History Main / DaylightHorror

* JohnCarpenter's ''PrinceOfDarkness'' happens over the span of a single day in a church with obviously working electricity.

* [[http://hellforge.gameriot.com/blogs/Boys-Club/L4D2-Lightens-Up-Daylight-Levels-in-Horror-Games-1 This article]] discusses the concept of daylight levels in horror games.

* The 80's slasher flick ''Pieces'' starts off with a flashback of the killer chopping his mother up with an axe. The movie skips ahead forty years later and the first kill is a college student getting chopped up by a chainsaw in the middle of the quad on a day that's so sunny, the glare from the sun hides the killer's face.

[[AC: {{Anime and Manga}}]]

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* Lampshaded in an issue of TheWalkingDead. Rick, the main character, complains that it's getting cloudy. His friend welcomes the darkness since it had previously been very sunny and the sunlight was "too much of a contradiction."

* The CrocodileHunter movie mentions on DVD commentary that they had a scene of Steve handling a deadly snake at night but didn't put in the movie because a similar scene during the day looked more dangerous.

* Obviously this doesn't work in the absurdly bad ''The House That Screamed'', since [[http://www.somethingawful.com/d/movie-reviews/house-that-screamed.php the reviewer]] at ''SomethingAwful'' repeatedly keeps pointing out that "'''nothing is fucking scary in broad daylight'''".
* {{Tremors}} takes place almost entirely during the day. It's been a while, but this troper doesn't remember the graboids attacking at night at all.

* ''{{Torchwood}}'' in the last episode of the first season, where[[spoiler: Abbadon terrorizes the city and kills loads of people]] in broad daylight.

* Invoked in-universe for ''TheZombieSurvivalGuide''. Which recommends finding safe places to sleep during the night, and only 'get moving" when theres Daylight. Implicitly putting you on even terms with the undead, who don't need to see you to find and eat you.

* In FragileDreams there are some places where the sun is setting or it's dawn, but most of the game happens at night (the game's symbol is the moon so day/night cycles are not quite respected). However there is a single setting where you get to play while the sun shines, [[HellHotel a Hotel]], and is one of the scariest parts of the game.

* Much of NyxCrossing takes place during the daytime. Doesn't stop it from being eerie though.

* Invoked in-universe for "The Zombie Survival Guide". Which recommends finding safe places to sleep during the night, and only 'get moving" when theres Daylight. Implicitly putting you on even terms with the undead, who don't need to see you to find and eat you.

-->'''Piglet:''' One day...
-->'''Tigger:''' Hey! Everyone knows that scary stories happen at night!
-->'''Piglet:''' Uh, well, ''this'' scary story happens during the day.

** ''ResidentEvil3'' as well. Well, until you get to the clock tower that is.
* ''Left4Dead 2'''s daytime segments don't just change the lighting, but the behaviour of one of the Special Infected. The Witch normally sits in one place at night, but during the day they wander around.

* The Ken Russel film ''LairOfTheWhiteWorm'' was, at the time, a rare movie for showing vampires stalking victims during the daytime. The movie was based on a novel by BramStoker. See also: Literature.

** What about the Dead Marshes from Two Towers? This troper was never scared of the Ringwraiths, but can't even watch the scene where Frodo falls into the water in TT. (True, the water itself was fairly dark, but the whole scene took place during the day.) Not to mention RotK, with the soldiers' decapitated heads catapulted over the walls of Minas Tirith in broad daylight... brr.

** To explain for non-Minecraft players, [[spoiler: enemies in Minecraft spawn in darkness and burn in direct sunlight, with the exception of 2 mobs. The first is the spider, which becomes passive and stops attacking the player when exposed to bright light. The one mentioned here is the second one, [[DemonicSpider The Creeper]], an ActionBomb which combines the annoying traits of being completely silent except for a hissing sound it makes before detonating, advanced enough AI to ambush the player, and remaining alive during the day, qualifying it for this trope.]]

* ''TheHost'' invokes this trope perfectly when the monster first attacks. The director purposefully wanted an attack during a nice day in order to make the scene surreal and frightening. People are hanging out by Han River one minute, and getting eaten the next.

* A literal example exists in ''SuperMarioBros. 3'' where the Sun will follow the player and try to kill him.

* ''{{XCOM}}'' the FPS will be set mostly during daytime.
* "{{Minecraft}}": Well, it looks like the suns coming up, and all the {{mooks}} are being burned by it. [[TemptingFate I guess it's safe to go outside!]] [[HellIsThatNoise *SSSS]][[MemeticMutation SSSSSSSS]][[ActionBomb SSSSSSS*]]...OhCrap
** To explain for non-{{Minecraft}} players, [[spoiler: enemies in Minecraft spawn in darkness and burn in direct sunlight, with the exception of 2 mobs. The first is the spider, which becomes passive and stops attacking the player when exposed to bright light. The one mentioned here is the second one, [[DemonicSpider The Creeper]], an ActionBomb which combines the annoying traits of being completely silent except for a hissing sound it makes before detonating, advanced enough AI to ambush the player, and remaining alive during the day, qualifying it for this trope.]]