Line #47 Main/LostInTheMaize


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5	%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
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11	%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1637946983098153100
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14	[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/simpsonscorns.png]]]]
15	[[caption-width-right:350:"This maize is too hard for me!"]]
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17	->''He began to walk in that direction, not having to bull through the corn any more. The row was taking him in the direction he wanted to go, naturally. The row ended up ahead. Ended? No, emptied out into some sort of clearing...''
18	-->-- ''Literature/NightShift'', "Children of the Corn"
19
20	There's just something about a field of corn that spells creepy. Maybe it's the fact that corn stalks grow very tall and seem to go on endlessly, preventing anyone who happens to be wandering among them from seeing more than a few feet ahead at a time. Also, each stalk looks exactly the same, so good luck finding your way out. Combined with the fact that they are only found in rural areas, this means that you could be out in the middle of nowhere and no one would see you disappear, or even be around to hear you scream on the off chance that you are not alone.
21
22	If characters find themselves in a cornfield, they will almost always get lost. Frantic chases through cornfields are popular in the {{Horror}} genre, and double points if it happens to be at night.
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24	Note that despite the trope name, scenes like this don't necessarily have to involve corn.[[note]]Which is a good thing, as precisely which cereal crops are defined as "corn" differs between America and Europe -- in Europe, corn typically refers specifically to sweetcorn, a variety of maize, with other varieties being referred to as maize, while in America there's usually no distinction, with all varieties of maize being referred to as corn.[[/note]] Long grass is also popular, especially in wilderness settings, and this trope can apply to other kinds of vegetation where it's hard to see anything below neck level. Compare TheLostWoods, where non-domestic plant life is overwhelming or spooky.
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26	This is also the place to find ScaryScarecrows or CropCircles. May overlap with CornyNebraska if the creepy cornfields are in Nebraska. Compare HedgeMaze and TheLostWoods.
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28	----
29	!!Examples:
30	[[foldercontrol]]
31
32	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
33	* In the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' manga ''[[Recap/WarriorCatsWarriorsRefuge Warrior's Refuge]]'', Graystripe and Millie get lost and separated from each other in a field of corn, desperately fleeing from the terrifying roar of a "monster" (a combine harvesting the corn). Some local farm cats find them and lead them to safety.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Arts]]
37	* "Cornfield with [[CreepyCrows Crows]]", is generally agreed to be the last thing Creator/VincentVanGogh painted before he killed himself.
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Comic Books]]
41	* A villain in the ''ComicBook/HackSlash'' miniseries ''My First Maniac'' used a cornfield (formerly belonging to a farmer he killed) as a hunting ground, having turned it into a deadly maze. It's full of traps and surrounded by barbed wire, and nails through the stalks that rip into anyone who tries to just run through them.
42	* In an issue of ''ComicBook/TheMazeAgency'' comic book, a murder is committed in a cornfield maze and the body strung up as scarecrow to hide it.
43	[[/folder]]
44
45	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
46	* A semi-annual event in ''ComicStrip/SallyForthHoward'', leading one year to the characters meeting [[http://sallyforth.com/comics/october-10-2015// themselves]].
47	[[/folder]]
48
49	[[folder:Fan Works]]
50	* In the ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' fic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/34282366/chapters/85296475#workskin The Corn Maze]]'', Dib drags Gaz along with him to investigate reports of ghostly activity at the titular tourist trap. After sneaking in at night and finding Zim is placating GIR by letting him make crop circles, they decide that that's the cause of the supposed haunting and decide to leave... only to find that they can't, [[ClosedCircle every path suddenly leading back to the middle of the maze]]. The siblings team up with a reluctant Zim to find a way out of the maze, which suddenly seems to go on forever and is now full of ScaryScarecrows [[spoiler: which are stuffed with human remains]]. It eventually turns out that a demon of some kind is inhabiting the maze, and trapping people [[ItAmusedMe for its amusement]].
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
54	* In ''[[Film/SyfyChannelOriginalMovie The 12 Disasters Of Christmas]]'', two teenage girls flee from a tornado through an orchard of Christmas trees.
55	* The scene in the 1967 ''Film/BonnieAndClyde'', where Bonnie runs away through one because [[spoiler: she misses her momma.]]
56	* ''Film/{{Casino}}'': [[spoiler:Nicky and his brother]] are lured to a meeting in a cornfield where they are [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown brutally beaten]] and then buried alive.
57	* ''Film/ColdMountain'': After deserting the Confederate army, Inman is on a road through a cornfield when a group of fugitive slaves emerges from the corn near him. He tries to buy an egg from them, but they ignore him and move silently down the road until they're hidden by a clump of trees. Inman keeps walking and then [[SoundOnlyDeath hears screams and gunshots coming from the trees]], forcing him to make a panicked dash into the corn. The eerie thing is the sunny, serene tone of the scene, with several idyllic-looking shots of the trees and cornfield undisturbed by what's happening to the characters.
58	%%* ''Film/CryBabyLane'' has this in the climax.
59	* In ''Film/DeadBirds'', the farm house is surrounded by a field full of dead corn plants. The climax takes place with characters hopelessly lost in the field down a downpour.
60	* Subverted in ''Film/FieldOfDreams'', in that the Iowa cornfield is supernatural and mysterious, but it's awe-inspiring, not scary.
61	* In ''Film/ForrestGump'', as a little girl, Jenny runs into the cornfield behind their house to hide from her drunken abusive father. ("Dear God, make me a bird, so I can fly far, far, far away from here.")
62	* The cornfield rave massacre in ''Film/FreddyVsJason'' is set up to look like this, but one of the ravers sets Jason on fire at the beginning so Jason goes for [[BattleAmongstTheFlames a more overt massacre]].
63	* The climactic chase in ''Film/TheGathering'' has the protagonists hiding from a madman while running through a field of corn near their house.
64	* There's a scene involving a chase through a cornfield in the movie version of ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince''.
65	* The protagonists of ''Film/{{Husk}}'' spend much of the film walking, running or driving through the seemingly endless cornfield that surrounds the house; usually with idea of what direction they are going.
66	* In ''Film/InTheTallGrass'', the protagonists hear a cry for help coming from a field of tall grass, and decide to investigate - but they quickly realize that the field is magical, and it's almost impossible to get out of it once you get in.
67	* A southern variant in ''Film/LockjawRiseOfTheKulevSerpent''. Kurt gets lost is a field of sugar cane while searching for Sam. He gets grabbed by the serpent and dragged away.
68	* ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark'' uses the tall grass variant. Doesn't make much of a difference, though, 'cuz everyone knows that Everything's Scarier with Velociraptors!
69	-->[[MemeticMutation "DON'T GO INTO THE LONG GRASS!"]]
70	* In 2010, a horror movie all about murders in a corn maze (at night!), [[SarcasmMode creatively]] called ''Film/TheMaze'' was released. Though in actuality, viewers probably do see more corn than murder.
71	* ''Film/TheMummyReturns'' has a scene where a bunch of {{mooks}} are ambushed and killed by pygmy zombies in waist-high plant life.
72	* The crop-duster attack in ''Film/NorthByNorthwest'' takes place in and around a cornfield.
73	* ''Film/{{Signs}}'': The priest lives next to a very creepy cornfield; he ends up being chased through it at night.
74	* ''Film/TheXFilesFightTheFuture'', with the bees in cornfields...
75	[[/folder]]
76
77	[[folder:Literature]]
78	* Creator/StephenKing's short story ''Literature/ChildrenOfTheCorn'' served as [[InNameOnly loose inspiration]] for an endless string of movies which are probably the example that a lot of people remember, and contributes a great deal to cornfields being associated with creepiness. The page quote above, from the original story, gives an example.
79	* The ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' book ''The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight'' has this, naturally.
80	* ''Literature/InCryptid'': The prologue of ''That Ain't Witchcraft'' features Annie and Sam destroying a Corn Blight, a FesteringFungus that kills and zombifies people who get lost in the corn.
81	* The Jerome Bixby short story "Literature/ItsAGoodLife", where the RealityWarper Anthony Fremont literally buries people who do anything he doesn't like in the cornfield behind his family's home. Served as the basis for a memorable [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E73ItsAGoodLife episode]] of ''Series/{{The Twilight Zone\|1959}}''.
82	* In ''Literature/TheLovelyBones'', Susie is [[ShortCutsMakeLongDelays cutting through]] a cornfield on her way home from school when a neighbor lures her into a secret underground room, rapes her and kills her.
83	* Averted in ''Literature/ReaperMan'', where the term "corn" actually refers to wheat.[[note]]"Corn" in general means any cereal grain, or indeed anything small and edible, as in "peppercorn" and "corned beef" where the "corns" involved are actually the large grains of rock salt used in the process; outside North America, the word used to refer to the kind of corn Americans usually mean when they say "corn" is "maize".[[/note]] This doesn't stop many American readers from getting a mental image of Death toiling in a creepy cornfield when they read this ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel.
84	* In Dorothy Canfield Fisher's short story "Sex Education" a town preacher lurks in a cornfield waiting to jump and rape any young girl dumb enough to wander nearby. It's heavily implied by the female characters that a number of other men in their town have similarly questionable hobbies, also involving young girls and cornfields.
85	* In King's novel ''Literature/TheStand'', a number of characters dream about being chased through a cornfield by the Dark Man.
86	[[/folder]]
87
88	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
89	* The ''Series/{{Bones}}'' episode "Mummy in the Maze".
90	* The series finale of ''Series/{{Carnivale}}'' has the climax take place in a cornfield, with Brother Justin chasing after Ben with a [[SinisterScythe scythe]], no less.
91	* The ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode "Middle Man", and the end of "The Big Game".
92	* [[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1k7nu_mtv-human-giant-corn-maze-leak_fun This]] eerie sketch from ''Series/HumanGiant'' exemplifies the mystique of the Corn Maze.
93	* One of Sal's punishments on ''Series/ImpracticalJokers'' sends him into a haunted cornfield. The hazards he encounters are a little girl in a dress, an unexpected air horn, a living scarecrow, a pile of manure, and Benjamin Cat.
94	* An episode of ''Series/TheMiddle'' had the teenaged son lose his little brother in a cornfield maze, and he kept running into the creepy [[CrustyCaretaker caretaker]] who told him about how he had lost his own little brother in a cornfield all those years ago.
95	* The Pawnee Harvest Festival had a maze in ''Series/ParksAndRecreation''. When Li'l Sebastian wanders in there, it leads to a massive manhunt. When [[ButtMonkey Jerry Gergich]] gets lost during the manhunt, everyone forgets about him.
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Music]]
99	* Music/SufjanStevens' ''Music/{{Illinois}}'' album has a short track about a RealLife corn maze, titled "[[DroneOfDread A Conjunction of Drones]] Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze".
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Podcasts]]
103	* In ''Podcast/{{Qwerpline}}'' there is a corn maze, often confusedly referred to as the maize corn, in which several visitors and search parties have disappeared, and people are warned to bring supplies in case they are lost. It's allowed to stay open though. It turns out they're falling into the "rum tunnels" smugglers dug under the town during Prohibition.
104	[[/folder]]
105
106	[[folder:Video Games]]
107	* In ''VideoGame/BatmanDoom'', one such maze pops up near the beginning of the level with the Scarecrow boss fight. It's full of gangsters and even spotting the passages is a problem, though the automap helps. Once you're past this part, the rest of the level is thankfully free of confusing view-obfuscating maize.
108	* ''VideoGame/DeadByDaylight'': The various Coldwind Farm maps are colloquially known as "corn maps" because they all have one trait in common along with decrepit structures and mutilated cattle -- fields of corn in the open spaces. These cornfields tend to favor Survivors and their Third-Person Viewpoint over Killers, who are locked in First-Person view and are thus more likely to have their view obstructed by it.
109	* There's a field in ''VideoGame/Fallout2'' where some guys scare intruders through ghostly images [[ScoobyDooHoax to keep them away]].
110	* ''Videogame/INSIDE2016'' has a decaying farm with a cornfield. The protagonist doesn't get lost, but the cornstalks do hide [[spoiler:a hatch leading to the Secret Ending]].
111	* There is exactly one frightening scene in ''VideoGame/LandOfTheDeadRoadToFiddlersGreen'' and it involves having to run through a cornfield as you hear zombies crashing around you, unseen.
112	* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead''
113	** "Blood Harvest", the fourth campaign of the first game, has a cornfield in the last level right before the finale. Survivors suffer from very reduced visibility while in the field[[note]]the fog and render distance even encroach closer to accentuate the effect[[/note]] and, as you walk by, you inevitably disturb [[CreepyCrows a murder of crows]], and the noise attracts a horde.
114	** ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' has a section set in a dense field of sugarcane between a decrepit sugar mill and a gas station in the fifth campaign, "Hard Rain". You have to cross it twice: the first time is during the day, cutting off the visibility you're used to when the sun is out, and making it very easy to bump into one of the ''many'' [[SavageSetpiece Witches]] in the level. The second time, you backtrack through it [[HostileWeather in the middle of a hurricane storm,]] so while the sugarcane cuts your vision to a few feet, [[InterfaceScrew the storm cuts your hearing]][[note]]both versions are a very popular ambush zone in Versus[[/note]]. And while the downpour has washed away the scent of sugar that brought out so many Witches before, a few can still spawn, and as it's dark, they're stationary and their aggro range is larger. Also, that section is frequently a Tank spawn point. The only boon the survivors get is a section of pipe that leads back to the main ruins and makes traveling by hopping on it faster than slogging through the water.
115	* ''VideoGame/{{Maize}}'' begins with you waking up in the middle of a cornfield, and traversing it becomes one of your initial goals while sifting through the puzzles and dealing with the odd talking corn.
116	* Never touch the cornfields in ''VideoGame/MediEvil''. You'll die very quickly. We're probably lucky they don't show ''what'' kills you...
117	* A chase through a corn field takes place a few times in ''VideoGame/OutlastII''. Although there are pathways in between certain sections, along with trash cans and pools of water to (temporarily) hide in, it doesn't make it any less terrifying when you see the flashlights of Knoth's followers coming from ''somewhere'' to hunt you down. At least their visibility isn't any better than yours.
118	* In the horror AdventureGame ''VideoGame/{{Sanitarium}}'', there's a creepy pumpkin patch in one chapter that fits this trope. It's the setting of one of the game's rare action sequences.
119	* ''VideoGame/ThanksKillingDay'': In order to get to his grandfather at the silo [[PlayerCharacter the kid]] needs to navigate a maze of what is presumed to be corn. [[spoiler:The horror doesn't start until he gets to the other side, though.]]
120	* In the standalone ''400 Days'' episode of Telltale's ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'', Bonnie's story takes place in a cornfield.
121	* In ''VideoGame/ZardysMaze'', the setting is a farm, and the place you will be in the most is a maize being hunted by ScaryScarecrows, most notably the title character, Zardy.
122	[[/folder]]
123
124	[[folder:Webcomics]]
125	* {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d in ''Webcomic/{{Lackadaisy}}'' when Rocky and Ivy run off into a cornfield in an attempt to lose the car chasing them. The corn turns out to be too short to hide them, prompting Rocky to say that "this is ''terrible'' corn!"
126	* In [[http://nedroid.com/2015/10/beartato-in-the-maze/ this]] ''Webcomic/{{Nedroid}}'' strip, Beartato gets so hopelessly lost in a corn maze, he begins to remember ''only'' the maze. The AltText claims that anyone still in a corn maze at the end of autumn becomes a scarecrow.
127	-->'''Reginald:''' Beartato! [[spoiler: I'm so glad you found me!]]
128	* The [[HalloweenEpisode Halloween-themed]] ''Webcomic/SkinDeep'' story "The One-Eyed Bear" centers around a road trip to an annual haunted corn maze attraction in Verona, MO referred to, appropriately enough, as [[http://www.themaize.com/sites.php?ID=&username=moverona The MAiZE]]. (See RealLife, below.) In keeping with getting lost, they stumble onto the attraction while fleeing from a nightmare and a [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demon]], only to be menaced by a [[HockeymaskAndChainsaw hockey-mask-wearing, chainsaw wielding maniac]] [[spoiler:who is actually both a performer in the haunted maze and a bugbear in human guise]].
129	[[/folder]]
130
131	[[folder:Web Videos]]
132	* The ''WebVideo/RegularCarReviews'' episode on the 2003 Toyota Tacoma ends with Mr. Regular inside a cornfield trying to find a way out.
133	-->'''Mr. Regular:''' Yeah, keep running. Keep running in that cornfield. Where's the way out? Where is the way out? [[OhCrap Oh, no, not that way.]]
134	* ''WebVideo/UnwantedHouseguest'': Episode 12 of "TRUE Scary Stories" features the main character lost in a corn maze.
135	[[/folder]]
136
137	[[folder:Western Animation]]
138	* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheBusyWorldOfRichardScarry'', [[RoadSignReversal an inadequately supported sign flips]] and sends people looking for a stall selling corn into the middle of a cornfield, where they can't find their way out again.
139	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Fillmore}}!'':
140	** "Two Wheels, Full Throttle, No Brakes". Of course X Middle School has its own corn maze. Why wouldn't it?
141	--> "The corn! IT ALL LOOKS THE SAME!"
142	* In the ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' episode "Roadside Attraction", Soos is accidentally left behind by the Pines in a Corn Maze tourist trap.
143	* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'', in its episode "Johnny, Real Good" (a parody of ''[[Series/TheTwilightZone1959 It's A Good Life]]'') has this as one of the torments that the RealityWarper boy inflicts upon Johnny: teleportation to an actual cornfield (not really that horrible, but still a minor annoyance for Johnny who has to walk back home), which becomes a RunningGag. [[spoiler:At the end of the episode, he teleports sleeping Johnny in his bed onto [[FarSideIsland a lonely island]] -- covered with maize.]]
144	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
145	** When Marge went to a therapist to deal with the roots of her fear of flying, one of her childhood memories was of her mother showing her a cornfield, only for a [[Film/NorthByNorthwest crop duster to show up and fire at them]].
146	** In another episode, Homer gets lost in a corn maze. He tries to just [[DungeonBypass shove his way through the hedges]], but discovers they're backed up by a fence--which is ''electrified''.
147	* ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'' had villainous sunflowerman El Seed raise an army out of an evil cornfield maze.
148	[[/folder]]
149
150	[[folder:Real Life]]
151	* Actual cornfield mazes are built in real life as attractions, and often give people the chance to go through them at night. Occasionally the cornfields are 'haunted' by people dressed in costume.
152	* After [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232 United Airlines Flight 232]] crash-landed at the Sioux Gateway Airport in Sioux City, Iowa, many of the surviving passengers got lost in the cornfields next to the airport, as the largest piece of the fuselage that came off the rest of the plane as it hit the ground came to a rest there. Lots of pieces from the plane were also strewn over the fields, and one lucky farmer received a modest reward for locating the fan disk from the engine which failed and led to the accident, as investigators couldn't find it among the tall corn.
153	* Averted in previous centuries, when corn hadn't yet been selectively bred to stand taller than a human. At least one Civil War battle's events [[DatedHistory had to be re-examined by historians]] when it was pointed out that corn grew only waist-high in the 1860s, hence couldn't have provided concealment to standing soldiers.
154	* Could become a ForgottenTrope as modern farming techniques plant corn too densely for a human to walk through.
155	* Grandparents born before TheGreatDepression who grew up on farms have told stories about how farmers of that day were afraid that gypsies would kidnap their children, and instructed their children to hide in cornfields whenever gypsies were around. The children were told to stay in one row of corn to avoid getting lost themselves.
156	* British soldiers fighting in France in the summer of 1944 were told that cornfields were very good cover on both grounds, concealment and protection, as a hundred feet of growing corn would stop bullets as effectively as six inches of brick wall.
157	[[/folder]]

Context Main / LostInTheMaize