History Main / RearWindowInvestigation

* ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'' episode "The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors."

A character, usually female (ironic as the Trope Namer is male), suspects a male character, often a neighbor, of committing a crime. Perhaps she is even a [[RearWindowWitness witness of the crime.]] Nobody believes her, or she isn't sure herself, so she decides to wait until he leaves his house, and then sneak in to look for clues or to obtain incriminating evidence. Of course, the potential suspect will invariably [[HomeEarly Surprise come home early]], and the investigating character will have to find a way out of the house without being discovered. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

A character, usually female (ironic as the Trope Namer is male), suspects a male character, often a neighbor, of committing a crime. Perhaps she is even a [[RearWindowWitness witness of the crime.]] Nobody believes her, or she isn't sure herself, so she decides to wait until he leaves his house, and then sneak in to look for clues or to obtain incriminating evidence. Of course, the potential suspect will invariably come home early, and the investigating character will have to find a way out of the house without being discovered. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

A character, usually female, suspects a male character, often a neighbor, of committing a crime. Perhaps she is even a [[RearWindowWitness witness of the crime.]] Nobody believes her, or she isn't sure herself, so she decides to wait until he leaves his house, and then sneak in to look for clues or to obtain incriminating evidence. Of course, the potential suspect will invariably come home early, and the investigating character will have to find a way out of the house without being discovered. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

%%* ''Film/BlueVelvet''.

* In the ''Series/Daredevil2015'' episode "Penny and Dime", Karen breaks into Frank Castle's former house to look for evidence, and narrowly avoids being spotted by suspicious suited men in a work van. Foggy and Matt chew her out for this in the following episode, or, Foggy chews her out. Matt just warns her to exercise more caution.

* The episode of ''Series/{{Castle}}'', "The Lives of Others". Castle is so bored while recovering from an accident, that he starts watching his neighbors through binoculars, and sees what is clearly a man murdering his girlfriend with a knife. When Beckett doesn't believe him (she even calls it a "rear window scenario"), he posts Alexis to be his watch while he breaks into the neighbor's house to retrieve some evidence - except he's still on crutches, falls over when he tries to leave, and has to hide under the bed. [[spoiler:Turns out Beckett staged the whole thing as a birthday present to Castle, and everyone, including the "murderer" and "victim", were in on the prank.]]

* In the ''Series/Daredevil2015'' episode "Penny and Dime", Karen Page breaks into Frank Castle's former house to look for evidence, and narrowly avoids being spotted by suspicious suited men in a work van. [[RealityEnsues Foggy and Matt chew her out for this in the following episode]].

* The episode of ''Series/{{Castle}}'', "The Lives of Others", plays this trope exactly straight - Castle is so bored while recovering from an accident, that he starts watching his neighbors through binoculars, and sees what is clearly a man murdering his girlfriend with a knife. When Beckett doesn't believe him (she even calls it a "rear window scenario"), he posts Alexis to be his watch while he breaks into the neighbor's house to retrieve some evidence - except he's still on crutches, falls over when he tries to leave, and has to hide under the bed. [[spoiler:Turns out it wasn't played straight at all: Beckett staged the whole thing as a birthday present to Castle, and everyone, including the "murderer" and "victim", were in on the prank.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'', Plucky Duck, while laid up in the hospital, thought that Elmer Fudd was growing clones of himself across the street, but was actually growing eggplants for a special soup he was making. In a subversion, however, even unbeknownst to Elmer, the eggplants ''did'' turn into clones.

* Creator/BrianDePalma's ''Film/{{Sisters}}'' is in part an [[RearWindowHomage homage]] to ''Film/RearWindow''. The variation is that the suspect is female rather than male, and the character snooping in her apartment is male. Interestingly, each character has an opposite-gender accomplice.

* In DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency, one of the main characters breaks into his girlfriend's house to delete a message from her answering machine (Note: the book being written and set quite a while ago, this means listening to ''all'' of her messages, off a series of cassettes, until he finds the one he made). It turns out he's actually [[spoiler:possessed by an ancient alien ghost]].

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' dealt with Rocko thinking Bev Bighead killed her husband Ed so he goes into their house to investigate, as it turns out Ed went to the hospital to remove a wart, the stabbing was Bev making a sculpture of Ed, and she buried a dead plant.

%%* ''Film/RearWindow'''s SpiritualSuccessor, ''Film/{{Disturbia}}''.

* In a Halloween episode of ''Series/That70sShow'', Fez breaks his leg and stays in Eric's room, watching the Pinciotti's house and hoping to see Midge, their [=MILFy=] next door neighbor, naked. However, when she's nowhere to be seen and her husband Bob is seen by Fez carrying a large, bloody bag, Fez immediately assumes that Bob killed Midge. It turns out that Bob had merely butchered a cow and Midge was away on vacation.

* Creator/WoodyAllen's ''Manhattan Murder Mystery''.
* ''Film/RearWindow'''s SpiritualSuccessor, ''Film/{{Disturbia}}''.
* ''Film/BlueVelvet''.
* Happens in the French political Thriller ''I... Comme Icarus''
* ''Film/TheBurbs'' has a comedic version of this trope.
* Both ''[[Film/{{Mimic}} Mimic 3: Sentinel]]'' and ''Abominable'' offer scifi/horror spins on the trope.

* ''Film/WhatLiesBeneath'' is this for the first half.

* Literature/TheWindow clearly and deliberately [[RearWindowHomage rips off]] the plot of ''Film/RearWindow'': When a young woman accompanies her friends on a ski trip and ends up spraining her ankle. Stranded in her room and bored, she begins spying on the other cabins with a pair of binoculars. Sure enough, she witnesses a murder and the killer him/herself, though she can't tell who it is--it quickly doubles as a LockedRoomMystery when she realizes it has to be one of the friends she's traveling with--and ends up playing a nail-biting cat-and-mouse game trying to figure out exactly who it is without tipping them off.

Compare AloneWithThePsycho, TheStakeout.

* Creator/AlfredHitchcock's ''Film/RearWindow'', of course. Indeed, many of the following examples are in fact {{Shout Out}}s.
* Creator/BrianDePalma's ''Film/{{Sisters}}'' is in part a homage to ''Film/RearWindow''. The variation is that the suspect is female rather than male, and the character snooping in her apartment is male. Interestingly, each character has an opposite-gender accomplice.

* An RL Stine clearly and deliberately rips off the plot of RearWindow when a young woman accompanies her friends on a ski trip and ends up spraining her ankle. Stranded in her room and bored, she begins spying on the other cabins with a pair of binoculars. Sure enough, she witnesses a murder and the killer him/herself, though she can't tell who it is--it quickly doubles as a LockedRoomMystery when she realizes it has to be one of the friends she's traveling with--and ends up playing a nail-biting cat-and-mouse game trying to figure out exactly who it is without tipping them off.

* Done ''ad nauseum'' in ''Series/{{Psych}}'', wherein Shawn has ended up stowed on a boat, caught sneaking around various facilities (including a Seaworld-like park after-hours), and too many others to count. The sheer number of times he has snuck into someone's property means that, statistically, he should still be paying fines/jailtime for breaking and entering by 2099.

* The ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' episode "Neighbor Pains", where Bloo has to go into Old Man Rivers house to look for the adoption forms that Rivers took. The papers he brings back turn out not to be the forms, but [[spoiler:love letters to Madame Foster, which Mac and Bloo use to blackmail Rivers into giving them the forms.]]

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' dealt with their new neighbor apparently killing his nagging wife and Fred and Barney go to investigate; at the end he tells them she went on vacation, but in a subversion [[spoiler: he reveals to the audience that he indeed did kill her as he fed her to his wife eating bird]].

* ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark?'' episode "The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors."

/

* The ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episode "Mr. Monk, Private Eye" contains a unique version of this trope, in which Monk sneaks on to a potential killer's boat and is promptly stowed away.

* Creator/AlfredHitchcock's ''RearWindow'', of course. Indeed, many of the following examples are in fact {{Shout Out}}s.
* Creator/BrianDePalma's ''Film/{{Sisters}}'' is in part a homage to ''RearWindow''. The variation is that the suspect is female rather than male, and the character snooping in her apartment is male. Interestingly, each character has an opposite-gender accomplice.
* WoodyAllen's ''ManhattanMurderMystery''.
* ''RearWindow'''s SpiritualSuccessor, ''{{Disturbia}}''.
* ''BlueVelvet''.

* ''TheBurbs'' has a comedic version of this trope.
* Both ''Mimic3Sentinel'' and ''{{Abominable}}'' offer scifi/horror spins on the trope.

* OlderThanRadio: Occurs in JaneAusten's ''Literature/NorthangerAbbey'' where after reading too many Gothic novels, the heroine begins to mistrust her host General Tilney and suspect him of murdering his wife years before. This novel actually predates ''RearWindow'' by almost two centuries.
* In Creator/BruceCoville's ''MyTeacherIsAnAlien'', the narrator breaks into her new teacher's house to look for evidence that he truly is otherworldly. Unfortunately, her lookout had a short attention span. HilarityEnsues.

* The ''{{Seinfeld}}'' episode "The Phone Message" revolves around an angry message George left on his date's phone while she was out of town, and his attempts, using Jerry as a decoy, to sneak into her living room and change the cassette before she hears it. She reveals later that she had had her friend play her the messages and took George's tirade as a dry joke, their successful effort to switch tapes a waste of time.
* ''AreYouAfraidOfTheDark?'' episode "The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors."
* The ''{{Monk}}'' episode "Mr. Monk, Private Eye" contains a unique version of this trope, in which Monk sneaks on to a potential killer's boat and is promptly stowed away.
* Done ''ad nauseum'' in ''{{Psych}}'', wherein Shawn has ended up stowed on a boat, caught sneaking around various facilities (including a Seaworld-like park after-hours), and too many others to count. The sheer number of times he has snuck into someone's property means that, statistically, he should still be paying fines/jailtime for breaking and entering by 2099.
* In a Halloween episode of ''That70sShow'', Fez breaks his leg and stays in Eric's room, watching the Pinciotti's house and hoping to see Midge, their [=MILFy=] next door neighbor, naked. However, when she's nowhere to be seen and her husband Bob is seen by Fez carrying a large, bloody bag, Fez immediately assumes that Bob killed Midge. It turns out that Bob had merely butchered a cow and Midge was away on vacation.
* The episode of {{Castle}}, "The Lives of Others", plays this trope exactly straight - Castle is so bored while recovering from an accident, that he starts watching his neighbors through binoculars, and sees what is clearly a man murdering his girlfriend with a knife. When Beckett doesn't believe him (she even calls it a "rear window scenario"), he posts Alexis to be his watch while he breaks into the neighbor's house to retrieve some evidence - except he's still on crutches, falls over when he tries to leave, and has to hide under the bed. [[spoiler:Turns out it wasn't played straight at all: Beckett staged the whole thing as a birthday present to Castle, and everyone, including the "murderer" and "victim", were in on the prank.]]

* The ''FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' episode "Neighbor Pains", where Bloo has to go into Old Man Rivers house to look for the adoption forms that Rivers took. The papers he brings back turn out not to be the forms, but [[spoiler:love letters to Madame Foster, which Mac and Bloo use to blackmail Rivers into giving them the forms.]]
* Parodied in ''TheSimpsons'' episode "Bart of Darkness". Bart, injured from an accident diving into their swimming pool, overhears a scream from the Flanders house, and witnesses him burying something in the backyard. Believing Ned had [[MistakenForMurderer murdered his wife Maude]], Bart orders Lisa to go investigate. When Ned returns home early, Lisa gets trapped in the attic with Flanders, who is attempting to put away an axe (though from Bart's view it appeared Ned was threatening Lisa with the axe). It later turns out that Maude is alive, and was away at Bible camp the whole time. The scream that Bart heard earlier? [[ScreamsLikeALittleGirl It was Flanders.]]
* An episode of ''RockosModernLife'' dealt with Rocko thinking Bev Bighead killed her husband Ed so he goes into their house to investigate, as it turns out Ed went to the hospital to remove a wart, the stabbing was Bev making a sculpture of Ed, and she buried a dead plant.
* An episode of ''TheFlintstones'' dealt with their new neighbor apparently killing his nagging wife and Fred and Barney go to investigate; at the end he tells them she went on vacation, but in a subversion [[spoiler: he reveals to the audience that he indeed did kill her as he fed her to his wife eating bird]].