History Main / UncannyVillage

* Sandford from ''Film/HotFuzz'' is a textbook example of this setting. A mostly peaceful and bucolic village in the English countryside where [[TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch people have a tendency to die in suspicious "accidents"]]. Nick Angel thinks there's some kind of real estate scheme going on, but the truth is weirder and somehow worse: [[spoiler: the Neighborhood Watch Alliance is desperate to make sure Sandford becomes Village of the Year again, and everyone who died was killed ''for making the town look bad''.]]

* The ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' episode "Countrycide" explores a nice-looking country village, where the villagers have a decennial event in which they [[ImAHumanitarian eat whoever passes through]].

* Manga/{{Soil}} New Town: It's so picture-perfect you just know something bad's happening. Compared with the [[spoiler: possible alternate dimension shenanigans ripping apart the whole world]] the AdultFear[=s=] [[spoiler: like a pedophile dentist raping all the boys for about a decade while keeping the whole town under surveillance with hidden cameras]] are much worse [[spoiler: fortunately he gets his; unfortunately his favorite victim's the one who wants to destroy the world]].

%% Zero context examples and poorly written examples have been commented out. If you want to re-add an example please provide context that explains how the trope is used in this work.

%%* An episode of ''Series/TheAvengers'' called "Murdersville".

* Omelas from ''Literature/TheOnesWhoWalkAwayFromOmelas''. It's a Utopia, but its happiness depends upon [[PoweredByAForsakenChild the eternal suffering of a child.]]

A beautiful, seemingly utopian community which is [[BrokenMasquerade not what it seems.]] Often either under control of a morally questionable conspiracy or demented super computer, or protected by a DealWithTheDevil. May even be an entire ''town'' of {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s.

* Manga/{{Soil}} New Town: It's so picture-perfect you just know something bad's happening. Compared with the [[spoiler: possible alternate dimension shenanigans ripping apart the whole world]] the AdultFear[=s=] [[spoiler: like a pedophile dentist raping all the boys for about a decade while keeping the whole town under survailence with hidden cameras]] are much worse [[spoiler: fortunately he gets his; unfortunately his favorite victim's the one who wants to destroy the world]].
* Several are encountered in ''LightNovel/KinosJourney''. Probably the most notable one is Kino's own home country, which seems like as happy as a place can be, [[spoiler:but it's because every child on the cusp of adulthood is given a lobotomy, which prevents them from feeling unhappiness, no matter what. And children who question the procedure get summarily killed by their parents, who can't help but feel happy about the whole thing.]]

* Sandford from ''Film/HotFuzz'' is a textbook example of this setting. A mostly peaceful and bucolic village in the English countryside where [[TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch people have a tendency to die in suspicious "accidents"]]. Nick Angel thinks there's some kind of real estate scheme going on, but the truth is weirder, and somehow worse: [[spoiler: the Neighborhood Watch Alliance is desperate to make sure Sandford becomes Village of the Year again, and everyone who died was killed ''for making the town look bad''.]]

* Creator/MNightShyamalan's ''Film/TheVillage''-the [[Administrivia/RenamedTropes former]] TropeNamer-looks like an idyllic 19th century village but its surrounded dense forest is inhabited by nameless, unseen beings that seems to be holding the inhabitants captive.

* Omelas from ''Literature/TheOnesWhoWalkAwayFromOmelas''. Its an Utopia, but its happiness depends upon [[PoweredByAForsakenChild the eternal suffering of a child.]]

* ''Series/NecessaryRoughness'' season 3 has V3, a sports agency, that treats its clients and employees like family and nurtures young athletes till they are able to go pro and become millionaires. However, from the beginning we know that the agency has a dark secret that it has spent considerable time and money covering up. One executive killed himself rather than have his family find out about what he did. Then there is the sports medicine clinic that offers miraculous 'experimental' treatments.

* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', the Winchester brothers visit one or two of these. In "[[Recap/SupernaturalS01E11Scarecrow Scarecrow]]" they encountered a town which makes yearly sacrifices to some evil spirit of one man and woman, and a couple conveniently lost in the road is their target. The brothers intervene, and the spirit instead takes a local couple as his tribute.

* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'', Mystic Falls. May also count as a TownWithADarkSecret. The vampires, witches and werewolves are one thing but the level of civic pride shown by the good folk of Mystic Falls just screams weird.

* The title town of ''Podcast/KingFallsAM'' is a town plagued by government conspiracies, various eldritch horrors, rainbow lights, Jack in the box Jesus, zombies, weird late night callers, and even the ghost of Helen Keller.

* ''VideoGame/AlanWake'': Bright Falls, WA, with the twist being that [[spoiler:most of it's denizens are hopelessly unaware of the ongoing horror because it is technically captured inside a Creator/StephenKing-esque horror plot itself, implemented by said dark forces with the help of the human protagonist. In other words, it was literally ''written'' to be this trope]].

* In ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'', the Morninglight seems to create these kinds of communities wherever it sets up shop, from the peaceful hippy camp that just so happens to be [[EvilSorcerer Freddy Beaumont]]'s base of operations, to the kindly youth support center that's actually doubling as a training ground for suicide bombers. However, the biggest and most obvious example of this takes the form of "The Clubhouse," an underground club for young Morninglight prodigies: along with all the luxurious amenities offered to new recruits, it lacks the soul-crushing indoctrination used in other centers, and by all accounts it was a pretty fun place [[spoiler: before the Filth outbreak]]. However, those who eventually prove themselves to the Morninglight leadership are granted access to the temple - and initiation into the deepest secrets of the cult.

* Sunny Town from ''VideoGame/StoryOfTheBlanks''. It seems like a happy little village of ponies, until Apple Bloom [[spoiler:finds the remains of a dead body in a fireplace.]] ''Then'' [[MoodWhiplash things take a turn for the terrifying]].

* The small town of Warrick, in ''Literature/{{Twig}}'', is not-so-secretly the private playground of the [[TheCaligula Baron Richmond]]. The entire population is composed of convicts or vagrants who were offered a chance at a life of relative luxury in exchange for signing over their lives to him, and is organized as a parody of normalcy with every person paired off with another, and each couple watched over by an engineered monstrosity created from their firstborn children which follows them everywhere. The town lives in constant fear, and that's ''before'' the Baron decides to pick out some people for stress relief...

* The township of Dimmadome Acres set up in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'' by resident CorruptCorporateExecutive Doug Dimmadome[[note]][[RunningGag Owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome!]][[/note]]. It appears to be a nice, clean suburb, but it's soon revealed that if you haven't drank Doug's mind-controlling milk yet, [[TheAssimilator the hive-minded residents are going to make sure it doesn't stay that way]].

A beautiful, seemingly utopian community which is [[BrokenMasquerade not what it seems.]] Often either under control of a morally questionable conspiracy or demented super computer, or protected by a DealWithTheDevil. May even be an entire ''town'' of {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s.[[note]] which is a little more TruthInTelevision than one would like to think. Religion is usually the reason for these places, whether in real life or in fiction.[[/note]]

A beautiful, seemingly utopian community which is [[BrokenMasquerade not what it seems.]] Often either under control of a morally questionable conspiracy or demented super computer, or protected by a DealWithTheDevil. May even be an entire ''town'' of {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

!!Examples

* Can you say [[VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry Hinamizawa]]? A gorgeous little Japanese town in the country where everyone knows everyone's name [[BlatantLies can't possibly be bad]].

[[folder:Film]]
* Creator/MNightShyamalan's ''Film/TheVillage''-the [[Administrivia/RenamedTropes former]] TropeNamer-looks like an idyllic 19th century village but is its surrounded dense forest inhabited by nameless, unseen beings that seems to be holding the inhabitants captive.

* Played with in ''Film/BigFish''. There's nothing really wrong with the town of Spectre, it appears to be just as nice as everyone says it is, but until the protagonist leaves, you can't shake the feeling that something's off...

* ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' has The Village, the former trope namer, a sunny seaside resort with quaint and charming architecture inhabited by people with numbers instead of names who are under the strict control of 'Number Two' enforced by eerie white orbs. And nobody leaves without its masters willing it, ever.
* The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' had a number of episodes featuring Uncanny Villages: "The Return of the Archons" gave us a peaceful low tech society of mindlessly smiling people policed by creepy hooded figures. "The Apple" and "This Side of Paradise" are set on literally Edenic worlds with carefree populations living lives of prelapsarian happiness. "Errand of Mercy" gives us such a society under threat from the Klingons and refusing to raise a hand in their own defense. ''Franchise/StarTrek'' had a thing for this trope and the {{Aesop}} Utopia ain't possible.
* ''Series/TheInvisibleMan'' TV series had an episode set in "The Community", a village for secret agents who blew their cover.

* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'', Mystic Falls. May also count as a TownWithADarkSecret. The vampires, witches and werewolves are one thing but the level of civic pride shown by the good folk of Mystic Falls just screams weird.
* ''Series/TheXFiles'', "Arcadia": The Falls at Arcadia is a beautiful, peaceful planned community with a sinister secret. The peace is controlled by Home Owner Association, represented mainly by President Gene Gogolak. They have strict rules and regulations about everything and observing them is enforced by a killing monster. Most of the inhabitants know, but new-comers are not as lucky.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'' had an episode "Revisions" featuring a town under a dome on an otherwise uninhabitable planet so bucolically pretty and perfect that viewers knew at once the Team was in deep trouble. [=SG1=] soon notices that villagers are not just disappearing but but being written out of the memories of their friends and families, better still the area of the dome is shrinking...

* The ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' episode "Countrycide" explores a nice-looking country village, where the villagers have a decennnial event in which they [[ImAHumanitarian eat whoever passes through]].
%%* ''Series/AmericanGothic1995'' situates in such a town, with their very own devil acting as the sheriff.
* The walker-free fortified town of Woodbury in ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' seems like the safe haven the ''survivors'' have been dreaming of, but it's really not. Its leader is a murderous, paranoid, and authoritarian man that eliminates all outsiders to take their belongings.
** Likweise, "Terminus", which publicizes itself as a "sanctuary for all", including open gates and welcoming newcomers with barbecue and no questions asked. Turns out [[spoiler:the place is a community of cannibals that either locks up newcomers to serve as cattle or feeds them human flesh and then reveals the truth, giving them the choice of JoinOrDie.]]
* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Storybrooke, Maine. Quaint little town, only needs one or two cops to keep the peace...ruled with an iron fist between [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Snow White's stepmother]] and [[MagnificentBastard Rumplestitskin]].
* ''Series/NecessaryRoughness'' season 3 has V3, a sports agency, that treats its clients and employees like family and nurtures young athletes till they are able to go pro and become millionaires. However, from the beginning we know that the agency has a dark secret that it has spent considerable time and money covering up. One executive killed himself rather than have his family find out about what he did. Then there is the sports medicine clinic that offers miraculous 'experimental' treatments.
* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', the Winchester brothers visit one or two of these. In "[[Recap/SupernaturalS01E11Scarecrow Scarecrow]]" they encountered a town which makes yearly sacrifices to some evil spirit of one man and woman, and a couple conveniently lost in the road is their target. The brothers intervene, and the spirit instead takes a local couple as his tribute.

* The title town of ''Podcast/KingFallsAM'' is a town plagued by government conspiracies, various eldritch horrors, rainbow lights, Jack in the box Jesus, zombies, weird late night callers, and even the ghost of Helen Keller.

%%[[folder:Podcasts]]
%%* Podcast/DiceFunk: Rotswald is so nice that the players are immediately and violently suspicious.
%%[[/folder]]

* The second half of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes" centers on The Island, an AffectionateParody of The Village from ''Series/ThePrisoner''.
* Ba Sing Se from ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' is an uncanny ''metropolis'', outwardly safe and cosmopolitan but actually segregated and Orwellian.

* In the final ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' novel, we have "Blue Heaven." This is an idyllic 1950s-style college town, with some (justified) anachronisms (such as holographic sex partners and [=DVDs=], though they aren't called so by name) with lovely houses, up-to-date entertainment, the best food. Oh, and it's surrounded by layers of electrified barbed wire (the outermost kills), the borders are patrolled by armed guards, all the sunlight is artificial, the town is set in an AfterTheEnd wasteland and the [[spoiler:telepathic, Beam-braking]] inhabitants are happily working on bringing about the end of all of creation.

* ''Series/ThePrisoner'' has The Village, the former trope namer, a sunny seaside resort with quaint and charming architecture inhabited by people with numbers instead of names who are under the strict control of 'Number Two' enforced by eerie white orbs. And nobody leaves without its masters willing it, ever.

%%* ''Series/AmericanGothic1995'' situates in such a town, with their very own devil acting as the sherif.

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' had a number of episodes featuring Uncanny Villages: "The Return of the Archons" gave us a peaceful low tech society of mindlessly smiling people policed by creepy hooded figures. "The Apple" and "This Side of Paradise" are set on literally Edenic worlds with carefree populations living lives of prelasparian happiness. "Errand of Mercy" gives us such a society under threat from the Klingons and refusing to raise a hand in their own defense. ''Franchise/StarTrek'' had a thing for this trope and the {{Aesop}} Utopia ain't possible.

->"Ooh, swimming! Ooh, golf! Ooh, waving people! Ooh, creepy smiles!"

[[folder:Podcasts]]
* The title town of ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'' is a friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead as they all pretend to sleep.
* The title town of ''Podcast/KingFallsAM'' is a town plagued by government conspiracies, various eldritch horrors, rainbow lights, Jack in the box Jesus, zombies, weird late night callers, and even the ghost of Helen Keller.
[[/folder]]

* the town of Night Vale, in the podcast Welcome To Night Vale,[[Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale]] is a friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead as they all pretend to sleep.

* King Falls, from King Falls AM[[Podcast/KingFallsAM]], is a town plagued by government conspiracies, various eldritch horrors, rainbow lights, Jack in the box Jesus, zombies, weird late night callers, and even the ghost of Helen Keller.

%%* In ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'', it is said that Kingsmouth was this before the draug/zombie attack. Looking like a peaceful little coast town, with lots of creepy stuff going on behind the scenes.

* King falls, from King Falls AM[[Podcast/KingFallsAM]], is a town plagued by government conspiracies, various eldritch horrors, rainbow lights, Jack in the box Jesus, zombies, weird late night callers, and even the ghost of Helen Keller.

* the town of [[Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale]] a friendly desert community were the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead as they all pretend to sleep.

* ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' has several examples. Roppongi in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiI'' and the whole of East Mikado in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'' are good examples. [[spoiler:The first is actually populated exclusively by undead, two demon kings and an even crazier UndeadChild, and the latter seems like a near-fairytale kingdom set in GhibliHills, except it's a brutally racist citadel following an inflexible caste system, and demons just a few doors away.]]
* ''VideoGame/NelsonTethersPuzzleAgent'', the people in Scoggins are part of a brotherhood that worships the "Hidden People" (gnomes), [[spoiler: they allow them to take people, because they were chosen by them to help them get home.]]

%%** Likewise for its sequel, ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}''. Some places in the game don't even start out as this, but over the course of the game become uncanny villages due to [[spoiler: Porky's influence]].

%%* [[spoiler: Haven]] from ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins''.

* ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheCuriousVillage'' has the eponymous curious village of St. Mystere. The reason the villagers are so strange is [[spoiler: they're actually RidiculouslyHumanRobots, built to watch over Flora and her inheritance.]]
* Sunny Town from ''VideoGame/StoryOfTheBlanks''. It seems like a happy little village of ponies, until Apple Bloom [[spoiler: finds the remains of a dead body in a fireplace.]] ''Then'' [[MoodWhiplash things take a turn for the terrifying]].

* [[Series/OnceUponATime Storybrooke, Maine.]] Quaint little town, only needs one or two cops to keep the peace...ruled with an iron fist between [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Snow White's stepmother]] and [[MagnificentBastard Rumplestitskin]].

%%* ''AmericanGothic'' situates in such a town, with their very own devil acting as the sherif.

* Harfang from ''TheChroniclesOfNarnia''. Seems like a beautiful, luxurious city, until you find out that [[spoiler: the [[SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom so-called]] [[GentleGiant Gentle Giants]] will [[ToServeMan eat any creature that isn't a giant]], including their guests.]]