History Main / UrbanHellscape

* The nameless city of ''Film/TheCrow'' - implied to be Detroit - fits the trope to a T. It's perpetually dark and rainy, the streets are overflowing with trash, a great many buildings stand empty and abandoned, and even the ones that're inhabitated are dilapidated to the core. Drugs are everywhere, criminals run everything, the cops can't do a thing about it (assuming they even try), and a massive city-wide act of arson called "Devil's Night" has basically become an anticipated annual event. It's so bad that it requires the vengeful soul of a murdered man returning from the dead to do ''anything'' about the horrifying state of the city.

* Police are often either [[PoliceAreUseless completely ineffectual]] at stopping crime (and what crime it ''can'' stop, [[TheLopsidedArmOfTheLaw it literally tosses everything and the figurative kitchen sink at it]]), have [[Main/PoliceState militarized themselves into an army]], [[Main/DirtyCop are just as crooked as the criminals]] or any combination of the three. If the hero of the story is a cop, they are typically a CowboyCop who doesn't like red tape and [[PayEvilUntoEvil uses lethal force]] to get the job done, often to the dismay of DaChief or a token ObstructiveBureaucrat. Just as often, the protagonist is a VigilanteMan (sometimes an ex-cop and/or ex-soldier) who uses brutal methods.

* The city is infested with criminals, especially gangs who embody the "[[TheQuincyPunk Punk]]" style. While some gangs may be sympathetic compared to others, for the most part, they are depicted as ruthless, remorseless and animalistic with few redeeming qualities and little trace of any civility. The aforementioned introduction of crack cocaine is important here, because it also gives an excuse for the persecution and {{demonization}} of the poor in general, from the perception that they'd been [[AddledAddict turned "feral" by drug addiction]], blatantly stereotyping them as {{Lower Class Lout}}s, which ironically is often true of only the real criminals.
* Police are often either [[PoliceAreUseless completely ineffectual]] at stopping crime (and what crime it ''can'' stop, [[TheLopsidedArmOfTheLaw it literally tosses everything and the figurative kitchen sink at it]]), have [[Main/PoliceState militarized themselves into an army]] [[CrooksAreBetterArmed to fight back]], [[Main/DirtyCop are just as crooked as the criminals]] or any combination of the three. If the hero of the story is a cop, they are typically a CowboyCop who doesn't like red tape and [[PayEvilUntoEvil uses lethal force]] to get the job done, often to the dismay of DaChief or a token ObstructiveBureaucrat. Just as often, the protagonist is a VigilanteMan (sometimes an ex-cop and/or ex-soldier) who uses brutal methods.

* Police are either [[PoliceAreUseless completely ineffectual]] at stopping crime (and what crime it ''can'' stop, [[TheLopsidedArmOfTheLaw it literally tosses everything and the figurative kitchen sink at it]]), have [[CrooksAreBetterArmed militarized themselves into an army]] to fight back, [[Main/DirtyCop just as crooked as the criminals]] or any combination of the three. If the hero of the story is a cop, they are typically a CowboyCop who doesn't like red tape and [[PayEvilUntoEvil uses lethal force]] to get the job done, often to the dismay of DaChief or a token ObstructiveBureaucrat. Just as often, the protagonist is a VigilanteMan (sometimes an ex-cop and/or ex-soldier) who uses brutal methods.

* Police are either [[PoliceAreUseless completely ineffectual]] at stopping the crime (and what crime it ''can'' stop, [[TheLopsidedArmOfTheLaw it literally tosses everything and the figurative kitchen sink at it]]), have [[CrooksAreBetterArmed militarized themselves into an army]] to fight back, or both. If the hero of the story is a cop, they are typically a CowboyCop who doesn't like red tape and [[PayEvilUntoEvil uses lethal force]] to get the job done, often to the dismay of DaChief or a token ObstructiveBureaucrat. Just as often, the protagonist is a VigilanteMan (sometimes an ex-cop and/or ex-soldier) who uses brutal methods.

In addition to this trope's natural decline, society has marched on as well. As those who grew up in the suburbs yearned throughout their lifetime for proximity and single digit mileage in their daily commutes, many young people started moving back to the previously forsaken neighborhoods of the inner city around the TurnOfTheMillennium. Crime will always happen, poverty will always happen, and enough of it in a modern neighborhood can make it look like one of these [[CrapsackOnlyByComparison on a comparative basis]], but the downright Dante-sque examples that were once so common in fiction can be said to be all but gone in the First World. Even some of America's most notoriously crime-ridden major cities are still substantially safer than they were in the '80s and '90s.

* ''JudgmentNight'' depicts the seedier side of Chicago as an especially frightening place to be stranded in at night, especially with a gang of criminals actively hunting down you and your buddies. The dilapidated, mostly-empty streets are bathed in yellowish light from sodium lamps, giving the surroundings an almost infernal quality.

In the time span between TheSixties and TheEighties, wealthy and middle-class Americans moved out of urban areas into the suburbs. As a result, poverty, violent crime and gang activity were on the rise in inner cities. An epidemic of crack cocaine made things even worse, partly due to the widespread social panic (due to crack being extremely addictive and harmful), and partly because the crackhouses that formed in these abandoned buildings [[NotInMyBackyard intensified urban decay in their vicinity]]. These factors created a bleak outlook on the [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture future of cities]]; once seen as shimmering beacons and examples of man's progress, they were now depicted as little more than concrete jungles, war zones and fiefs carved out by the various gangs who control the area.

In addition to this trope's natural decline, society has marched on as well. As those who grew up in the suburbs yearned throughout their lifetime for proximity and single digit mileage in their daily commutes, many young people started moving back to the previously forsaken neighborhoods of the inner city around the TurnOfTheMillennium. Crime will always happen, poverty will always happen, and enough of it in a modern neighborhood can make it look like one of these [[CrapsackOnlyByComparison on a comparative basis]], but the downright Dantesque examples that were once so common in fiction can be said to be all but gone in the First World. Even some of America's most notoriously crime-ridden major cities are still substantially safer than they were in the '80s and '90s.

* ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage'' has the city taken over by a criminal syndicate and it's stated that the police are in the hands of the criminals while the remaining good cops quit the force due to not being able to make a stand. Some of the said good cops are the player characters who decide to take matters into their own hands by taking on the syndicate directly. The 3rd game extends the urban hellscape to either the White House (Japanese verison) or City Hall (English version).

In addition to this trope's natural decline, [[SocietyMarchesOn society has marched on as well]]. As those who grew up in the suburbs yearned throughout their lifetime for proximity and single digit mileage in their daily commutes, many young people started moving back to the previously forsaken neighborhoods of the inner city around the TurnOfTheMillennium. Crime will always happen, poverty will always happen, and enough of it in a modern neighborhood can make it look like one of these [[CrapsackOnlyByComparison on a comparative basis]], but the downright Dantesque examples that were once so common in fiction can be said to be all but gone in the First World. Even some of America's most notoriously crime-ridden major cities are still substantially safer than they were in the '80s and '90s.

* ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage'' is yet another example, and is almost completely a clone of ''Final Fight''.