History Literature / TedsCavingPage

An [[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2100573/ indie film based on the original story]] was released in 2013.

* NoEnding: [[spoiler:The final entry is Ted saying that he, Joe, and B plan to return to the cave that day and he'll update the blog either that night or the next day with information on what they discovered. Suffice it to say, he never does get around to updating it.]]

* DaylightHorror: Technically. Most of Ted's expeditions into the cave take place at daytime, although the darkness of the cave doesn't help things one bit. [[spoiler:{{Subverted|Trope}} when Ted and B are being chased out of the cave by the creature, which takes place at night because the two lost track of time in the cave.]]

* DaylightHorror: Technically. Most of Ted's expeditions into the cave take place at daytime, although the darkness of the cave doesn't help things one bit. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] when Ted and B are being chased out of the cave by the creature, which takes place at night because the two lost track of time in the cave.]]
* DrivenToMadness: [[spoiler: Those who encounter whatever resides in the cave and manage to escape alive inevitably become deeply disturbed by the experience. They withdraw themselves from friends and family, begin suffering from horrific and vivid nightmares, and start to hallucinate.]]

* GeniusLoci: [[spoiler: Maybe. It's not entirely sure if things in the cave are moving ''on their own'' or if it's the result of the creature in the cave.]]

* ItCanThink: The thing that freaks the protagonist out the most is that [[spoiler:''whatever'' the creature is is smart enough to try and break the rope they were escaping out with by pulling it back into the cave and was ''also'' smart enough to cut the phone cord the two were using to communicate with each other.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:By trying to break open and explore the passage of cave that (supposedly) hasn't been explored yet, the protagonists have allowed ''whatever'' was trapped in there to escape...]]

* UltimateEvil: It's obvious that there's ''something'' down there that doesn't want to be disturbed, but what it is, we never find out. Ted briefly mentions an old myth regarding [[FearsomeCrittersOfAmericanFolklore the Hodag]], a creature that dwells in caves, but nothing much comes of that.

* EldritchAbomination: Whatever is in the cave.

* HandInTheHole: How the whole thing starts.

* CosmicHorrorStory: Hinted at.
* CrazyPrepared: Of course, Ted and his buddies are spelunkers; this comes with the territory.

* BeingWatched: Frequently [[spoiler: whenever someone climbs through the hole into the unexplored part of the cave. Whatever is in there is implied to keep a vigilant eye on the group...]]

* BolivianArmyEnding: [[spoiler: Ted's final journey mentions that himself, B, and Joe are returning to the cave so they can confront whatever it is lives there. Because there are no further journal entries, it's implied that none of them ever returned.]]
* CatchPhrase: ''"I was pumped!"''. He also seems fond of calling things "bizarre".
* ChekhovsGun: The glow sticks. Toward the beginning, Ted even mentions that [[spoiler: it would be possible but very difficult to find one's way out of a cave using them and no other light sources]].

* DaylightHorror: Technically. Most of Ted's expeditions into the cave take place at daytime, although the darkness of the cave doesn't help things one bit. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] when Ted and B are being chased out of the cave by the creature, which takes place at night because the two lost track of time in the cave.]]

* DugTooDeep: [[spoiler: Implied to be the case with the miners originally, then becomes the case when Ted and B break through the wall that has... ''Whatever'' the creature in there is.]]

* EvilSmellsBad: [[spoiler: When Ted is fleeing from the creature in the cave during the story's climax, he describes smelling a horrible, putrid, rotting, death-like odor.]]

* HellIsThatNoise: An in-universe example. Says Ted of the mysterious scream, "I would say it sounded like a cross between a man screaming in fear, and a cougar screaming in pain".
* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace: Invoked, as Ted names the passage that they discovered "Floyd's Tomb". As if that weren't ominous enough, it's named after caver Floyd Collins, who died after getting himself caved in.
* ItCanThink: The thing that freaks the protagonist out the most is that [[spoiler: ''whatever'' the creature is is smart enough to try and break the rope they were escaping out with by pulling it back into the cave and was ''also'' smart enough to cut the phone cord the two were using to communicate with each other.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler: By trying to break open and explore the passage of cave that (supposedly) hasn't been explored yet, the protagonists have allowed ''whatever'' was trapped in there to escape...]]

* OhCrap: [[spoiler: SOMETHING WAS PULLING THE ROPE BACK INTO THE CAVE!!!]]

* SealedEvilInACan: [[spoiler: The creature originally was sealed away by a tough rock wall in the deepest part of the cave that required the duo several days of solid work to get past and broke several of their power tools in the process. Unfortunately, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero thanks to the protagonist]], it's finally free.]]

* YouLookLikeYouveSeenAGhost: [[spoiler: Or at least, ''whatever'' poor Joe saw in the cave.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Joe and Uncle Charlie are both killed by the monsters, and Ted ends up sacrificing himself. However, Brad escapes and successfully seals off the entrance to the cave, trapping the creatures once more.]]

* ChekhovsGun: The brothers find an old stick of dynamite at the beginning of the film. [[spoiler: Ted ends up using it to hold off the creatures during the finale.]]
* DeathByAdaptation: Type 2. [[spoiler: Joe was with Ted and B in the original story's BolivianArmyEnding, and presumably perished with them. In the movie, he dies in his home much earlier on, leaving Ted and Brad to venture back to the cave on their own.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: After being injured too badly to make it back to the surface unassisted, Ted blows himself up with a stick of dynamite to hold off the creatures long enough for Brad to escape.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler: The brothers accidentally release the creatures while expanding the passage they find in the cave. The enormity of this finally dawns on them when Brad finds a newspaper article that says a family of campers went missing near the site of the cave.]]

* SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler: Brad is the only member of the core cast to make it to the end of the movie.]]
* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler: In the original story, B is part of the BolivianArmyEnding alongside Ted and Joe. In the movie, he's the only one to survive the final encounter in the cave.]]
* WeakenedByTheLight: [[spoiler: During the finale, the brothers and Uncle Charlie are able to keep the creatures at bay by using flashlights and flares]].

An indie film based on the original story named ''Living Dark'' was released in 2019.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler: By trying to break open and explore the passage of cave that (supposedly) hasn't been explored yet, the protagonist have allowed ''whatever'' was trapped in there to escape...]]

* OhCrap: [[spoiler: IT'S PULLING THE ROPE BACK INTO THE CAVE.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[The brothers accidentally unleash the creatures while expanding the passage they find in the cave. The enormity of this finally dawns on them when Brad finds a newspaper article that says a family of campers went missing near the site of the cave.]]

An indie film based on the original story named ''Living Dark'' was announced in 2015 but has since been stuck in DevelopmentHell.

''Ted's Caving Page'' (also known as ''Ted the Caver'' in some parts of the internet) is a WebSerialNovel detailing the attempts of spelunker Ted and his two friends to explore a strange, undiscovered portion of a local cave. [[NothingIsScarier Ambiguous]] horror ensues. First published on the Angelfire webhosting service in 2001, this story was an early example of using the Internet to tell a horror story ''[[Film/TheBlairWitchProject Blair Witch]]''-style, and remains pretty effective to this day. It can be found [[http://www.angelfire.com/trek/caver/ here]].

* StylisticSuck: The story does a very good job of looking like an ordinary Angelfire page from the early 2000s (because [[CaptainObvious that's exactly what it is]]).

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler: By trying to break open and explore the passage of cave that (supposedly) hasn't been explored yet, the protagonist have allowed ''whatever'' was trapped in their to escape...]]

* SealedEvilInACan: [[spoiler: The creature originally was sealed away by a tough rock wall in the deepest part of the cave that required the duo several days of solid work to get passed and broke several of their power tools in the process. Unfortunately, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero thanks to the protagonist]], it's finally free.]]

* {{Plagiarism}}: Inverted (?). A bizarre rumor spread after this story's popularity grew that it was stolen nearly word-for-word from a short story written by Thomas Lera called ''Fear of Darkness'' from the eighties. As it turns out, the story never existed until after ''Ted the Caver'' became widely known, and is simply ''Ted the Caver'' with the prose cleaned up to be a little more "scholarly" and a stereotypical ghost-story ending tacked on. Lots of people, sadly, bought it hook, line, and sinker.

* BeingWatched: Frequently [[spoiler: whenever someone climbs through the whole into the unexplored part of the cave. Whatever is in there is implied to keep a vigilant eye on the group...]]

* BeingWatched: ...But by what?