History Literature / DownADarkHall

* SchoolForScheming: The exclusive school Blackwood (it's really ''really'' exclusive, it only has four students counting the main character) is really for the purpose of collecting kids with ESP so dead writers, artists, composers, scientists, and mathematicians can use them as vehicles to produce all the things they didn't get to when they were alive. This would be all fine and dandy -- in fact, Ruth, the most intelligent of the girls, [[WillingChanneler doesn't mind being used to write down mathematical theories]] -- except that not only can people like Emily Bronte and Vermeer get through, but so can anyone else. Sandy ends up transcribing a terribly vulgar poem in French, and let's not even get into what Lynda paints. Also, Blackwood is not the first school Madame Duret opened; there was one in France and one in England. Of all the students at those schools, ''four killed themselves and the rest are mental hospitals''. Madame Duret ''keeps trying anyway''.

The story is as follows. Sixteen year old Katherine 'Kit' Gordy is sent to Blackwood Hall boarding school so her mum and stepdad can go on honeymoon in Europe. Although she finds it creepy Kit has to admit the rooms are luxurious, the food is good and the teachers led by the glamorous Madame Duret are intelligent. Unfortunately Madame Duret is using the four girls who make up the student body as vessels to let the spirits of long dead writers, artists, scientists and musicians continue their work. Kit and her friend Sandy are horrified but Ruth who is a genius is excited by the maths and science she finds herself doing while possessed.

* DumbBlonde: Lynda is portrayed as version of this given among the four students she is the clear least intelligent.

* ScienceIsBad: Madame Duret and Professor Farley see the girls as expendable subjects in important research. Also Ruth is happy to be used by the dead to make scientific breakthroughs until she finds out what's going to happen to her.
* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: If Kit and Sandy can't escape by Christmas the ghosts will be able to use them anywhere and not just at Blackwood. Even if Kit goes home she'll still be driven mad by the dead.

* DoingItForTheArt: What Madame Duret claims as her motive in-universe, the simple desire to allow the great artists and thinkers of the past a chance to complete their life's work. However, it's hard not to notice that Madame Duret is [[MoneyDearBoy making a fortune selling the works of her students as "lost masterpieces."]]

A [[Film/DownADarkHall film adaptation]] is set for release in 2018.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Creator/EmilyBronte, Franz Schubert and painter Thomas Cole are tthree real life figures whose ghosts play a part in the plot. One work however is indirectly implied to have been written by Creator/MarquisDeSade.

* ChekovsGunman: Kit sees her father's spirit on the night he died when she was younger. His spirit is able to reach out to her at the end to help her escape Blackwood's fire with her life.

* BoardingSchoolOfHorrors

* INeverGotAnyLetters: Kit is puzzled when her mother and her best friend Tracy both act like she's never bothered to send them any letters when she's been writing both of them frequently. It turns out that Madam Duret has been suppressing almost all the letters the students have written.

The story is as follows. Sixteen year old Kathryn 'Kit' Gordy is sent to Blackwood Hall boarding school so her mum and stepdad can go on honeymoon in Europe. Although she finds it creepy Kit has to admit the rooms are luxurious, the food is good and the teachers led by the glamorous Madame Duret are intelligent. Unfortunately Madame Duret is using the four girls who make up the student body as vessels to let the spirits of long dead writers, artists, scientists and musicians continue their work. Kit and her friend Sandy are horrified but Ruth who is a genius is excited by the maths and science she finds herself doing while possessed.

Unfortunately being a medium comes at something of a personal price and when Kit and her teacher Jules (Madame Duret's son) find out what this is they vow to escape.....

''Down a Dark Hall'' is a young adult novel by Lois Duncan. Originally published in 1974, it has now been updated for 2011 with some extra lines thrown in about why our intrepid heroine doesn't just use her mobile phone or the internet to summon help.

'''Down a Dark Hall''' is a young adult novel by Lois Duncan. Originally published in 1974, it has now been updated for 2011 with some extra lines thrown in about why our intrepid heroine doesn't just use her mobile phone or the internet to summon help.

* DoingItForTheArt: What Madame Duret claims as her motive, the simple desire to allow the great artists and thinkers of the past a chance to complete their life's work. However, it's hard not to notice that Madame Duret is [[MoneyDearBoy making a fortune selling the works of her students as "lost masterpieces."]]

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* FridgeLogic: The 2011 rewrite establishes that Kit can't get a mobile phone signal in Blackwood Hall itself. This doesn't explain why she doesn't take the phone with her outside and walk until she does get a signal.
** Presumably because she's locked in the grounds, the same reason she didn't just walk down to the village and use a payphone in the original.

* ParentalAbandonment: Sandy is an orphan and Kit has both lost her Dad and feels abandoned by her Mother and Dan. Ruth's and Linda's parents are alive but don't even bother to escort their kids to school on the first day.

Down a Dark Hall is a young adult novel by Lois Duncan. Originally published in 1974, it has now been updated for 2011 with some extra lines thrown in about why our intrepid heroine doesn't just use her mobile phone or the internet to summon help.

* DoingItForTheArt: What Madame Duret claims as her motive, the simple desire to allow the great artists and thinkers of the past a chance to complete their life's work. However, it's hard not to notice that Madame Duret is [[MoneyDearBoy is making a fortune selling the works of her students as "lost masterpieces."]]

** Presumably because she's locked in the grounds, the same reason she didn't just walk down to the village and use a payphone in the original.

* FridgeLogic The 2011 rewrite establishes that Kit can't get a mobile phone signal in Blackwood Hall itself. This doesn't explain why she doesn't take the phone with her outside and walk until she does get a signal.
* ParentalAbandonment Sandy is an orphan and Kit has both lost her Dad and feels abandoned by her Mother and Dan.
* ScienceIsBad Madame Duret and Professor Farley see the girls as expendable subjects in important research. Also Ruth is happy to be used by the dead to make scientific breakthroughs until she finds out what's going to happen to her.
* StrangerInAFamiliarLand If Kit and Sandy can't escape by Christmas the ghosts will be able to use them anywhere and not just at Blackwood. Even if Kit goes home she'll still be driven mad by the dead.

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