History Main / CreepyOldFashionedDivingSuit

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[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/suit1.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Captain Cutler drowned that foggy night,\\
And haunts these waters still for spite."]]

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* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'': King Kraken is a {{supervillain}} who was a deep-sea diver until being disfigured in an accident, after which he turned to [[SubmarinePirates piracy]] and became the Wingman's recurring enemy. His costume deliberately uses this trope, with a bulky mask with glowing eyes he uses both in his underwater crimes and to obscure his face.

* Skool from ''Literature/UnLunDun'' animates an old diving suit as a way to get around... inverting the trope, as Skool is an intelligent school of fish that found one of these suits, filled it with water, and uses it as a way to explore the surface. Skool's silent, looming presence still lives up to the trope, despite being one of the good guys.
* In ''[[Literature/TheSpiderwickChronicles Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You]]'', one of these is visible in the gullet of the giant [[SeaSerpents sea serpent]], suggesting the unlucky diver was SwallowedWhole. It’s period-appropriate for the early-20th-century era in which Arthur Spiderwick conducted his research, but it definitely adds to the eerie and otherworldly nature of [[https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2F1mso7uuc25x81.jpg%3Fwidth%3D2000%26format%3Dpjpg%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3Dbb84fd09dec1d67078ca3b706ec4498c2fb1b3a1 the image]].

** The first game introduces the iconic [[https://bioshock.fandom.com/wiki/Big_Daddy Big Daddies,]] men who were heavily spliced with the ADAM mutagen and outfitted in unique, heavily-armored, and intimidating diving suits to be protectors for the Little Sisters in the underwater city of Rapture. This turns them into massive imposing armored monsters/mutants that have superhuman strength, endurance and speed, "speak" only in low creepy moans (almost sounding like whales), and typically carry weapons like [[ThisIsADrill drills]] and [[NailEm rivet guns]] (other Big Daddy armaments would be introduced in the sequel). While we never see the Big Daddies without their suits, StoryBreadcrumbs indicate that their creation involved a lot of BodyHorror, so that's probably for the best.
** Its sequel ''VideoGame/Bioshock2'' introduces Subject Delta of the Alpha Series, two new types of Big Daddies (The Rumbler which has a [[ShoulderCannon shoulder-mounted rocket launchers]] and the Lancer which is armed with the Ion Laser cannon), it also introduces the [[https://bioshock.fandom.com/wiki/Big_Sister Big Sisters]], Little Sisters from the first game who weren't rescued by Jack, all grown up in the eight years since. They're a lot more nimble, acrobatic, and aggressive than the Big Daddies, making liberal use of Plasmids as well as their supersized arm-mounted ADAM syringes, but are outfitted in diving suits all the same. They're responsible for kidnapping little girls from the surface to act as the newer generation of Little Sisters.

[[folder:Web Animation]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''Website/SCPFoundation'', "[[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-1861 SCP-1861 - The Crew of the HMS Wintersheimer]]". The HMS ''Wintersheimer'' appears to be a UsefulNotes/WorldWarI era British submarine. Its crew consists of animated diving suits that can talk. The crew tries to get people to enter the submarine, after which the people are turned into more crew like themselves. If a crew member ever takes off their helmet, it's revealed that there's nothing inside the suit except water, eyes and jaws.
* One of the endings of the ''Website/{{Clickhole}}'' Clickventure "[[https://clickhole.com/death-attends-the-matinee-1825124308/ Death Attends The Matinee]] has the mysterious Diver appear wearing one of these. The Diver then drags the player into the ocean and shows them how he is married to all the fish.
[[/folder]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'', the ghost of Captain Cutler appears as an old-fashioned light-green deep-sea diving suit covered by [[GlowingFlora glowing seaweed]]. As the Mystery Gang discovered, [[ScoobyDooHoax the ghost was actually a very much alive Captain Cutler]] who had [[FakingTheDead faked his own death]] so he could pretend to be a ghost and steal the yachts of the region, but his uniqueness and importance as one of the first monsters that appeared in the series have gotten him several appearances and cameos throughout the ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' franchise.

->''I thought immediately of the diver's suits from the 20's and 30's and how amazing they look, not only for their bizarre metallic helmets but also for the whole 'monster' feeling that they evoke. Since you can't see either the face or the body you've no idea what the occupant really looks like.''

Website/TheOtherWiki calls it "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_diving_dress a standard diving dress]]". Most people (assuming they recognize it at all, which sadly fewer and fewer people do) call it a "hard-hat diver suit", or a "helmeted diver suit", or perhaps "that thing divers used to wear before SCUBA gear". For over a hundred years, from its invention in 1829 to after World War II, this heavy waterproof suit with its bulky, distinctive copper or bronze helmet was the only practical way for men to work underwater for long periods of time. Even today, with all the minisubs and Remote Operated Vehicles and other high technology at our disposal, a modern variant of this suit remains the best choice for certain underwater tasks.

Compare SpaceSuitsAreScubaGear for when [[SpaceIsAnOcean space suits have characteristics shared by these diving suits]], such as exposed air tubes, and CyberCyclops, in which suits with one-windowed helmets may give this effect. See also CreepyMascotSuit, another full-body outfit that can be scary due to the way it hides the wearer's face, GhostShip, for a setting in which this trope can be used, and EldritchOceanAbyss, for other unsettling underwater presences.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'': King Kraken is a supervillain who was a deep-sea diver until being difigured in an accident, after which he turned to [[SubmarinePirates piracy]] and became the Wingman's recurring enemy. His costume deliberately uses this trope, with a bulky mask with glowing eyes he uses both in his underwater crimes and to obscure his face.

* ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'': The JIM suit henchman of Kristatos who attacks Film/JamesBond and Melina in the wreckage of the ''St. George'' SpyShip. While the JIM suit wasn't old-fashioned back then (though it might be by now), the scare factor of the attack is very much played up with the suit's pincers and VaderBreath.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'': King Kraken is a supervillain who was a deep-sea diver until being difigured in an accident, after which he turned to [[SubmarinePirate piracy]] and became the Wingman's recurring enemy. His costume deliberately uses this trope, with a bulky mask with glowing eyes he uses both in his underwater crimes and to obscure his face.

* ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight'' has Treasure Knight, a member of the Order of No Quarter, who has a suit of armor inspired by an old-fashioned diving suit. An undersea pirate, he lays waste to the underwater in search of treasure, disturbing the fauna and fishing community in the area. While already a towering and imposing figure, his desire to control the seas has him also with the dangerous [[AlluringAnglerfish Teethalon]] under his captured command.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'', the ghost of Captain Cutler appears as an old-fashioned light-green deep-sea diving suit covered by [[GlowingFlora glowing seaweed]]. As the Mystery Gang discovered, [[ScoobyDooHoax the ghost was actually a very much alive Captain Cutler who had faked his own death so he could pretend to be a ghost and steal the yachts of the region]], but his uniqueness and importance as one of the first monsters that appeared in the series have gotten him several appearances and cameos throughout the ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' franchise.

* ''Film/ScoobyDooMonstersUnleashed'': One of the costumes Scooby-Doo and Shaggy accidentally brought to life was Captain Cutler's ghost, keeping his appearance of a glowing green diving suit. He appeared to get the modified control panel from the Mystery Inc., but luckily, Fred floored the Mystery Machine backwards, causing Captain Cutler's ghost to fly into the air and fall into the lake he was hiding in.

* ''WebAnimation/SoThisIsBasically'': One episode talks about ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' and shows a scene where Danny fights off a ghost in a diving suit saying puns as he fights, said diving suit-wearing ghost is most likely a reference to the ghost of Captain Cutler from ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'', the ghost of Captain Cutler appears as an old-fashioned light-green deep-sea diving suit covered by [[GlowingFlora glowing seaweed]], said to be the returning ghost of a dead captain. As the Mystery Gang discovered, [[ScoobyDooHoax it was just a man who had faked his own death so he could pretend to be a ghost and steal the yachts of the region]], but his uniqueness and importance as one of the first monsters that appeared in the series have gotten him several appearances and cameos throughout the ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' franchise.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'', "[[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-1861 SCP-1861 - The Crew of the HMS Wintersheimer]]". The HMS ''Wintersheimer'' appears to be a UsefulNotes/WorldWarI era British submarine. Its crew consists of animated diving suits that can talk. The crew tries to get people to enter the submarine, after which the people are turned into more crew like themselves. If a crew member ever takes off their helmet, it's revealed that there's nothing inside the suit except water, eyes and jaws.