History Main / OneCrazyNight

* The pre-[[UsefulNotes/ComicsCode Code]] horror comic ''Chamber of Chills'' ran a story called "Cycle of Horror", about a criminal trying to find a good night's sleep after [[NoHonorAmongThieves killing his partner in a heist]]. Every place he goes to, somehow, contains the rotting corpse of the man he murdered. At the end, he realizes that [[spoiler: he was DeadAllAlong, and this is Hell.]]

Stories like this take a conflict that could be stretched out over several days and compress it into only a few hours.

* ''Film/TrojanWar''. Brad wants to have sex with the school's alpha girl and needs to buy a condom. Good luck...

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

[[folder: Film -- Animated]]

* ''Literature/CounterfeitWife'': Private detective Michael Shayne usually gets into trouble in the usual private detective way, by accepting cases. But in this edition of the series all he does is give his plane ticket over to a man who wants to get out of town, then follow the sexy blonde who showed up at the airport to look for the man. Shayne was really only looking for some feminine companionship, but winds up getting enmeshed in a conspiracy of counterfeiting, kidnapping, and murder. As Shayne sits in a locked closet, being held prisoner by mooks who are planning to murder him, he seethes at how he stumbled into this affair without even meaning to.

* In ''VideoGame/OutOfOrder'', a young man called Hurford Schlitzing wakes up in the middle of a thunderstorm and realizes that he and his bedroom have been transported to a strange alternate reality.

* The pre-[[UsefulNotes/ComicsCode Code]] horror comic ''Chamber of Chills'' ran a story called "Cycle of Horror", about a criminal trying to find a good night's sleep after [[NoHonorAmongThieves killing his partner in a heist]]. Every place he goes to, somehow, contains the rotting corpse of the man he murdered. At the end, he realizes that [[spoiler: he was DeadAllAlong, and this is Hell.]]

[[folder: Films -- Animated]]

* In the 2016 movie ''Film/BoysInTheTrees'', two teenage boys embark on a sureal journey through the woods in the Halloween night of 1997.

* In the 2004 movie ''Riding the Bullet'' by Mick Garris, a young student goes on hitchhiking during the Halloween night to visit his mother in the hospital, and encounters a host of bizarre characters, including an old man grieving over his dead wife (and, seemingly, a ghost of his wife sitting with him in the car), [[BewareOfViciousDog a vicious dog]], a gang of thugs on a truck, and, finally, an undead man who asks him to choose whether he or his mother will die.

* Creator/RichardLaymon:
** In ''Literature/ANightInTheLonesomeOctober'', the main character roams the night streets of his home town and encounters several bizarre characters, including a psychopath chasing after the protagonist's sort-of-LoveInterest, a mysterious girl who penetrates other people's houses at night, a crazy old lady on a bicycle, [[MonsterClown a creepy clown]] [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane who may or may not be a ghost]], and a bunch of cannibals living under the bridge.
** Likewise, in ''Literature/TheTravelingVampireShow'', a trio of young protagonists decide to visit a nightly show of the titular circus. On their way to the show, they encounter a man dressed in a white sheet looking like a ghost, [[CreepyTwins two sinister twin brothers on a Cadillac]], some unseen evil creature that lives under a car and devours a poodle before their eyes, and a host of other weird stuff.
* Creator/StephenKing:
** In the short story "Crouch End" from the collection ''Literature/NightmaresAndDreamscapes'', a family couple gets lost in an unfamiliar district of London late in the evening. As night closes in, the place becomes increasingly creepy, eventually devolving into Lovecraftian horror.
** The novella "Riding the Bullet" from the collection ''Literature/EverythingsEventual'', which was adapted into the eponymous movie (see above).

* An episode of ''Series/GrowingPains'' starts out as a supply run for a class project and turns into a night on the town chasing girls.
* The ''Series/{{Friends}}'' episode "The One Where They're Up All Night" opens with the characters watching a meteor shower on the roof, then moves on to various other things that happen that night. (Chandler and Monica keeping each other awake, Phoebe being harassed by a smoke alarm, Rachel and Tad going back to the office to look for some paperwork, and Ross and Joey trying to get down from the roof.)

* ''Series/BlueWaterHigh'': In "Dreams and Dramas", the group attempt to keep Fly out of the house while they organise her surprise party. This results in Fly and Heath getting stranded miles from home, being caught in the rain, taking shelter in a caravan, the owner of the caravan towing it away, and them accidentally setting wire to the van while they attempt to signal the driver. Meanwhile, the others are holding a party without the guest of honour, which turns into a WildTeenParty when gatecrashers arrive.

* In ''[[https://archive.org/details/al-gurbish-in-nick-it-and-run Al Gurbish in... Nick It & Run!]]'', the secret agent Al Gurbish is tasked with a mission to steal The Silver Stan, the most presigious award in the world of advenure gaming, [[StealItToProtectIt in order to prevent it from being stolen by a bunch of crooks]]. During the award night, he roams through the night city streets and encounters a number of bizarre characters.

* In ''[[http://www.johngreenart.com/nearlydeparted/ Nearly Departed]]'', the protagonist awakens late at night in a cemetery and realizes that he's a zombie. He wanders through the streets of night city in order to find clues on his past and understand how he became a zombie.
* In ''[[https://archive.org/details/ravenwooddemoaugust2013 A Night at Camp Ravenwood]]'', the main character Smoky Bumblerose has to survive a night at the titular camp and save his friends from vampires, aliens, a headless maniac with an axe, and other nasty creatures.

* ''Literature/Below 2022'': The book takes place over the course of a single night where a woman is stuck in a dark road attempting to save a man who helped her get there while a strange creature and events happen all around her. Even the epilogue happens before the sun rises. It helps give the story a dream-like feel, as well as the frantic pace of events of a woman trying to survive unknowable horrors.

* ''Film/ANightToRemember'', in which many of the passengers of the Titanic are seen saying goodnight... and the Titanic strikes an iceberg. A steward is seen very politely asking first class passengers to put on lifebelts and go up on deck, and in the lower classes, another steward bangs on doors, militantly demanding everybody gets up.