History Main / AbandonedPlayground

* There's one in ''Film/TheExorcist'', too.

** Look carefully in that scene. Robert Duvall, in a priest costume, is on one of the swings.

* In Season 2 of ''Series/TheWire'', after Ziggy confesses to murder, his cousin Nick gets drunk in the old playground where they used to play and reminisces about it. In Season 3, drug kingpin Marlo holds court in an abandoned park/playground because it's difficult to bug.

** In ''Literature/{{Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban}}'', he sits in an abandoned playground after a fight with the Dursleys when the Grim appears. The playground is only empty because it's the middle of the night, but in the movie version, art director Creator/DaveMcKean makes the scene surprisingly creepy, even though it's daylight.

* ''VideoGame/SilentHill''

[[caption-width-right:350:Abandoned clown train remembers you.]]

** In ''Call of Pripyat'', Zulu will fight a group of snorkers at an abandoned playground in a school. Major Degtyarev can opt to rescue him or not. If Zulu is rescued, he will award Degtyarev with his [[AceCustom unique customized]] RP-74[[labelnote:*]][[CoolGuns/MachineGuns PKM]][[/labelnote]] machine gun.

** In ''Literature/{{Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban}}'', he sits in an abandoned playground after a fight with the Dursleys when the Grim appears. The playground is only empty because it's the middle of the night, but in [[Film/HarryPotter the movie version]], art director Creator/DaveMcKean makes the scene surprisingly creepy, even though it's daylight.

* ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' features these on at least two occasions. One is the playground where [[spoiler:Jackson dies soon after the nuclear blast]]. The other is in the Pripyat flashback. Both scenes are made even creeper by ghostly voices and laughter of children that are no longer there.
** The former is probably a ShoutOut to ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' above.

* ''VideoGame/SilentHillHomecoming'' has an abandoned playground. [[spoiler:You can find a photograph by the slide!]]

* There is a playground right outside the house on the first part of ''VideoGame/SlenderTheArrival''.

* ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'':

* In ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' there's an abandoned playground in the level of ''Hard Rain'', this serves as a landmark for the player(s) when they're getting back to the boat.
* In an outdoor level of ''VideoGame/{{Metro 2033}}'' there is one of these, and when you enter it, you see a flashback of kids playing. When the flashback ends, some of the equipment is still moving and you see a Dark One observing you.

* Several of the later scenes including the climax of the ''Film/{{Hanna}}'' take place in the decrepit remains of a Brothers Grimm theme park near Berlin. It is creepy as outlined in the trope description, but symbolically appropriate to the passing of Hanna's unconventional childhood.

* In ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'', there's a shot on the playground of an abandoned Soviet-era Russian city with a nuclear power plant called Pozharnov (no doubt inspired by [[UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} Pripyat]]).

* Pripyat (the city where workers of the {{UsefulNotes/Chernobyl}} power plant lived) has a few that can be seen in documentaries. (But that comes with the whole "city of creepy abandoned stuff" thing.)

Sometimes this is used to illustrate the nostalgic longing for a disappeared childhood and the [[GrowingUpSucks pain of growing up]], or the [[InnocenceLost loss of innocence]]. Other times the Abandoned Playground is home to a CreepyChild humming an IronicNurseryTune, or haunted by [[UndeadChild ghost children]], either [[StringyHairedGhostGirl stringy-haired]] or {{cute|GhostGirl}}. If the playground shows up in an AfterTheEnd setting, or in an area that has faced great destruction, an abandoned playground is shorthand to show that adults weren't the only victims of the terrible tragedy that has befallen the place.

* The ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' movie ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' has one of these in the [[spoiler:newly destroyed by Alliance forces]] colony on Haven. River wanders through one and get a nice [[FramedSubject framed shot]] between a swing set that is on fire.

** In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E13BloodTies Blood Ties]]" Dawn finds all her memories of the past are false. Walking through a playground at night she has a memory of her sister pushing her on the swing, which she now knows never happened.

** The ColdOpen of "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E7LieToMe Lie To Me]]", an episode with a theme of how the illusions of childhood give way to the BlackAndGrayMorality of the adult world. There's a boy who's been left at the playground. It's dark, and he's the last one there, and then Drusilla shows up. Fortunately for him Angel shows up and stops her.

Compare AbandonedCampRuins, as both areas are formerly where kids like going to have fun.

Sometimes this is used to illustrate the nostalgic longing for a disappeared childhood and the [[GrowingUpSucks pain of growing up]], or the [[ InnocenceLost loss of innocence]]. Other times the Abandoned Playground is home to a CreepyChild humming an IronicNurseryTune, or haunted by [[UndeadChild ghost children]], either [[StringyHairedGhostGirl stringy-haired]] or {{cute|GhostGirl}}. If the playground shows up in an AfterTheEnd setting, or in an area that has faced great destruction, an abandoned playground is shorthand to show that adults weren't the only victims of the terrible tragedy that has befallen the place.

Sometimes this is used to illustrate the nostalgic longing for a disappeared childhood and the [[GrowingUpSucks pain of growing up]], or the loss of innocence. Other times the Abandoned Playground is home to a CreepyChild humming an IronicNurseryTune, or haunted by [[UndeadChild ghost children]], either [[StringyHairedGhostGirl stringy-haired]] or {{cute|GhostGirl}}. If the playground shows up in an AfterTheEnd setting, or in an area that has faced great destruction, an abandoned playground is shorthand to show that adults weren't the only victims of the terrible tragedy that has befallen the place.

!Examples:

[[folder:Comicbooks]]

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

[[folder: Music]]

* ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' has one on Route 14 devoid of children, although nothing weird happens there, just a friendly Pokemon battle. [[FridgeHorror But]] you can find a RareCandy hidden [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything behind the bushes]].

** In ''Call of Pripyat'', Zulu will fight a group of snorkers at an abandoned playground in a school. Major Degtyarev can opt to rescue him or not. If Zulu is rescued, he will award Degtyarev with his RP-74.

* ''Series/Batwoman2019''. In "[[Recap/Batwoman2019S1E2TheRabbitHole The Rabbit Hole]]'', suspecting the supervillain Alice is her long-lost sister Beth, Kate Kane sends a message for Alice to meet her at the waffle stand where they used to hang out as children. Although the park is not quite abandoned, like everything else in Gotham it's seen better days, with the waffle stand vandalised and boarded up.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]
* In ''FanFic/AeonEntelechyEvangelion'' in the dome where Rei lives (and the Dome itself is a GhostTown) there is a "recreational area", a small patch of grass with the tree (probably transplanted) on it, which has a [[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon swing]].