History Main / SuburbanGothic

* ''Film/DisappearanceAtCliftonHill'' is a FilmNoir set in Niagara Falls, Ontario, which explores the dissonance between NeonCity around the falls themselves with the rundown suburbs further out, where the main character manages a delapidated motel.

** In the [[Film/Halloween2018 2018 Continuity]], Michael Myer's second killing spree has a ripple-effect that slowly corrupts Haddonfield from the inside-out. In ''Film/HalloweenKills'', various citizens and survivors form a lynch mob to try and kill Michael themselves, resulting in an innocent mentally ill man who gets mistaken for Michael to fall to his death. In ''Film/HalloweenEnds'', various other crimes start to escalate caused by the kind of paranoia Michael brings out, people UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming Lauri Strode for "provoking" Michael and [[spoiler:a man responsible for a child's death in a genuine accident is provoked and harassed into madness, aspiring to become Michael's successor]].

[[caption-width-right:350:You never know what's lurking in the bushes.]]

A peaceful town, husbands kissing their wives goodbye in the morning on the front porch of their cookie-cutter homes, children laughing and riding their bikes down the street, a cop chatting with a barista at the local cafe. Nothing bad could ever happen here. And yet, something isn't quite what it seems.

*

* ''Film/{{Society}}'' is about a disaffected young man from a wealthy, suburban family becoming disillusioned with the affluent insularity of everyone around him, who begins to suspect that the rest of his family are engaging in VillainousIncest. The truth is [[BlobMonster much, much weirder]].

* ''Film/DisappearanceAtCliftonHill'' is a noir set in Niagara Falls, Ontario, which explores the dissonance between the neon-lit CityNoir of the the tourist district - particularly Clifton Hill itself - with the rundown suburbs further out.

* ''Film/GetOut2017'': In the opening scene, Andre lampshades this trope and says that he feels deeply uncomfortable in the suburbs, where everything looks identical and he can't figure out how to get home. He's then kidnapped off the white-picketed fenced lawns, which is also where Chris and Rose go for their supposedly peaceful vacation. [[spoiler:Only for Chris to learn that Rose and her family kidnap, brainwash, and torture black people as part of a cult obsessed with {{immortality}}.]] The movie exists largely to explore the subtle unease and sense of unwelcome a lot of black Americans feel in affluent white suburbs.

** In ''Film/Halloween3SeasonOfTheWitch'', the town of Santa Mira is a cross between this and a CompanyTown, an impeccably clean place where everyone works for the sinister local toy factory.

* ''Film/TrickRTreat'' takes place in the suburban town of Warren Valley, Ohio, which has many dark secrets to hide including a high school principle who is a SerialKiller, [[spoiler: a pack of werewolves]], and the ghosts of a group of disabled children whose parents arranged their murder.

** ''Series/HemlockGrove'': The series takes place in the fictional Pennsylvanian town of Hemlock Grove which is a mixture of working class people from the former steel factories and the wealthy Godfrey family who runs a biotech company. The towns darker secrets are revealed after a young girl is found brutally murdered which is being investigated by Peter Rumancek (a werewolf) and Roman Godfrey (a vampire/upir).

** ''Series/HemlockGrove''. The series takes place in the fictional Pennsylvanian town of Hemlock Grove which is a mixture of working class people from the former steel factories and the wealthy Godfrey family who runs a biotech company. The towns darker secrets are revealed after a young girl is found brutally murdered which is being investigated by Peter Rumancek (a werewolf) and Roman Godfrey (a vampire/upir).

* ''Series/StrangerThings'' focuses on a group of teenagers living in Hawkins, Indiana, where a number of destructive supernatural events stemming from research at a local laboratory begin to occur.
* ''Series/TwinPeaks'': The bulk of the series is set in mundane suburbs of a small Washington town (season 3 widens the scope to a few other cities, but still maintains a largely suburban setting), and all of them are a front for either criminal activity or the extradimensional horror from the Black Lodge.
* The secret occult horror lurking beneath America's small towns and suburbs is one of the main recurring themes of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''. (In fact, there's been a [[https://www.amazon.com/Gothic-Tradition-Supernatural-Essays-Television/dp/0786499761 whole book]] published about the show's relationship to the Gothic tradition.)

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Series/TheMunsters''. Everything written about the main characters of ''Series/TheAddamsFamily'' applies equally here, minus some of the finer details -- they are all (except for Marilyn) dead-ringers for [[Franchise/UniversalHorror classic Universal Studios horror monsters]], they own a fire-breathing dragon and a bat and a roaring cat as pets, they have a MadScientist grandfather who whips up all manner of weird potions, they drive a souped-up hearse around the neighborhood, and they often inadvertently frighten off visitors, among other things. Also, while the Addamses were portrayed as [[WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant WASP]] {{Blue Blood}}s, the Munsters are presented as a multigenerational [[{{Ruritania}} Eastern European]] immigrant family.

* ''Film/AssassinationNation'' uses the revelation of a sleepy suburban town ([[{{Anvilicious}} subtly named]] Salem's) dark secrets to explore mob mentality

* The ''Film/FearStreet'' trilogy focuses on the uneven relationship between the idyllic StepfordSuburbia of Sunnyvale and its squalid, lower-income sister community, Shadyside, and the ancient witch's curse at the heart of the inequality. The film film in particular, ''Fear Street: 1994'', emphasizes the small-town suburban setting.
* ''Film/FrightNight1985'' and its [[Film/FrightNight2011 2011 remake]] are about a teenage boy living in suburban Las Vegas who realizes that his nextdoor neighbor is a vampire.

* ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}''

** In [[AlternateContinuity one version]] of ''Halloween'' canon, Haddonfield is also home to a demonic cult.

* In ''Film/ItFollows'', the danger lies in a curse that's passed from one person to another by sex and is traveling invisibly between teenagers and young adults in suburban Detroit.

* ''Film/{{Vivarium}}'' is this trope crossed with SurrealHorror; the suburban development of Yonder is a very nice neighborhood, even if all the houses look the same. However, a couple is trapped inside when Yonder turns out to be built with AlienGeometry, impossible to escape from. No matter how far they drive, they keep returning to the same house, and begin going mad from the experience.

* Though not an American film, ''[[Film/{{Parasite2019}} Parasite]]'' has a suburbia-adjacent setting, lots of commentary on consumerism and the nuclear family, and a strong Gothic influence--particularly the part where [[spoiler: a man lives in a secret passage under the house, totally unbeknownst to the other residents]].

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Series/TheMunsters''. Like ''Series/TheAddamsFamily'', this suburban family is eccentric and ghoulish to a fault -- they are all (except for Marilyn) dead-ringers for classic Universal Studios horror monsters, they own a fire-breathing dragon and a bat and a roaring cat as pets, have a mad-scientist grandfather who whips up all manner of weird potions, drive a souped-up hearse around the neighborhood, and often inadvertently frighten off visitors, among other things -- but they're a loving, tightly-knit family and ultimately a good-hearted bunch.

Characteristic of this trope, like other American Gothic traditions, is that utopian ideals meet a dark reality. The pristine appearance conceals a deep rot, and neither can exist without the other. Suburban Gothic seeks to turn the American Dream upside down. An idyllic town where the [[CloseKnitCommunity neighbors are friendly]] and [[FreeRangeChildren children safely roam the streets]] that provides a hiding place from the outside world becomes a place where the protagonist is trapped and unhappy, where the neighbors have deadly secrets, the children are hunted, and [[FauxAffablyEvil the monsters]] are already inside the community. For every white picket fence, there's a dark basement or a crawl space.

* ''Film/GetOut2017'': In the opening scene, Andre lampshades this trope and says that he feels deeply uncomfortable in the suburbs, where everything looks identical and he can't figure out how to get home. He's then kidnapped off the white-picketed fenced lawns, which is also where Chris and Rose go for their supposedly peaceful vacation. [[spoiler:Only for Chris to learn that Rose and her family kidnap, brainwash, and torture black people as part of a cult obsessed with {{immortality}}.]]

* Another early example in the 1955 horror [[FilmNoir noir]] ''Film/NightOfTheHunter''. Creator/RobertMitchum plays a folksy preacher who insinuates himself into a small-town community in Depression-era West Virginia, but, unbeknownst to his neighbours and his new wife, is a SerialKiller.

** Its SpritualSequel, ''Film/{{Krampus}}'', tightens the focus from the entire community to a single extended family celebrating Christmas in an unnamed American suburb, but their underlying resentments and divisions of politics and social class summon the [[TheKrampus eponymous spirit of vengeance]]. From what we see of the rest of the neighbourhood, they are not the only ones around who have attracted his attention.

Often overlaps with MundaneHorror. Compare also to SouthernGothic, another subgenre in the American Gothic tradition, and LovecraftCountry. However, unlike those tropes, Suburban Gothic is not regionally defined, and the fact that the suburbs are so interchangeable through the country arguably adds to the creepiness. Films that take place in StepfordSuburbia can be this trope, but unlike Stepford Suburbia, Suburban Gothic media does not ''require'' the town to be so perfect it's creepy.