Basic Trope: A character or group of characters get trapped in a place that they probably don't want to be in yet cannot get out of, most likely by an incorporeal personification of the plot.
- Straight: It Was a Dark and Stormy Night in Überwald, as it usually is, and our intrepid heroes and heroines have been stranded in the middle of nowhere because one of tires had been blown-out by an anomalously sharp speed bump. But! Bob Omenfeld packed not one but two spare tires in case if this happens. Too bad, because the one on the back door had mysteriously disappeared into the Phantom Zone, while the one in the trunk was torn apart by a family of roid-raged raccoons. Unfortunately the telephone lines are out and rescue ain't coming any time soon, so Bob, his wife Alice, and their three kids will have to take refuge in that imposing Haunted House, which is totally harmless and wouldn't harm a fly!
- Exaggerated: The second they stepped into the house, the Ghost Butler inhabiting the place shut all of the doors and locked them from the outside with a bullet-proof lock and a steel girder, before barricading all the windows with hundreds and hundreds of wooden boards in the space of seconds, and then it hid all of the food in the building inside cupboards which it sealed shut using iron chains, and then it went downstairs and released all of the impounded Ax-Crazy psychopaths, experiments gone awry, howling demons and hungering monsters to prowl. Youngest child Frank blames it on the bad weather. And did we say that the house wouldn't harm a fly? Of course it wouldn't, it is flies! They proceed to eat all of their food so they have to go down into the underground cellar to fetch canned goods, and maybe even a hammer to escape this wretched place.
- What a coincidence! Every single person the Omenfelds know from Assnowhere happened to get stuck here too! At the same time, just before the broken bridge collapsed! But then suddenly the mysteriously lit candlelight starting to wane, better replace that shorted lightbulb quickly! After doing just that, the bulb flickers for one millisecond. The token black man Eric with the radio transceiver perishes within that one millisecond. Goddammit. After arguing for 50 minutes (the Man-Eating Plant downstairs didn't make things better), they settle on blaming Alexi, the guy with the hatchet, for killing Eric. Said axe-man is immediately dragged behind a portrait and killed by a ninja pirate bandito werewolf zombie. There's no passageway behind said portrait, and the hatchet is gone- the same hatchet that was gonna get everyone out of the forsaken mansion. The closed circle beckons!
- Downplayed: ???
- Justified: Überwald is haunted by a reality warping archdevil named Murphy.
- Inverted: You cannot enter the Haunted House under all circumstances. In summary, the outside world is the Closed Circle from a certain point of view, thus playing it straight.
- Subverted: In spite of Bob's ineffectual complaining, Alice fetches a steel pipe and smashes the main door down, before inflating a couple large donuts and using them as replacement tires for the car.
- Double Subverted: The Juggernaut lightly goads Alice back inside.
- Parodied: Contrived Coincidence LLC had been stalking the Omenfelds for sometime, blowing up bridges behind them, sawing the handles off of doors, sending their goons to block their way, and so on, waiting for the opportunity to corner them on a peninsula with some spooky mansion with only one exit point.
- Zig-Zagged: The Ghost Butler seems unable to decide if the doors should remain open, or closed.
- Averted: Entering the Haunted House was a calculated endeavor, and the Omenfelds were by no means forced to wait out the night inside it.
- Enforced: No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Back to Closed Circle; have fun, you're not getting out.
