[[FinalFantasyVIII http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ultimecia-castle.jpg]]
[[caption-width:350:God help you if you need to [[NobodyPoops find the]] [[OhCrap bathroom.]]]]

->''"Would you put up with a row of whirling knives in the cereal aisle at Safeway?" the {{Double Dragon}} guy asked. "Of course not. Why, then, should DukeNukem have to run through a corridor of them to get the [[HealThyself health pack]] he needs to survive?"''\\
-- ''TheOnion'', [[http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28338 "Video-Game Characters Denounce Randomly Placed Swinging Blades"]]

''Who designed this place? Cuisinart?''

Imagine if, every time you went to work, you had to negotiate a [[LaserHallway complicated laser grid]] just to get in the building. Every time you needed to open a [[LockedDoor door]], you needed to go on a long trek to find a key, which [[InterchangeableAntimatterKeys disappeared into the aether as soon as you used it]]. If you needed a new stapler, you'd have to [[BlockPuzzle push giant granite blocks around a room]]. Every room is a puzzle, every hallway a maze, and the slightest mistake invites death. Shortcuts? Forget it. They either [[BrokenBridge prove impassable]] or [[ScriptBreaking zap you back]] outside the laser grid. And that's without having to [[EverythingTryingToKillYou fight every living thing that crosses your path]]. And it [[ChaosArchitecture will be a different set of challenges during your next adventure]]. In short, everything is explicitly and obviously designed to make life as difficult for you as possible. (Not to mention in [[NoOSHACompliance violation of every building code]] in existence.)

Such are the lives of {{video game characters}}, where the layout of buildings seems completely divorced from any practical purpose the designers might have originally envisioned for them. Castles aren't large walled structures where people live and work, they're intricate [[TheMaze mazes]] riddled with [[SpikesOfDoom spike traps]]. [[TempleOfDoom Temples]] aren't places where people go to worship their various deities, they're where the ancients practiced their BoobyTrap- and DeathCourse-making skills (and they were so good at it that they are [[DurableDeathtrap still functional after hundreds of years without maintenance]]). Even places like warehouses and [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer sewers]], where the design should be fairly straightforward, are designed solely to deter intruders, even if there is no earthly reason why it should be so, and even if it utterly inconveniences non-intruders. One wonders what the regular people do.

In short, ''anything'' can be a dungeon if the designers need it to be. Related to SoupCans. The architectural equivalent of EverythingTryingToKillYou.

Contrast BenevolentArchitecture. Game worlds are often made up of equal parts Benevolent and Malevolent Architecture -- this is one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality, as without the former you wouldn't have a game, and without the latter the game would be too easy.

See also AlienGeometries, for something that does something similar, except [[BrownNote to your brain]].

%%Do no remove the folders, they are the standard.
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[[foldercontrol]]

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* [[TheLibraryOfBabel Library Island]] from ''MahouSenseiNegima''. A library with not only monsters, but also booby traps.
** So much so that there's an entire club dedicated to exploring it. A member of the club actually becomes a full-fledged treasure hunter in a later arc. Library Island is apparently comparable to the most dangerous dungeons the Magic World has to offer.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Card Games]]
* A number of cards in ''[=~Magic: The Gathering~=]'''s Stronghold set seem to be derived directly from this trope. Particularly malevolent examples include [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5124 Ensnaring Bridge]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5113 Bottomless Pit]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5222 Shifting Wall]], and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5268 Wall of Razors]]. As if those features weren't hazardous enough, the backstory has the eponymous Stronghold seated inside a volcano.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comics]]
* One issue of ''SwampThing'' contains a FictionalCounterpart of the Winchester Mystery House, listed below.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films]]
* From ''The Emperor's New Groove'': "[[InventionalWisdom Why do we even ''have'' that lever?]]"
** Is that the one that drops the person who pulled it into the crocodile pit?
*** Indeed.
* In ''GalaxyQuest'', Sigourney Weaver complains a lot about having to go through a DeathCourse to disarm a nuclear reactor:
-->'''Gwen [=DeMarco=]:''' What is this thing? I mean, it serves no useful purpose for there to be a bunch of [[SmashingHallwayTrapsOfDoom chompy, crushy things in the middle of a hallway]]. No, I mean we shouldn't have to do this, it makes no logical sense, why is it here?\\
'''Jason Nesmith:''' 'Cause it's on the television show.\\
'''Gwen [=DeMarco=]:''' Well forget it! I'm not doing it! This episode was badly written!
* If we're looking for a pyramid-shaped building complete with [[ChaosArchitecture moving three-dimensional puzzle hallways and chambers]], where death can jump at you from every angle in the form of deadly monsters, look no further than the movie ''AVP: AlienVsPredator''. That pyramid was explicitly designed to be a maze where [[EverythingTryingToKillYou a lurking enemy]] ''[[EverythingTryingToKillYou is]]'' [[EverythingTryingToKillYou trying to kill you]] and the hunter can become the hunted.
** Not that the architecture in the games of the same franchise is much friendlier, though...
* Another prime example of MalevolentArchitecture, created no doubt as a sadist experiment in human psychology: the trap in the chilling movie ''{{Cube}}''. Every room is indeed a puzzle, and the slightest mistake will invite death. In short, everything is explicitly designed to be as lethal as possible, to force the unwilling participants to work together or perish.
* A more subtle example occurs in the film ''Targets''; murderer-to-be Bobby Thompson [[strike:lives]] exists with his parents and wife in a suburban house "decorated" in such hideous sterile banality that it would drive anyone insane.
* The house at the center of the Jacques Tati film ''Mon Oncle'' is much the same, although this time it's played for comedy. In Tati's follow-up film ''Play Time'', the theme is carried even further, showing an entire section of Paris ruthlessly sealed up in glass, concrete, glass, metal and then more glass.
* [[TempleOfDoom The Black Fortress]] in ''{{Krull}}'' was one of these, including pits that randomly open and a spike trap room with absolutely no purpose. Then again, almost everything in that movie was bizarre and fatal.
* ''{{City of Ember}}'' has an escape route (meant to eventually be followed by all the inhabitants, no less) that requires activating a complex machine that moves around small boats, destabilizes a power reactor, generates a powerful water current and finally blasts the hapless citizens in the aforementioned tiny boats through a waterslide course any entertainment company would pay millions for (replete with suspended structure). You'd think they could have built, I dunno, ''an elevator'' instead...
* When JudgeDredd and Fergie are sneaking back into Mega-City One, they do so via a vent that belches fire every thirty seconds. Dredd mentions that some people figured out the pattern, but died trying to take advantage of it.
* This is the WeaponOfChoice of Death in the ''FinalDestination'', applicable to any location: Electric devices malfunction, containers holding liquids leak, sharp objects line up, heavy objects start moving, load-bearing structures break and so on.
* Doors in ''StarWars'' often make you wonder if they were designed by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph-Ignace_Guillotin Joseph-Ignace Guillotin]]. See [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hFWz145aJc the scene where Obi-Wan tells Luke that the Force will be with him always]]. Careful with that door, Luke!
*Played seriously and fairly well in ThePeopleUnderTheStairs. The house is designed to keep people in, and includes secret rooms, trick stairs, and electrified doorknobs.
* Another literal example, like the one in ''Neverwhere'', can be found in the StephenKing movie ''1408''. "It's an evil fucking room!"
[[/folder]]


[[folder:Literature]]
* In NeilGaiman's ''{{Neverwhere}}'', a room in the monastery of the Black Friars is ''literally'' malevolent, as entering it gives you horrific visions of your own worthlessness and cheerily urges you to commit suicide.
* TerryPratchett's ''Discworld/ReaperMan'' features the Lost Jewelled {{Temple of Doom}} of Offler the Crocodile God. The priests have a very easy time of it as, of the very few people who ever find the place, none get past the DeathCourse, even as far as the jolly drawing of a thermometer for the Roof Repair Fund (a joke about the maintenance problems of old English churches, by the way). The priests barely look up from their game of cards to comment, "Heyup, another one for the big rolling ball, then." To date, two people have gotten through -- one is Mrs. Cake, feared by all churches as a stubborn busybody, and the other is Death. When the latter showed up, the priests ran screaming thinking it was the former.
* Then, when NeilGaiman and TerryPratchett [[GoodOmens co-wrote a book]], the M25 London orbital motorway is ascribed this status.
* The [[color:blue:house]] from ''{{House of Leaves}}''. And not in the "ludicrously designed" sense, but in the "actively trying to eat the residents" sense.
* The [[http://www.dionaea-house.com Dionaea House]].
* Spoofed in Pelevin's ''Prince of Central Planning'', where the protagonist has to pass through ''{{Prince of Persia}}''-styled deathtraps routinely while going around his job (being a petty clerk in Central Planning).
* [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in ''TheEnglishPatient''; the characters live in a villa that was [[BoobyTrap booby-trapped]] by retreating Axis forces.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* Subverted in the ''DoctorWho'' comedy special "The Curse of Fatal Death", where the Doctor reveals he popped back in time to have a word with the architect, so the Master's would-be death trap dungeon turns out instead to contain only a Sofa of Reasonable Comfort.
** In fact, the Master bribed the architect to install death-traps, but the Doctor anticipated that he'd do this, and bribed the architect to allow for escape from said death-traps, but the Master anticipated this bribery, and bribed the architect to install more death-traps, but the Doctor anticipated this too, and bribed the architect in defense. Eventually, the Master decides that after meeting the Doctor, he'll [[WildStallionRule go back and buy the architect an expensive dinner.]] However, [[spoiler:the Doctor already had dinner with him.]]
** The ''DoctorWho'' episode "Paradise Towers" had a malevolent ''architect'' who designed his apartment complex to be a DeathTrap because [[CompletelyMissingThePoint he couldn't stand the idea of people living in and "ruining" his perfect structures]].
** In part 3 of ''The Keys of Marinus'', a building full of [[DeathTrap Death Traps]] houses one of the titular artifacts.
* ''Robot Wars'' (no, not the [[SuperRobotWars super]] kind) and ''Battlebots'', both shows featuring homemade combat machines, had the arena be as much of a potential threat at the other robots. Sawblades, spikes from the floor, fire coming from the ground, and many other things were available for potential damage. The former even had a [[BottomlessPits Pit Of Do... Oblivion]], which was an instant win if a team got the opponent in it, along with being a disposal bin of sorts for defeated robots; and the "Drop Zone", in which defeated robots are placed on a square on the ground with something very heavy hanging above. [[AnvilOnHead What's about to happen]] should be quite obvious.
** Not to mention "The Flipper". Defeated robots got some of their dignity back by getting air time. LOTS of air time.
* ''Rose Red''. (Also based on the Winchester Mystery House.)
* Let's hear it from ''MontyPython'':
-->'''Mr. Tid:''' Gentlemen, we have two basic suggestions for the design of this architectural block, the residential block, and I thought it best that the architects themselves came in to explain the advantages of both designs.\\
''(knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock)''\\
'''Mr. Tid:''' That must be the first architect now. Ah, yes. It's Mr. Wiggin of Ironside and Malone.\\
'''Mr. Wiggin:''' Good morning, gentlemen. Uh, this is a twelve-storey block combining classical neo-Georgian features with all the advantages of modern design. Uhh, the tenants arrive in the entrance hall here, are carried along the corridor on a conveyor belt in extreme comfort and past murals depicting Mediterranean scenes, towards the rotating knives. The last twenty feet of the corridor are heavily soundproofed. The blood pours down these chutes and the mangled flesh slurps into these large containers--\\
'''City Gent #1:''' Excuse me.\\
'''Mr. Wiggin:''' Hmm?\\
'''City Gent #1:''' Uh, did you say "knives"?\\
'''Mr. Wiggin:''' Uh, rotating knives. Yes.\\
'''City Gent #2:''' Are you, uh, proposing to slaughter our tenants?\\
'''Mr. Wiggin:''' Does that not fit in with your plans?\\
'''City Gent #1:''' No, it does not. Uh, we-- we wanted a... simple... block of flats.\\
'''Mr. Wiggin:''' Ahh, I see. I hadn't, uh, correctly divined your attitude...\\
'''City Gent #2:''' Uh, huh huh.\\
'''Mr. Wiggin:''' ... towards your tenants.\\
'''City Gent #2:''' Huh huh.\\
'''Mr. Wiggin:''' You see, I mainly design slaughter houses.\\
'''City Gent #1:''' Yes. Pity.\\
'''Mr. Wiggin:''' Mind you, this is a real beaut. I mean, none of your blood caked on the walls and flesh flying out of the windows inconveniencing passers-by with this one. I mean, my life has been building up to this.\\
'''City Gent #2:''' Yes, and well done, huh, but we did want a block of flats.\\
'''Mr. Wiggin:''' Well, may I ask you to reconsider? I mean, you wouldn't regret it. Think of the tourist trade.\\
'''City Gent #1:''' No, no, it's-- it's just that we wanted a block of flats and not an abattoir.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Alpha Complex, the dilapidated underground city in the [[TabletopGames tabletop roleplaying game]] ''{{Paranoia}}'', thanks to the benevolent rule of your friend, The Computer (an insane and [[NineteenEightyFour Orwellian Big Brother type]] A.I. that rules over all of Alpha Complex). Danger lurks around every corner and in every hallway, ranging from nuclear leaks, crazed robots, medical experiments and exploding prototype equipment to your fellow clone citizens out for a quick promotion. The bureaucracy is a maze that strangles you in red tape. And let's not even talk about the food vats. The slightest mistake (such as failing to display the mandatory, required level of happiness, or failing to duck in time) can be instantly fatal, or at least invite summary execution.
* Many dungeons in ''[[DungeonsAndDragons Dungeons & Dragons]]'', especially those with the infamous Grimtooth traps.
** ESPECIALLY the ''{{Tomb of Horrors}}''. The dungeon was pretty much explicitly designed by Gary Gygax as a means to speed player characters to a painful doom, unless they were exceptionally lucky and of godlike intelligence. Justified in its sequel ''Return to the Tomb of Horrors'' where it's revealed [[spoiler:that the original inhabitant of the Tomb, the lich Acererak, purposefully spread rumors of the fabulous wealth of the tomb to lure adventurers in, killing them and harvesting their soul energy in a bid for godhood.]]
*** ''Tomb of Horrors'' is something of a TropeCodifier amongst [=RPGs=]. It was created with this trope in mind: a place where the layout and traps would provide most of the danger, rather than monsters and combat.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Dracula's Castle in all its forms in the ''{{Castlevania}}'' games. Given who it belongs to, it is quite literally malevolent.
* The entire ''TombRaider'' series really, but in particular ''Tomb Raider 2'', in which an oil rig, a sunken ship and the streets of Venice usually feature doors that require a 3-mile away switch to open, deadly traps, timed runs through flames, extremely tall ladders, boulders, "dropped" keys that could only have been put there on purpose, and generally anything to pad the levels out and make them interesting.
** ''Legend'' both plays this straight and plays with it a little. In one particular tomb, Lara is somewhat disappointed to find that the death traps are ''not'' functioning. Even if activating them wasn't a requirement of passing the BrokenBridge puzzle that impeded progress through the level, one feels that she would have figured out how to get the traps running regardless. It's only a matter of time before she installs a sawblade corridor in Croft Manor.
***She actually mentioned installing them in the Gym, which is full of equipment made just for practicing traversing small platforms and balance beams like those in temples. It's hard to tell if she's actually serious or joking.
*** In the movie, she actually has an ancient temple in her house, just to keep in practice.
* This features in an awful lot of games by Capcom, including {{Resident Evil}}, {{Devil May Cry}} and {{Haunting Ground}}. Most Capcom castles seem to have minds of their own.
* ''{{Prince of Persia}}: The Sands of Time'' had a room you couldn't get past unless you help the guard "activate the Palace Defense Systems," which, once activated hurt only the Prince and did not affect in the slightest any of the transformed sand monsters. [[LaserGuidedKarma The guard dies about five seconds later]].
** To say nothing of the basic architecture of the rest of the palace. How the heck is a normal person even supposed to get to the prisons? Or the mess halls? Or the absurdly enormous and unusually spike filled ''library''?
** In the next game of the series, ''Warrior Within'', worn-out paths on the walls over chasms show that {{mooks}} have to wall-run routinely while going around as well.
** ''The Sands of Time'' trilogy has sort of an excuse, in that each time the sands are released, buildings start falling apart, necessitating much wall running. The next-gen ''Prince of Persia'', however, makes no excuses, as it's implied people actually moved around the city as ruined as it is. In fact, when asked why she's so athletic, Elika responds that her home does not allow one to be weak. Yes, in a city that basically has no floor, one can imagine.
* Any [[TempleOfDoom temple]] left by an ancient civilization in any {{RPG}}, ''ever''. In fact, any ancient ''[[RuinsForRuinsSake anything]]''. No wonder all these ancient civilizations died out -- they probably got killed by their own overly-complicated temples, outhouses and kitchens.
* Two words: ''ResidentEvil''. Ooh, why not [[SoupCans lock a very important door of a police station with four chess pieces]] (of all things), each of which held in a separate location far, far away from the others? Why not, indeed...
** Attempted justification in ''Resident Evil 2'', where the police chief was stark raving mad, and did it on purpose.
** In the first ''Resident Evil'', the architect of the trap-filled mansion was named George Trevor, who was hired because he liked to put such unusual quirks in his designs. Then other people started adding their own more additions to the mansion to make it even more complicated, and eventually Trevor got lost and died in the mansion because he did not recognize the layout.
*** Trevor also was apparently partly responsible for places in town, in particular the police station. One wonders why an entire city was build by such an architect.
**** The novels indicate (and thus lampshade) that most of the city's Powers that Be were nuttier then a bag of almonds.
* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] at one point in ''VoodooVince'', in which the titular character stumbles upon a mansion that, for no apparent reason, contains a complex room-rotating system, and the narrator comments "wow, that must have been one screwed up architect."
* The Malevolent Architecture of ''Chips' Challenge'' is the point of the game. Chip is traversing the deliberately malevolent clubhouse to win the heart of Melinda.
* Two words: ''SilentHill''. An entire town forged of ChaosArchitecture and designed by the subconscious guilt of the main character, that leads to such things as the entire city being transformed into a maze of rubble, [[InsurmountableWaistHeightFence uncrossable police tape]], and fissures; doors held closed with keys being convoluted puzzles involving unnerving poems, and coins scattered around the building.
* In ''[[StarWars Jedi Academy]]'', in the second level on Vjun, about two-thirds of the way through the game, you start in a hanger with the series's star Kyle Katarn, who immediately runs to the locked elevator, then starts talking about how the switch to summon it is hidden in a control panel fourteen floors up, and generally [[LampshadeHanging mocks]] the trope he has lived in for about five games so far. This sequence is easy to miss as the real exit is blatantly obvious and closer than the elevator; approaching it starts a new {{cutscene}} where Kyle makes more comments about your next stop being a garbage compactor.
** Throughout the entire level, Kyle uses his superior abilities to bypass the jumping puzzles and deathlasers you must get through. While the presence of nonfunctional elevators in nearly every corner takes some of the edge off, the player still has to wonder what the architect was smoking. Of course, the architect was probably Vader, so maybe deathtraps are to be expected?
* In the first ''{{Half-Life}}'' game, Gordon Freeman frequently needs to turn on equipment, but the required buttons, valves and switches are in dangerous or unlikely locations, such as underwater or on the wrong side of an enormous fan.
** Partially (but only partially, mind you) justified by the fact that the aftermath of the Resonance Cascade banged up the place pretty badly, and Marines and aliens shooting [[{{MoreDakka}} stuff what go "BOOM!"]] at each other all over the place probably didn't improve things. Nevertheless, the OSHA would probably have had a field day at Black Mesa even pre-Resonance Cascade.
** Not at all justified with the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADkcj7JHKH4 Room For Dropping Crates Into a Bottomless Pit]].
* Sort of {{handwave}}d in ''FinalFantasyX''. When Summoners go on their pilgrimage, they are required to pray at all of the temples across Spira. However, the "Trial of the Fayth" is ''very dangerous''. Actually, most of them are block puzzle mazes or equivalents. Oh, and I wonder if the janitors are always going in after the Summoners to reset all of those blocks...?
** This troper always got the impression that the Trials were just to make sure that Summoners and their guardians aren't TooDumbToLive. Actually communing with the fayth, during which they can presumably strike down someone unworthy, (and which always seems to take a toll on [[StaffChick Yuna]]) seems to be the dangerous part.
* Subverted in ''ICO'', where the deathtrap of a castle you're trying to escape was clearly a perfectly inhabitable building before the ravages of time knocked out most of the access ladders, walkways, ropes, bridges, and anything else that falls to pieces easily with time. (A few puzzles even involve accelerating this process with acts of creative vandalism to create new paths.)
* The ''FatalFrame''/''Project Zero'' franchise. It almost seems a common practise to create the building in ancient Japan as puzzle rooms requiring the inhabitant to find all the missing pieces or shuffle around blocks to get into the next room, not to mention certain rooms in the third game which can only be accessed by climbing around in the rafters...
** [[spoiler:Justified in a way that the architect really DID design them that way on purpose for some reason and were then killed and buried in the very walls of the building.]]
* Goes back at least as far as ''DonkeyKong'', in which a building under construction is transformed into a series of deathtraps for poor Mario -- [[NoOSHACompliance because a gorilla jumps on the beams a few times.]] (Gorillas are heavy -- but not ''that'' heavy!)
** Not quite... the main danger's not the building, but either falling off bits of it (oddly for a platformer, falling more than about 1-2m would KILL you), or the wandering deadly things like thrown barrels, sentient firechickens, and so on.
* Largely averted in ''TheElderScrolls III: Morrowind''. The player can explore tons of ancient ruins, especially those of the technocentric (and extinct) Dwemer, but the only things trying to kill you are the mechanical defenders. However, in the Tribunal expansion, the player can visit Sotha Sil's Clockwork City, where there ARE deathtraps which WILL kill you and anything else that they get ahold of.
** Played oh-so-straight in ''TheElderScrolls IV: Oblivion''. Almost every Ayleid ruin has some kind of trap, and often more than one. One quest even had you walk through a grid of pressure plates which triggered darts if you didn't [[SoupCans follow a pattern of symbols]] on the conveniently-given map. Also, this quest took place [[YourMindMakesItReal in someone's head]]. You gotta [[FridgeLogic wonder about the mental state]] of someone who dreams this up.
**You could argue that it's justified in Oblivion. The Ayleids were very xenophobic of not only men but other elves and it makes sense that they would rig their cities, rather obvious in the landscape, to hurt anyone who comes in. Plus, it's pretty established that the guy who dreamed it up wasn't right in his head. After all, if the "challenges" were not trying to kill you, he would have gotten out of the dream state quickly.
* ''MetalGearSolid'' series is somewhat guilty of this, but not as bad as some other examples. In Shadow Moses Island, there are trap doors around the pillbox armory, and there's a blast furnace room right now to an extremely cold room - the former makes it extremely easy for someone to be incinerated with a misstep (or a [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential helpful little push]]). In Big Shell, the several-story high walkways with trap doors. Good for deterring the careless hero, but what about the guards that have to patrol the areas?!
** Naturally, ''{{The Last Days of FOXHOUND}}'' mocks this as with everything else with the series. First with the trap doors by that it had already killed several {{Mooks}} and nearly claimed Sniper Wolf, and later on, upon examining the Furnace Room/Freezing Warehouse (directly adjacent), Ocelot remarks that "whoever designed this place can go straight to Hell." Liquid had earlier criticized the trapdoors by asking if Dr. Doom was the architectural consultant?
** The impression that I got with the walkways in the Big Shell was that those platforms only fell because of poor workmanship; they actually stay gone after they fall, as opposed to the Shadow Moses trap doors that righted themselves after a few seconds (and over which guards could walk, even if the trap door was open, with impunity).
*** The Big Shell walkway panels ''are'', in fact, broken, and fall as the result of the damage the facility has sustained. It's easy to confirm this just by watching how the panels fall out.
* The haunted hotel in ''VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'' is a labyrinthine maze where chandeliers fall on you, floors burst open, and vases, paintings and other small ornaments leap at you in order to kill you; at one point, the ghost(s?) even try dropping the elevator on you. Of course, the place ''is'' haunted, and wouldn't be very malevolent otherwise. Unlike...
** The house of Dr. Alastair Grout later on. In this case, it's justified by Grout being a) completely mad, and b) having intentionally designed the mansion to be a living hell to anyone seeking to intrude on him. Being a vampire, he probably had little problem with the place himself -- [[spoiler:unfortunately, neither had other vampires, like the main character or the person who killed Grout]].
* ''{{The Legend of Zelda}}'' series are all at least one half this trope. All of them. Come on, there are dungeons even in the bottom of wells.
** ''Ocarina of Time'' has to take the cake with invisible moving platforms, invisible spikes, illusionary floors, and ''doors'' trying to kill you.
* The builders of the ''[[{{Marathon}} U.E.S.C. Marathon]]'' decided to put crushing elevators and huge pits of lava in a ''civilian residential area'', among other things. Oh, and the seven-platform puzzle which is monstrously difficult and requires an hour of trekking back and forth between control rooms which activate a ''mechanical staircase'' to get to the [[GoshDangItToHeck friggin']] ''observatory''.
* Arguably, this was evident in the ''SilverSurfer'' video game. OneHitPointWonder Surfer tended to die just by ''touching'' the parts of the arena. Understandable if he was doing a significant fraction of ''c'', but if he's slow enough that you can reverse...
* The ''DungeonKeeper'' series (which has you, well, keeping a dungeon) demonstrates just why this is necessary.
** As does ''EvilGenius'', though in that game, you have to make the choice between ease of use for minions and difficult to traverse for enemy agents: there's very little common ground between the two.
* Likewise for ''Tecmo's {{Deception}}''. Hell, in the sequels, even the buildings inhabited by the heroes are filled with [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal death-dealing devices]] which never shut off.
* Both Crescent Moon Village and Hotel Horror from ''WarioLand 4'' have this in spades. The former seems almost unlivable, with the fire escape being the entrance, an open storm drain in the town and a cliff in the middle of nowhere, and the latter has huge vertical shafts in rooms with no floor. And randomly locked doors.
** Also, Glittertown/Neon City and Derailed Express from Shake it. The former has slot machines with bombs as winnable as well as fire and enemies, the latter is not only a freaking dangerous train, the timetable (one of the treasures in the level) actually says it's scheduled to derail at 09:29.
* In the game ''DwarfFortress'', instead of trying to dodge Malevolent Architecture, you're the one creating it.
** ''Project "Fuck the World" is go!''
** Succession games are particularly prone to this, with the fortress layout making absolutely no sense at all after a few people have been building, expanding and making [[HilarityEnsues mistakes]].
* The fourth level of ''{{World of Goo}}'' gives this a LampshadeHanging with a message from The Sign Painter, who apparently aspires to be The Narrator: "The Goo Balls were excited to explore the mysterious pipe system... even if it meant traversing ridiculously contrived terrain."
* ''Myst'' contains many examples of how the D'Ni seemingly wanted their lives to be a constant challenge, in which you couldn't go to the bathroom without solving a puzzle to unlock the control cabinet containing the switch which will free up the gear that you have to turn to open the lavatory door. The architecture can't actually hurt you (since there's no damage mechanism in the game), but it can block your progress and leave you frustrated for hours.
** ''[[{{Myst}} Uru's]]'' Gahreesen age. Two rotating fortresses "connected" by nothing more than a small rocky platform. Time your jumps carefully. Justified as additional security measures (the aforementioned rocky platform is the only place an intruder could conceivably enter) thus making an attack on the age with an army of more than about five people pretty much impossible.
* Most older platforming games, especially NES games, have very hostile architectures which may leave the player wondering how would inhabitants navigate it.
** ''Gremlins 2'' for the NES takes it to the extreme. The game takes place mostly in an office building whose architect would most likely be sued by integrating an extreme amount of [[{{SpikesOfDoom}} spikes]], electricity, [[{{ConvectionSchmonvection}} lava]], bottomless pits, inconveniently placed conveyor belts, spinning flails and moving platforms into the building.
* The original batch of ''{{DOOM}}'' games say that the influence of hell has literally changed the layouts of many of the proper Earth levels. Of course, once you enter Hell itself, all bets are off. Of course, keys in Hell itself are an explanation of BenevolentArchitecture.
* ''[[TheSeventhGuest The 7th Guest]]'': Old man Stauf built a house, and filled it with his toys...
* Partially averted in the ''{{Thief}}''; the levels are usually pretty logical and you get the impression that people COULD live in them; there are kitchens, bathrooms, toilets, etc. There are exceptions.
** Constantine's mansion in "The Sword", from ''{{Thief}}: the Dark Project'' and ''{{Thief}} Gold''.
* ''{{Metroid}}'''s Samus Aran has to deal with traps and machines everywhere she goes, even ships and stations belonging to her Federation allies. On the other hand, these puzzles are always perfectly suited to her battle armor's powers; no one else could possibly get around these places. The ''Prime'' games set new records for both using and explaining away this trope -- there are reams of scan text that tell you how, for example, Space Pirates unlock some of their doors with ''metal balls'' the same size as Samus's morph ball.
* The page picture is of Ultimecia's castle in ''FinalFantasyVIII,'' which, true to the trope, requires a good bit of puzzle-solving to navigate. In this case it's [[JustifiedTrope justified]], partly by Time Compression, but mostly by the fact that the place is falling apart, requiring some creativity on the part of the characters to get around its broken staircases, blocked doors, and crumbling halls.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* In the ''GirlGenius'' SteamPunk comics, old Castle Heterodyne is not only extremely malevolent, but also ''[[GeniusLoci sentient]]''. And a HeroicSociopath with a ''nasty'' sense of humor. Its fractured personality core controls everything that goes on inside and delights in luring explorers (and repair crews of convicts) into death traps that make every Grimtooth dungeon look tame.
** This is somewhat justified by the fact that it was built by the Old Heterodynes, who were extremely powerful [[ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder Sparks]], combining [[MadScientist fantastic talent at building ANYTHING with sheer insanity]]. Besides, it wasn't designed to be insane and fractured, it was broken during the coming of the Other.
*** Hell, the place KNOWS it's screwed up. When Agatha tries to get the kitchen in line by telling it she's the latest Heterodyne and already proved such to the mausoleum, the kitchen calls shenanigans and claims it hasn't heard from the mausoleum in decades. Oh, and did I mention that the impostor Heterodyne instructs the hired help with a lengthy lecture about what things are not to be touched, seeing as they're traps and will kill you? Malevolent Architecture indeed.
***** [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070725 "Avoid any tilemarked in White. It is a trap that will kill you. Do not stand under any part of the ceiling marked in white. It is a trap that will kill you. Duck under any opening taller than one metre. It is a trap that will kill you. Do not touch any metal surface. It is a trap that will kill you."]] Moments later, one of these "help" try to grab a gold coin sitting on the floor. He falls into a pit trap.
* When the ''Absurd Notions'' cast is playtesting "Traps & Treasures", which is exactly as much of a D&D ripoff as you would predict from the title, [[http://www.absurdnotions.org/page38.html they run into one of these]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In ''CodeLyoko'', Sector 5 or "Carthage" includes about every example of this trope: from crushing walls and {{Descending Ceiling}}s to LaserHallway or deadly doors, and even a whole room that just fall down on the heroes. And that's not even accounting the monsters.
** And all of this is on a ''timer'' -- the heroes get trapped unless they press a switch within a certain amount of time.
* Being a parody of video games, ''CodeMonkeys'' often has characters navigate through MalevolentArchitecture when traveling within the Gameavision building.
* In the episode "If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?" of ''{{Batman the Animated Series}}'', there is a maze in an amusement park full of {{death trap}}s, path-blocking puzzles, and highly lethal robots that prevent you from going back the way you came. None of which seems so unusual for Batman until you remember that this was [[FridgeLogic meant to be navigated by the park-goers]].
** Don't forget, the maze was "tweaked" after-market by the its designer, the Riddler, who in [=BTAS=] continuity is a GadgeteerGenius, specifically to ''make'' it a {{deathtrap}}.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* The [[http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/ Winchester Mystery House]], a giant mansion begun in 1884 by Sarah L. Winchester, and under construction continuously until her death thirty-eight years later. It features hundreds of false doors, dead ends, and stairways to nowhere in an attempt to confuse the ghosts of people who were shot to death by the Winchester rifles her family made. It was part of the inspiration for the [[color:blue:house]] in ''HouseOfLeaves'' mentioned above.
* TruthInTelevision: Egyptian tombs were equipped with false passages, false burial chambers and even DeathTraps to foil grave robbers.
* Designed to impede your progress? How about prisons? Which, of course, makes for great video game levels.
* As mentioned in Literature, the M25.
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