attic]]]].

* Episode 6 of ''VideoGame/MinecraftStoryMode'' will be this with several Minecraft [=YouTubers=] and the game's protagonists being the guests of "The White Pumpkin."
* Dark Manor in ''Videogame/KirbysEpicYarn'' though despite being haunted, the biggest challenge is simply navigating it due to the darkness, with the ghosts almost being {{helpful mook}}s, as they give off light, however minuscule. In an extra challenge where ''living'' "[[HarmlessVillain enemies]]" take residence in Dark Manor Kirby and Fluff become the monsters of a MookHorrorShow.
* The Roivas Mansion of ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'' is normally quite pleasant in its Gothic splendor, but it has a nasty tendency to attract agents of [[EldritchAbomination the Ancients]] to menace its occupants. [[spoiler:Mostly on account of being built over a massive subterranean city.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/RubyGloom'' is set in a house that's superficially one of these, but because everyone in the cast is a PerkyGoth, it's anything but spooky.

%% * The board game ''TabletopGame/{{Clue}}'' (aka ''Cluedo'') is a well known example.
%% * The game ''TabletopGame/KillDoctorLucky'', which is inspired by ''Clue'', also takes place in such a mansion.
* ''TabletopGame/BetrayalAtHouseOnTheHill'' takes place in one of these. Though you usually know who the bad guy is.

* In ''ComicBook/CourtneyCrumrinAndTheNightThings'', the Crumrin place is infamous as a haunted, sinister mansion. Turns out the neighbors are right, but it's not anything like they think it is.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

%% * Xanadu is often presented this way in ''Film/CitizenKane''.
%% * ''Film/{{Clue}}'' the movie took place inside such a mansion.

* ''Film/CountYorga'' moves into a creepy like manor at the start of both the films. The first one being on a hill outside the city, though it seems to be just for show as he spends most of his time in the lower sections where he has a makeshift throne room that his undead concubines kept and his coffin kept in a darken area around the house where he sleeps in the daylight hour. In the sequel, the manor isn't quite as big and looks like an everyday house. But the inside is fairly creepy with dark corridors, dusty rooms, cobwebs aplenty and no notable windows which of course is perfect for him and his growing female vampire horde. It likewise does have shutters he can control through button presses to trap his victims while he and his concubines use their powers to warp around the house to chase them. He likewise has a throne room in this one but a tad bigger and where the coffins of his concubines are kept (as opposed to just stone slabs in the first). As well as a quicksand pit in the back of the house to get rid of dead bodies he doesn't intend to revive.
* In ''Film/TheHazing'', the pledges have to survive the night at the Hack House, the location of a gruesome murder/suicide by Jeremiah Hackford sixty years earlier.
* In ''Film/TheManWhoChangedHisMind'', Dr. Laurience is conducting his research in a decaying, isolated manor house in the country. The local cabbie refuses to take Clare to the door; instead dropping her off some distance away from the house.

* Sarah Waters' ''The Little Stranger'' takes place in a decrepit, isolated old manor house in Warwickshire.
* Creator/HPLovecraft's short story "Literature/TheShunnedHouse". Downplayed in that looking from the outside it doesn't seem particularly ominous or special.
* The villains' hideout Owl's Dene in ''Five Get into Trouble'' from ''Literature/TheFamousFive'': a lonely old house on a hill, with no telephone, gas, running water or electricity, surrounded by a prison-like high wall with mechanical gates, and contains a secret room for hiding wanted criminals.
* The titular setting for the ''Literature/FightingFantasy'' Gamebook ''Literature/HouseOfHell'' is one of these.

* The titular manor in ''Literature/MurderAtColefaxManor'', fitting the trope even further by being set on cliffs above the sea.

* The mansion in "The Cold, Stark House", another work by Creator/KimNewman included in ''Literature/GenevieveUndead'', and basically ''The Old Dark House'' films relocated to the ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'' universe.
* Carfax Abbey in ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' serves as the 19th-century equivalent of Dracula's castle when he makes his way to London. He ''specifically'' bought it because it was dark and forboding despite Harker being confused why he would want a building that's so run down. Also, because it's big enough to hold his coffins of dirt and close to London to hunt for blood.

* The Gothic-Horror-with-tentacles novel ''Literature/TheCrows'' features a dark old house with a gruesome history that's initially an ominous ruin, restored by its new owner, and reveals itself as a SapientHouse as well as a HauntedHouse. It invades its owner's dreams to let her know that her feelings for it are mutual, and manifests an physical humanoid avatar as the result of a wish gone awry (BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor).
* In the ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' story "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches", Holmes gives his opinion that a manor house in the countryside can be infinitely more dangerous than any city street. In the city, aggrieved neighbors will soon report and spread the word about screams and violence. A villain on an isolated estate can act with total impunity, knowing that the nearest help for their victim is miles away.

* Carfax Abby in ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' serves as the 19th-century equivalent of Dracula's castle when he makes his way to London. He ''specifically'' bought it because it was dark and forboding despite Harker being confused why he would want a building that's so run down. Also, because it's big enough to hold his coffins of dirt and close to London to hunt for blood.

You know that old, foreboding house up on the top of the hill, surrounded by thick forests, and [[ClosedCircle accessible only by a single bridge that has a tendency to wash out during every rainstorm]]? Yeah, that one. Have you ever noticed that it always seems to attract eclectic groups of strangers who get invited for the reading of a will or a dinner party with a mysterious host? And why is it that the strangers keep [[TenLittleMurderVictims getting killed off, one by one]], during the night? It must be one of them doing it. But which?

* Dark Manor in ''Videogame/KirbysEpicYarn'' though despite being haunted, the biggest challenge is simply navigating it due to the darkness, with the ghosts almost being {{helpful mook}}s, as they give off light, however minuscule. In an extra challenge where ''living'' "[[HarmlessVillain enemies]]" take residence in DarkManor Kirby and Fluff become the monsters of a MookHorrorShow.

Expect many [[SecretPath passageways hidden]] [[BookcasePassage behind bookcases]], usually operated [[LuckBasedSearchTechnique by candlesticks]], [[PortraitPaintingPeephole portraits with removable eyes for spying]], and the ubiquitous [[DramaticThunder thunder and lightning]]. Almost inevitably, all methods of communication with the outside world will have [[ClosedCircle somehow ceased to function]], if they ever existed at all... especially [[CutPhoneLines telephones]]. (This was more plausible in the early 20th century, a.k.a. [[GenteelInterbellumSetting Agatha Christie Time]], when many old dwellings had not yet been fitted with telephones and service in general was commonly more apt to fail.) You can also expect the lights to go out several times during the night. (Usually [[LightsOffSomebodyDies when it's least convenient]].)

* The board game ''TabletopGame/{{Clue}}'' (aka ''Cluedo'') is a well known example.
* The game ''TabletopGame/KillDoctorLucky'', which is inspired by ''Clue'', also takes place in such a mansion.

* The titular ''House of Mystery'' and ''House of Secrets'' horror anthologies from Creator/DCComics, which later featured in ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989''.

* Xanadu is often presented this way in ''Film/CitizenKane''.
* ''Film/{{Clue}}'' the movie took place inside such a mansion.

* Black Elm in ''Literature/NinthHouse''

* ''[[Videogame/ChzoMythos 5 Days a Stranger]]'' takes place in one of these.

* The [[BigScrewedUpFamily Verlac]] [[BigFancyHouse mansion]], in [[LovecraftCountry the title]] [[TownWithADarkSecret town of]] ''Videogame/{{Anchorhead}}'', has [[SecretPath hidden passageways]], [[SpookyPainting unsettling]] [[PortraitPaintingPeephole paintings]], windows painted shut, and a [[spoiler:[[MadwomanInTheAttic Madman in the Attic]]]].

* ''VideoGame/NancyDrew'': The games often take place in one of these:
** Blackmoor Manor
** Thornton Hall

* The Shin-Ra Mansion in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' is unusual in that the hidden evil in it is not some creature, but records of experiments of [[MadScientist mad science]]. Sephiroth (a former test subject) goes mad from reading the records there, and emerges from the house as the BigBad of the game.

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/DraculaRulerOfTheNight'': As in the original story, Carfax Abby serves this role, though Dracula does try to make a bit more homely since in this rendition his brides eventually join him on his trip to London. When the hunters start to come after them following Lucy's turning. They [[spoiler: at the suggestion of Lucy's now turned mother, Minerva,]] raid the house of a socialite friend of the Westerna family, make her into a new bride who, after turning, willingly gives up the house and slowly turn her manor into this as well, least on the inside.
[[/folder]]

* Even though it takes place in a radio station during a live show, ''Film/TheRadiolandMurders'' plays this trope pretty well. The biggest difference is that only certain important people conected to the station are in danger, and not everyone in the building.

* In the ''Literature/SherlockHomes'' story "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches", Holmes gives his opinion that a manor house in the countryside can be infinitely more dangerous than any city street. In the city, aggrieved neighbors will soon report and spread the word about screams and violence. A villain on an isolated estate can act with total impunity, knowing that the nearest help for their victim is miles away.

May or may not be [[HauntedHouse haunted]] or have some curse or be hiding a DarkSecret, let alone owned by a [[SolitarySorceress solitary]] [[WizardsAndWitches magic user]]. If the mystery is set in Europe, this may be a [[HauntedCastle castle]] instead of a [[BigFancyHouse mansion]]. See also HauntedHouse and HauntedCastle, which usually ''are'' haunted. SymbolicGlassHouse is the inverse, but often has the same effect.

May or may not be [[HauntedHouse haunted]] or have some curse or be hiding a DarkSecret. If the mystery is set in Europe, this may be a [[HauntedCastle castle]] instead of a [[BigFancyHouse mansion]]. See also HauntedHouse and HauntedCastle, which usually ''are'' haunted. SymbolicGlassHouse is the inverse, but often has the same effect.

* The titular ''House of Mystery'' and ''House of Secrets'' horror anthologies from Creator/DCComics, which later featured in ''ComicBook/TheSandman''.

* Creator/KimNewman's ''Literature/SomethingMoreThanNight'' has an invoked example: Home House is a sinister mansion on a hill, riddled with [[SecretUndergroundPassage secret passages]] and [[PortraitPaintingPeephole portrait peepholes]] and the like -- but the house is only a few years old, and belongs to a movie mogul with an overdeveloped sense of the dramatic. It is the centre of a murder mystery, but the question of who dun it is resolved quickly and most of the story revolves around the more difficult questions of "What was he trying to achieve?" and "Given that [[ScrewTheRulesIveGotMoney he has the authorities in his pocket]], can we do anything about it?"

May or may not be [[HauntedHouse haunted]] or have some curse or be hiding a DarkSecret. If the mystery is set in Europe, this may be a [[HauntedCastle castle]] instead of a [[BigFancyHouse mansion]]. See also HauntedHouse and HauntedCastle, which usually ''are'' haunted. In this trope, while a haunting may be real, it is more likely that the mysterious poltergeist is an [[ScoobyDooHoax elaborate hoax]].