Abandoned Hospital: Difference between revisions

[[File:creepy hospital.jpg|frame| The doctor will see you now...]]

 

 

The creepy abandoned hospital/[[Bedlam House|mental institution]] is a common setting in horror. Dirty tiles, broken cabinets, corpses in bloodstained lab coats/nurse uniforms, and rusted metal bed frames are all common themes. Other themes include [[Cold-Blooded Torture|grisly]] [[Mad Scientist|medical]] [[Playing with Syringes|experiments]] and [[Body Horror|deformed, inhuman monsters]] shambling about, as well as using medical equipment as [[Torture Cellar|torture devices]].

** Not split. Split Personality is the translation of Schizophrenia, which is when you suffer auditory or other sensory hallucinations. The patient and {{spoiler|Gordon}} have Disassociative Identity Disorder.

** Actually, the film is ambiguous on the nature of Simon. Whether he is a {{spoiler|a demonic entity}} or something more mundane is open to interpretation.

*** And just in case things weren't creepy enough—you know what else happened in Danvers when it had [[wikipedia:Salem witch trials|another name?]]

* The 1999 remake of ''[[House on Haunted Hill]]'' is set in an abandoned mental institution. (The original merely took place in a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed haunted house.)

** Played for laughs in one episode. Budget cuts forced the hospital administators to close a wing of Sacred Heart until they had the funds to open it up again. Turk and J.D. go surfing on gurneys in the emptied section of the hospital.

** At least once, people seeking medical treatment have entered the hospital which serves as the set.

* T.A.P.S., of ''[[Ghost Hunters]]'' fame, have visited a couple of these.

** So have the guys on ''[[Ghost Adventures]]''. As a rule, if great numbers of people have died there (somewhat inevitable with a hospital), there's gonna be some kind of haunting and paranormal investigators will come to check the place out.

 

 

* In Fuji-Q Highland, Japan, there is a [http://www.fujiq.jp/attraction/senritsu.html massive haunted attraction] based on this trope.

 

== Video Games ==

 

 

* In the second chapter of ''[[G Senjou no Maou]]'', Maou hides in an abandoned hospital, along with {{spoiler|the kidnapped Hiroaki}}. Haru and Kyousuke manage to locate the hospital, but not before {{spoiler|Hiroaki is safely returned to Tsubaki's family}}.

 

== Web Original ==

* The [https://web.archive.org/web/20130531020110/http://www.forgottenoh.com/LimaTB/limatb.html Lima Tuberculosis Hospital] in (oddly enough) Lima, Ohio. Pretty darn creepy.

* The Chicago State Hospital, now known as the Chicago-Read Mental Health Center in the community of Dunning on the Northwest Side. An insane asylum, sanitarium, and poor village was built there back in the 1860's and it eventually changed hands to the city. Many were taken there, to the point where it got horribly overcrowded in the 1910's. Eventually sections got closed down, including a small school and one of the hospitals, a rather big facility. Both of them lay abandoned for years, but the big hospital was eventually torn down for condos a few years back.

* According to the [[Nothing Is Scarier|rather eerie]] book ''Ghostly Ruins'', which features photographs of various places around America which have fallen into disrepair, the [[wikipedia:Danvers State Hospital|Danvers State Mental Hospital]] in Danvers, Massachusetts falls squarely into this category. Danvers was once named Salem (yes, [[Witch Hunt|that Salem]]), and changed its name due to the associated trauma, and the hospital itself was constructed on the site where one of the fanatical judges had lived. As the book puts it, "The Danvers State Hospital may have the worst bad karma of any abandoned site in the country." This is in fact the hospital on which Lovecraft based Arkham. It was a model facility when constructed, but eventually succumbed to abuse, overcrowding, and disrepair; when it closed in 1990, it held 2000 inmates (and was meant to hold only 200). What makes things even more fun is, after the hospital was torn down in 2006 and an apartment complex was built, there was a mysterious fire that destroyed a large portion of the construction...one which is apparently still unexplained. Cue [[Scare Chord]].

** And to [[Up to Eleven|worsen the karma even more]], it seems it was pretty much the birthplace of the lobotomy as we know it.

* One which is far creepier in reality than any fictional Hospital is in the island of Guernsey, and yes it is ''in'' as in built underground. Constructed by [[Those Wacky Nazis]] in [[WW 2]] during the island's occupation it was used as hospital, mortuary, ''ammunition store'', and * [[Ghostapo|research centre]]* on Slavic Labourers. See a video of it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Acd-IuMRL8 here].

* An abandoned hospital figures in the [[wikipedia:Goiânia accident|Goiânia accident]], one of the worst nuclear radiation leaks in history.

* The [[wikipedia:Glenn Dale Hospital|Glenn Dale Hospital]] in Maryland was not a place that people visited to get better. As a sanitarium for tuberculosis, anyone who wound up here could only hope to die in the most dignified way possible. And yes, there is a children's compound. Features of note include the incinerator, refridgerated morgues, the flooded underground hallways, and the elevator shaft that "breathed". The sad thing is that it really was a beautiful place in its prime, and probably could be again if any restoration were put into it. Budget shortfalls and copious amounts of lead paint make this unlikely, however.

* Due to a combination of budget cuts and a report about the absolutely deplorable conditions by Geraldo Rivera, The Willowbrook State School was closed in 1987 and the patients were turned out on their own. Shortly after this it was discovered that several people were living in the tunnels under the facility. It was speculated that the residents might be former patients. Short after that, the body of a recently missing girl was found in a shallow grave on the property...

* Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, New Jersey's state mental hospital since 1876, has persistently been overcrowded and required new construction. Older buildings have not all been demolished, giving the entire campus something of a creepy atmosphere-especially considering some of the abuse scandals that took place in those buildings...

* Charity Hospital in New Orleans was somewhat rundown before Hurricane Katrina. Afterwards...

 

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