[[MortalKombat http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yinyang-island.jpg]]
[[caption-width:320:The same...but ''different''.]]

->''"Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality. But... there is, unseen by most, an ''underworld''. A place that is just as real, but not as brightly lit.....a DARKSIDE."''
-->-- '''OpeningNarration''', ''TalesFromTheDarkside''

Drive down the old highway at midnight, walk through an ancient shrine to [[CosmicHorrorStory the Elder Gods]], or "sleep off" a bad trip from a strange drug that's darker than oil... and you'll end up in a parallel world made of your worst [[NightmareSequence nightmares]]. This is the DarkWorld.

It is a twisted fun-house mirror version of our world, filled with the distorted reflections of normal buildings, decayed into {{Sinister Subway}}s and {{Abandoned Hospital}}s. The changes can even extend to the layout of the city or area, the geography will turn [[MalevolentArchitecture malevolent]] as it gets [[BottomlessPits huge gaping holes]], fences, or other barriers [[InsurmountableWaistHighFence added]]-- or ''[[TheMaze removed.]]'' The dimensions don't [[AlienGeometries have to add up]] the way you learned in geometry class.

Its inhabitants will likely be similarly warped, if not monsters outright or unfathomable spirits. If the real world is also populated with monsters, expect the former to [[SortingAlgorithmOfEvil be tougher.]] Perhaps [[GeoEffects they feel at home in the dark?]]

It's not always literally darker, but often is. It might not [[DarkIsNotEvil necessarily be evil]], but often is.

The nature of the DarkWorld might never be revealed, but could very well be entirely "natural", or outright hellish. Entering the Dark World is usually distressingly easy: drive to a little old town, walk into a HauntedCastle, activate a strange device, SwirlyEnergyThingy, or go into a ConvenientComa near a [[PsychicDreamsForEveryone psychically charged]] place. The last one tends to be freakiest. Don't ask us why.

See also MirrorWorld and SpiritWorld, which may overlap at times. Frequently used as the horror genre form of EnvironmentalSymbolism, the Dark World shares some qualities with, but is distinct from, TimeTravel and AnotherDimension. If you travel from your hometown to a BadFuture where it's in ruins, that's TimeTravel. If you travel from your hometown to a [[TheLostWoods fantasy forest]], that's AnotherDimension. But if you travel from your hometown to a dark, twisted parody of your hometown filled with monsters... congratulations, enjoy your stay in the Dark World.

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!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime ]]

* Inside the Gate in ''DarkerThanBlack''.
* Closed Space in ''SuzumiyaHaruhi''. Gloomy.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* ''CarnivalOfSouls'' may be one of the first films to use this. The protagonist would at times slip out of the perception of those around her, losing all sound as well. Other times, near the titular Carnival, the games and rides would come alive, as would ghoulish dancers who beckoned her...
* In HayaoMiyazaki's ''SpiritedAway'', the seemingly abandoned theme-park/town undergoes a similar transformation at sunset as the streets and buildings come alive with eerie spirits. It [[DarkIsNotEvil isn't actually evil]], though; it's merely where ''kami'' and ghosts go to relax, and naturally is only active after dark.
* ''MirrorMask'', although there is also a Light World.
* In the ''SuperMarioBros''. movie, the parallel dimension city is essentially the DarkWorld to New York.
* ''[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ptitlemy3qh6qc Jacob's Ladder]]'' seems to revolve around a character's frequent shifts from his ordinary life into a nightmarish dark world filled with demons. It eventually turns out that [[spoiler: he's been DeadAllAlong, and both worlds represented his refusal to let go of his earthly cares and embrace the afterlife.]] This film unsurprisingly served as a primary inspiration for the ''SilentHill'' series.
* Many dreamscapes in the {{A Nightmare On Elm Street}} films resemble a Dark World version of Springwood.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* Yami-gaia in ''SailorNothing''.
** Which happens to almost literally mean "dark world".
* Dark Manhattan in the first book of the ''YoungWizards'' series.
** In the first book of the ''Feline Wizards'' SpinOff series, the underground city of the Children of The Serpent is also described as a twisted reflection of Manhattan.
* The Dungeon Dimensions from ''{{Discworld}}''.
* ''{{Coraline}}''.
* Alan Dean Foster's ''Into the Out Of'', where the Out Of is the parallel dimension where the demons are coming from. The heroes have to go there to close the gates. This book did quite a good job of giving [[MasterTMO me]] heebie-jeebies for some time after reading it.
* John Metcalfe's short story ''The Bad Land'' helps makes this trope OlderThanTelevision, as a new arrival at a British health clinic soon discovers an abandoned road that gradually leads him into an eerie, twilight version of reality that only one other resident has experienced. That resident has a theory that pockets of "the bad lands", as he calls them, are erupting and invisibly spreading from central points all over the world, but the story leaves open the possibility that both of them are [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness mentally unstable]].
* Shadow in Tim Waggoner's ''Like Death''.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* Overall it's not completely dark, but ''{{Neverwhere}}'' does have spots that distinctly qualify such as The Bridge of Night and The Beast's Labyrinth and it does exist parallel to Earth.
* ''KingdomHospital'' characters frequently change perspectives from the hospital at present, the sanatarium from the 1930's, and [[spoiler: the mill from the 1870's whose burning to the ground with children still inside causes these perspective changes.]]
* ''KamenRiderDecade'' has the Negative World, where the heroes arrive after helping out in the worlds of their nine predecessors. It looks like Natsumi's homeworld, but is full of human-hunting monsters and evil Kamen Riders like [[KamenRiderRyuki Ryuga]], [[KamenRiderFaiz Orga]], [[KamenRiderKabuto Dark Kabuto]] and [[KamenRiderKiva Dark Kiva]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* Tabletop RPG example: The fourth edition of ''DungeonsAndDragons'' introduced a new campaign setting with two such worlds: The Feywild, a more fey-oriented and [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin wild]] version of the material plane, and Shadowfell, the bleakly depressing afterlife.
** The third edition already has one, the Plane of Shadows.
** And when we say "introduce a new campaign setting", we mean "[[BrokenBase force all the old campaign settings to include]]".
* The new version of ''TheWorldOfDarkness'' has a few of these: the Shadow Realm (an animistic reflection of Earth occupied by spirits), the Underworld (seldom glimpsed, but not a bright and cheery place), and the Hedge (the midpoint between Earth and [[TheFairFolk Faerie]], equally wondrous and dangerous).
** The original ''WorldOfDarkness'' had the Penumbra and Dark Umbra.
* The ''[=KULT=]'' [[TabletopRPG roleplaying game]]: The endless city of Metropolis and the nightmareish realms connected to it, filled with twisted mockeries of life and sanity. The True Reality, as opposed to the illusion of the "real world" that mankind lives in.
* In the JAGS Wonderland RPG, ''Chessboard Two'' is like this, being a broken and deserted reflection of "Chessboard Zero" (the real world, or at least the world we live in) populated by ... ''things''.
* The Nightlands invading the real world is the central premise of Palladium's Nightspawn/Nightbane RPG (name changed after first printing for legal reasons). The Nightlands are Ruled by demonic sorcerers and illusionists who keep the mindless doppelgangers of real world people as slaves. There is also The Dreamscape where nightmares are literally real, and can find their way into the real world.
* Evil Hat Productions' ''[[http://www.evilhat.com/home/dryh/ Don't Rest Your Head]]'' is an RPG set in a world clearly inspired by the titular ''[[DarkCity Dark City]]'', and Neil Gaiman's London Below from ''{{Neverwhere}}''; and which is reachable by the protagonist only after succumbing to destabilizing, long-term insomnia-fueled madness-inducing sleep-deprivation.
* The Shadowmoor setting in MagicTheGathering is the DarkWorld version of Lorwyn.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* The Trope Namer is the Dark World from ''TheLegendOfZelda: [[TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast A Link to the Past]]'', which is technically called "The Golden Realm" but was corrupted by Ganon centuries earlier.
** Another ''Legend Of Zelda'' example, of course, would be the encroachment of the Twilight into Hyrule in ''[[TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]''. Any area under the sway of the Twilight looks essentially identical to its normal state, except that the colors are washed out and little bits of darkness constantly peel off of everything and float up toward the sky. Sapient beings are turned into spirits that look like little wisps of light, and non-sapient beings are turned into black, tentacly versions of themselves.
* ''{{Metroid}} Prime 2'' has Dark Aether, which was created when a Phazon-infused meteor struck the surface of Aether and split the planet into two parallel dimensions. In addition to being populated by tougher monsters, Dark Aether constantly drains your health (ridiculouly quickly at first, then more slowly once you get certain upgrades) if you're not standing in a safe zone generated by certain crystals.
* This is one of the tropes upon which ''SilentHill'' was built.
* The Shadow Plane in ''NeverwinterNights2: Mask of the Betrayer''.
* The alternate dark hotel from Trilby's Notes of ''ChzoMythos.''
* ''LegacyOfKain: Soul Reaver'' had a "spirit realm" you had to enter to solve certain puzzles. The geography would often twist and warp, creating paths that weren't in the physical realm. Not to mention the tortured spirits that would hunt you down.
* Amaterasu Server in ''{{Digimon}} World 3'' is something like a Dark World version of the regular game world. Not really evil, just shrouded in eternal darkness. Comparitively, the Asuka Server where you start out in is always sunny 24/7. Travel between the two "servers" is done using a combination of 2 different secret (and dangerous) routes.
* In the ''Dark Seed'' games, the Dark World is a twisted, desolate alternate version of Earth. It doesn't help that H.R. Giger designed it.
* Moonside from ''EarthBound'', though [[spoiler: it's just a hallucination caused by the Mani Mani statue]].
* In the ''{{Constantine}}'' [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames tie-in video game]] you keep alternating between the real world and Hell to solve puzzles, leading to some ridiculous situations. As one review stated, "what kind of game has you ''going through Hell'' to ''open a '''door'''?''.
** There better have been something awesome on the other side of that door.
* The Red Night in ''[=~11eyes~=]'', a world categorized by its [[WeirdMoon overlarge black moon]] and [[RedSkyTakeWarning red sky]]. Electricity doesn't work in this world, all people except for the chosen six disappear, and horrific monsters roam the streets. Scary place.
* ''TheWhiteChamber'' two main "dark world" sequences, complete with more NightmareFuel than usual, RoomFullOfCrazy, and really, really weird reality warping. [[spoiler:However, the "regular" station you go through most of the game in is ''also'' a dark world of sorts, you see what the station really is supposed to look like at the end.]]
* ''{{Persona 4}}'' places all of its dungeons in a world accessed by sticking your head through a turned-off TV. Each new dungeon reflects how the victim of the month sees the world around him.
** Persona3 has a "Dark Hour" between midnight and 12:01am when the Shadows come out to play: the sky turns a sickly green, the city's splattered in blood, and most humans are turned into indestructible coffins. They're the lucky ones.
*** And let's not forget Tartarus, a twisted tower that grows out of the ground each Dark Hour.
* The freeware game ''{{Eversion}}'' starts out in a typically cheerful retro platformer world, but in order to progress you must "everse" yourself into ever darker Dark Worlds- a "descent into PlatformHell" if you will.
* [[FinalFantasyXI Dynamis]]. A dream world originally created by the avatar Diabolos to escape the [[CosmicHorror Emptiness]], other beings began to be pulled in, and turned it into a Beastmen-dominated version of Vana'diel. The area itself is warped enough that aside from temporary visits by players(Even then, they need spiritual assistance to get in), if you get stuck in there, it's for ''good''.
* The fractured nature of reality in ''PlanescapeTorment'' lends to many dark worlds and subworlds. The beginning Morgue appears to be one, but it's just the creepier side of a CrapsackWorld; there are still the Lady's pocket dimension mazes and the Negative Material Plane.
* ''[[{{Doom}} Doom 3]]'' has moments throughout the game where the hero seems to see reality change from the already wrecked, lifeless base into a blood-streaked, skeleton-littered nightmare world, only for everything to snap back to normal a second later.
* There's a Dark Realm in ''[[RaidouKuzunohaVsTheSoullessArmy the Devil Summoner:]] [[RaidouKuzunohaVsKingAbaddon Raidou Kuzunoha games]]'', although it's not quite as creepy and twisted as most of these. It's mostly just, well... dark, and full of demons.
* Although it was only briefly glimpsed at the end of the first movie, the ''GhostBusters'' video game reveals that the ghost world is like this.
* The PC Game ''[[TheBlairWitchProject Blair Witch Volume 1: Rustin Parr]]'' uses this trope to help explain some of the movie's mysteries. The woods of Burkittsville contain hidden "paths", as described by Native American lore, that twist through different levels of reality. While the normal forest is safe enough, there are other versions of it, such as the crimson-lit "Red Woods" and the foggy, twilight "Blue Woods", each inhabited by its own monsters and bearing key geographical differences (for example, in the normal woods, Rustin Parr's house has burned to the ground, but it's still standing in the Red Woods). The worst of these worlds is the Black Woods, a snowy, pitch-black level of reality that "[[EldritchAbomination the Hecaitomix]]" has made its home.
* Although Outworld in the ''MortalKombat'' series is usually just AnotherDimension, one arena in ''Mortal Kombat: Deception'' crosses into this territory. The Yin-Yang Island is a tropical island that's caught between dimensions: it shifts constantly from the sunny, sandy beach on Earth into a stormswept Outworld nightmare during the battle, with the palm trees changing into giant snakes and back, and the ocean either being clear and peaceful or murky and swarming with piranhas.
* One of the first video game appearances of a dark world is in the cult classic NES game ''MonsterParty'', a platformer that has the hero going to a planet of monsters to rescue a princess. The first level's set in a pastel GhibliHills world with rows of happy people in the background beneath a a bright blue sky. Halfway through the level, a bolt of lightning crashes, and everything changes: the people are rotting corpses, the world's turned to sickly shades of green and black, and the music's changed to a solemn dirge.
* In ''[[http://akrasia.en.softonic.com/ Akrasia]]'', if you go for some time without collecting pills in the maze, the maze goes from bright and cheery to dark and gloomy. And then a monster descends upon you, [[InterfaceScrew reversing your direction keys]]. You can easily return to the light world by taking a pill. [[spoiler:Subverted in that the Dark World is actually the world that contains the exit from the maze; if you keep on taking the pills to stay in the non-dark world, you'll be unable to escape the maze (and will eventually ''die''). The seemingly nightmarish world is meant to represent drug withdrawal in that it can be frightening at first and ''very'' tempting to flee back to the apparently much more pleasant world with just another pill, but that if the player resists the temptation to take more pills in favor of finding an actual way out, s/he successfully "kicks the habit" and is able to return home.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* Zimmy from ''GunnerkriggCourt'' occasionally gets pulled into a twisted city, with subtle AlienGeometries, defaced mannequins in boarded-up buildings, bizarre silhouettes of people and centipedes in the windows, and a native population that consists entirely of [[TheBlank creepy people with no faces]] and even creepier {{doppelganger}}s of people Zimmy knows. It's unclear if this place is real, or just [[BlackBugRoom a dark corner of Zimmy's mind]].
** Tom Siddell loosely modeled this place after his hometown, Birmingham. Given the way he describes the city, he seems to consider Birmingham a RealLife example of this setting as well.
*** This led to many of the fans referring to Zimmy's mind city as Sunny Birmingham.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* The Halloween episode of ''InvaderZim'' has, appropriately enough, a NightmareFuelUnleaded dark world born out of (or, at least, somehow connected to) the hero Dib's mind. Eventually the [[EldritchAbomination eldritch abominations]] lurking within it manage to capture and use Dib as a gateway into the real world... and the sight of the series' own CrapsackWorld sends them fleeing right back into the dark world.
** To be fair, the first thing the spider demon of Mrs. Bitters saw was a bloated, super fat Gir in his green dog [[StrangelyEffectiveDisguise "diguise"]], surrounded by the moaning "corpses" of children in Halloween costumes he stole candy from. Though honestly, the nightmare dimension she came from probably ''was'' better (or at least had little chance to be ''worse'') than the real world. At least it beats the dimension of eternal itching and restlessness. Or the room with a moose. [-[[MaximumFunChamber *Shudder*]]-]

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