[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fourpastmidnight_6514.jpg]]

''Four Past Midnight'' is a 1990 collection of four horror novellas by SpeculativeFiction writer Creator/StephenKing. The stories include:

* ''Literature/TheLangoliers'': A group of people on a cross-country red-eye flight awaken to find their fellow passengers (and the plane's crew) have completely disappeared.
* ''Secret Window, Secret Garden'': A writer has to deal with accusations of plagiarism from a particularly unhinged man.
* ''The Library Policeman'': A man who is struggling to write a speech checks out two books on the subject, and becomes stalked by a strange man, and an equally strange librarian.
* ''The Sun Dog'': A sort of {{prequel}} to ''Literature/NeedfulThings'' about a MagicalCamera.

''The Langoliers'' was made into a two-apart 1995 MiniSeries from the director of ''Film/ChildsPlay''. ''Secret Window, Secret Garden'' was made into the 2004 film ''Film/SecretWindow'', starring Creator/JohnnyDepp.
----

!! A Description of Tropes appearing in Four Past Midnight:

%% * AnimalisticAbomination: The titular being in "The Sun Dog" is more than likely one of these.
%% * ArbitrarySkepticism: Pop Merrill has a case of this, in spite of specializing in selling supernatural artifacts and having sold some that drive their buyer insane.
%% * AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Pop Merrill]].
%% * AxCrazy: Craig Toomy in "The Langoliers."
* BigBad:
** The Langoliers: The titular monsters serve as this as they are consuming the past and threaten to consume the main characters with it who have flown through a time rift. Craig Toomey serves as TheHeavy as the most direct threat while The Langoliers are approaching.
** Secret Window, Secret Garden: John Shooter AKA [[spoiler: Mort Rainey’s alternate personality]] who kick-started the plot by claiming Mort stole his story.
** The Library Policeman: Ardelia Lortz aka [[spoiler: The Library Policeman]] a creature similar to Pennywise the Dancing Clown who used to work at the library Sam Peebles works to feed on the children’s fear. [[spoiler: It is responsible for the sexual assault of Sam Peebles as a young boy and wants to use him as its new face, replacing Ardelia Lortz.]]
** The Sun Dog: The titular Sun Dog, a mysterious creature that inhabits and is trying to escape the camera it is trapped in in order to kill Kevin Delevan.
* BigGood: Whoever it is in "The Sun Dog" who sends Kevin helpful psychic dreams.
* {{Brainwashed}}: The longer one possesses the MagicalCamera in "The Sun Dog", the more influence it exerts over its owner. [[spoiler:Pop Merrill]] eventually winds up turned into its slave.
* TheCameo: Recurring Castle Rock characters Sheriff Alan Pangborn and Deputy Norris Ridgewick make brief cameos in "The Sun Dog".
* CanonWelding: "The Sun Dog," like many King stories, takes place in Castle Rock, Maine.
%% * ClockRoaches: The Langoliers.
* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: The Deere sisters from "The Sun Dog" are quite eccentric (and pretentious), but their claim that the camera is evil is spot on and their begging Pop to destroy it is justified.
* DeadAnimalWarning: In the short story ''Secret Window, Secret Garden'' Mort's cat is killed with a screwdriver and left as a warning by his StalkerWithoutACrush. [[spoiler: John Shooter is revealed to be in Mort's head the whole time. Mort killed his own cat.]]
* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: Sam and Naomi from "The Library Policeman"]] go through hell and back, but their fate looks rosier than almost any other King characters' by the end.
%% * EmotionEater: Ardelia Lortz in "The Library Policeman."
%% * EvilIsBurningHot: The titular dog in "The Sun Dog" seems to radiate extreme heat.
%% * EvilLibrarians: Ardelia Lortz again.
* TheGhost: Tansy from "The Library Policeman", an intended victim of Ardelia (who instead ended up killing her father), who attends the same AA group as some of the story's main characters but never physically appears in the present.
%% * HauntedTechnology / MagicalCamera: How the monster in "The Sun Dog" enters reality. [[spoiler: At first.]]
%% * HotLibrarian: How Ardelia appears to some people.
%% * HumanoidAbomination: Ardelia Lortz.
* IDieFree: [[spoiler: Dave]] in "The Library Policeman" dies sober and with Ardelia's influence lifted at last.
%% * JerkAss: Pop Merrill in "The Sun Dog".
%% * LovecraftCountry
%% * MostWritersAreWriters: Mort Rainey and John Shooter in "Secret Window, Secret Garden."
%% * NiceJobBreakingItHero: Getting Pop Merrill involved with the camera proves to be a bad, ''bad'' idea.
* NobodyPoops: Averted in "Secret Window, Secret Garden." Mort poops.
* NonProtagonistResolver: In "Secret Window, Secret Garden" the day is saved by the arrival of a previously unmentioned insurance investigator looking into the arson of Mort's home.
* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:'''The dog is loose again. It is not sleeping. It is not lazy. It's coming for you, Kevin. It's very hungry. And it's VERY angry.''']]
* NothingIsScarier: It’s never made clear what the dog is, how it got trapped in the camera, or who took the photos of it that caused the whole mess. Kevin theorizes it to be some sort of being that inhabits a realm that exists within photos, but there’s enough evidence to suggest he might be wrong.
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Ardelia Lortz in "The Library Policeman" is a different kind of vampire indeed. Instead of sucking blood, she [[EmotionEater feeds on her victim's fear]], which manifests itself as bloody looking tears oozing from the corners of their eyes. Ardelia's face transforms into a cornucopia-like snout which sucks up the tears as they are expelled.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The Library Policeman in the short story of the same name takes the form of a man who did this once to the [[spoiler: protagonist]] during his childhood.
* TheRenfield: Dave Duncan served as this to Ardelia Lortz in “The Library Policeman” as a young man which contributed to his alcoholism in later life. He escaped when Lortz entered hibernation and helped Sam and Naomi defeat her when she returned.
%% * SanitySlippage: In "The Sun Dog" the dog causes Pop Merrill to suffer this, [[spoiler:so that it can brainwash him into releasing it.]]
%% * ScaryLibrarian: Ardelia Lortz in "The Library Policeman."
%%* ShowWithinAShow: The short stories "Secret Window" and "Sowing Season" in "Secret Window, Secret Garden."
* TelevisionPortal: The dog in "The Sun Dog" seems to be able to enter through the real world in any form of technology.
* WentToTheGreatXInTheSky: In "The Library Policeman", the town's resident drunk, Dirty Dave, is said to have gone to the "great ginmill in the sky".
* WritingAboutYourCrime: Inverted in "Secret Window, Secret Garden''. A man accuses the protagonist of plagiarizing a story about a double murder and the subsequent disposing of the bodies. [[spoiler:He ends up realizing the other man doesn't exist and attempting to commit the crimes and hiding the bodies exactly as described in the story. He does it in the movie version.]]
----