History Main / TownWithADarkSecret

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Series/LoisAndClark''. The title characters need to go to Clark's hometown Smallville for a story, and cynical city slicker Lois refuses to believe that the town and it's people are as wholesome as they appear. At the town fair she tells Clark that everyone there probably has some horrible secret, points out a grey-haired GoodOlBoy working the barbecue stall and suggests that he's a transvestite ([[ValuesDissonance it was]] UsefulNotes/TheNineties). Of course, it's Jonathan Kent. Ironically Smallville is a TownWithABrightScret as the hometown of Superman, but only the Kents know that.

* A truly bizarre example with the town of Santa Mira, California, which due to serial {{Shout Out}}s has become a stock location for otherwise totally unrelated horror films. It's been the site of a [[Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers1956 covert alien invasion]], bizarre [[Film/HalloweenIIISeasonOfTheWitch pagan cult rituals]], and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Mira many more]].

* "Literature/TheLottery" by Shirley Jackson, though the dark secret isn't kept secret from anyone in the story, [[TomatoSurprise only from the reader.]]

%%%* The quaint little village of Hanuda in ''VideoGame/{{Siren}}''.

*** Not to mention the [[spoiler:haunted house with a shrine to Molag Bal in the basement.]]

* In Norman Partridge's ''Literature/DarkHarvest'', all the teenage boys of a small Midwestern town are entered into a DeadlyGame with a murderous pumpkinheaded [[ScaryScarecrows scarecrow]] named the October Boy. But wait, that's not the secret.
** [[spoiler: The real secret is that every winner of the game is actually set to be killed by their father in order to become the new October Boy, and the father is then expected to help put the boy together when the next game begins. The protagonist ends up helping the latest October Boy when he learns the truth.]]

* Played with in ''ComicBook/TheFurtherAdventuresOfIndianaJones'' #33-34. Indy travels to a village on one the remote Orkney Islands, and is greeted by the locals who give him an extremely cold shoulder. The longer he stays there, the less subtle the attempts to get him to leave become; eventually escalating to outright threats and physical violence. Indy thinks the whole town is in league with EvilSorcerer he is chasing (who is the local lighthouse keeper). However, it turns out that the villagers know nothing about the keeper's evil schemes. They believe that the treasure of a Viking king is buried somewhere on the island and are tying to locate it, and are scared that an archaeologist like Indy will beat them to it, and whisk the treasure off to a museum.

** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' Samara mentions another example of this trope in her backstory: a small asari colony that had been seduced by an Ardat-Yakshi, an asari with a rare genetic mutation that causes her kill anybody she has sex with, who feature prominently in their mythology as evil gods and anti-heroes. She had convinced the entire colony to worship her as goddess, and sacrifice their young Maidens to her, and when Samara came the entire colony save for the youngest children threw themselves at her to give the Ardat-Yakshi a chance to escape.

** Jet's [[TreeTopTown treetop village]]. "Oh, cool, a settlement of teenage rebels! Maybe they can help us fight the Fire Nation!" Only problem is, these {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s often take their rebellions a little ''too'' far...like, oh, I don't know, when they ''beat and robbed a harmless Fire Nation civilian'', or when they ''destroyed an entire Earth Kingdom town just because it was occupied by the Fire Nation army.''

* Crystal Cove in ''[[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated]]'', the town hides a dark secret to which is connected to the Planespheric Disks. To which the old Mystery Inc would kill over for.

** Whiskey Peak is the definition of this trope - cheerful and welcoming at first sight, turns out to be [[spoiler:giant trap for pirates, entirely populated by bounty hunters]]. Oh, and that giant cacti hills near the town - actually it's regular hills, [[spoiler:covered in gravestones,which appears as needles from afar]].

* ''Webcomic/{{Stagtown}}'' has series of strange events happen in titular city. It begins with cameras appearing everywhere, including inside people's houses and rather quickly gets worse. Worse, it actively prevents you from leaving with memory wipes and brute force if necessary.

* ''Series/{{The 100}}'' has three:

* In "Murdersville", an episode of ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'', an entire town [[spoiler:conspires to offer outsiders the opportunity to stage a murder. The townsfolk will serve as alibis and help dispose of the remains afterwards, in return for a sizable sum of money. (The villagers who refuse to participate are kept locked up in ancient torture devices in the town museum.)]]
** ''Series/TheNewAvengers'' had "The Eagle's Nest" where a remote Scottish island was harbouring a dark secret. The island had been secretly taken over by Nazis at the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and the monastery was being used to house the cryogenically frozen body of Adolf Hitler until such time as they could revive him.

* The suburbs in ''Series/{{Chuck}} vs. the Suburbs''. It turns out that everyone in their cul-de-sac is an agent of Fulcrum, a criminal organization.

* The ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode "House On Fire", has an entire town flip out on an orphaned boy due to rumors of BrotherSisterIncest. His RoaringRampageOfRevenge takes the form of KillItWithFire.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "The Beacon", Dr. Dennis Barrows stumbles into a small town called Mellweather which is protected by an enigmatic lighthouse [[spoiler:that demands a HumanSacrifice for its services]].
%%%* ''Franchise/TheTwilightZone'': [[spoiler:Evergreen]]

* ''Film/TheVillage'': The film is seemingly set in the 19th century, but then it turns out that it's actually set in the present; the rich founders created an isolated community where they could live in peace and away from the troubles of the modern world. Their descendants are kept in line by tales of monsters that supposedly inhabit the surrounding woods.

[-Image by [[http://www.nekomation.com/ Neko Pilarcik-Tellez]]-]]]]