History Main / DaylightHorror

** During the Volume 6 flashback that reveals the history of [[BigGood Ozpin]] and [[BigBad Salem's]] SecretWar, the God of Darkness is contrasted heavily against light. [[spoiler:Salem leads humanity in an uprising against the gods, marching them to the Domain of Light, a sunlit mountain pool surrounded by lush golden grass. There humanity tries to attack the God of Light and his brother; incensed, the God of Darkness lashes out with his power, destroy the whole of humanity right across the world. The world is show bathed in the warmth of the late afternoon sun when an wave of darkness sweeps across the world, leaving only ashes where humanity once stood.

* WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}: Grimm can attack at any time, day or night. Examples can be found in most volumes; notable examples include...
** The first major battle of Volume 1 is Teams RWBY and JNPR vs a Nevermore and Deathstalker, and takes place around midday.
** The Volume 2 finale has Grimm invade the streets of the city of Vale pretty much at dawn.
** The fight between Penny and Pyrrha in Volume 3 takes place at night- in a well-lit arena that's being broadcast to the entirety of Remnant for entertainment. That makes it ''more'' horrifying when Pyrrha accidentally ''[[spoiler: rips Penny apart.]]'' All part of the villains' plan.
** Blake and Sun fight a sea dragon Grimm in the late afternoon during Volume 4.
** Volume 5 has Weiss fight a swarm of Lancer Grimm during mid afternoon.
** Lots of scenes in Volume 6, but the standout come during the flashback showing [[spoiler: Salem and]] Ozpin's past. It is late afternoon when the God of Darkness decides to obliterate [[spoiler: ''all of humanity''. The casual way he informs Salem she is the only remaining person on the planet is chilling. And then he destroys the moon when he leaves, and we see the pieces fall...]]
** The battle on the plains of Atlas in Volume 8 takes place during the day, with the light actually serving to accentuate the hopeless odds Atlas' troops face.

* In ''WebVideo/DoomHouse'', Reginald is terrorized by the CreepyDoll during the daytime on numerous occasions.

[[caption-width-right:300:It's such a beautiful day, nothing could possibly-- [[OhCrap Oh crap.]]]]

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
!!!'''By Creator:'''
* Creator/JohnCarpenter:
** ''Film/PrinceOfDarkness'' happens over the span of a single day in a church with obviously working electricity. It was inspired by Nigel Kneale's ''Film/TheStoneTape'', which features key scenes set in small (admittedly dark) room filled with scientists, scientific equipment and haunted by a non-physically-threatening supernatural entity. And it's still terrifying.
** ''Film/TheThing1982'', while still using night time for some of its scares, manages to have a few intense moments in the light of day. Then again, they're in the stormy Antarctic, so it's mostly an ''overcast'' daylight. Most of the later parts of the film take place at night (though justified by the way Antarctic winters work), the scenes that actually take place outdoors in darkness (well, partial darkness, the camp has outdoor lights) tend to be some of the ''less'' eerie moments, with most of the creepiest scenes being indoors with electric lighting. The one exception might be the scene where [[spoiler: the guys encounter the Bennings-Thing, and they'd lit a few flares that lit things up real good]].
** One of Carpenter's most effective uses of the trope, and one of the most famous, are the scenes in ''Film/{{Halloween 1978}}'' when "the shape" is stalking Laurie Strode and her friends through the quiet streets of Haddonfield during the middle of the day. The idyllic, sunny small town environment is rendered uncanny and frightening by the mixture of creepy music and the fact that the audience is aware of a malevolent presence that the onscreen characters cannot seem to sense.
* Creator/DavidCronenberg did this quite a bit in his early days with movies such as ''Shivers'' and ''Rabid'' which depicted horrific scenes in well-lit buildings or even daytime. For instance, the subway is pretty bright.
* Creator/DavidLynch is a master of this...
** ''Film/BlueVelvet'' -- The severed ear catalyst.
** ''Film/InlandEmpire'' -- The first rehearsal with Laura Dern and Justin Theroux, with Justin chasing an unseen spy. Later, the scene with Laura yelling at Justin through the window.
*** Any of the crazy visitors, such as Grace Zabriskie or Mary Steenburgen, or the circus people.
** ''Film/LostHighway'' -- Many scenes in the first half maintain an incredibly menacing feel in broad daylight, especially when a couple receives several videotapes from a stalker.
** ''Film/MulhollandDrive'' - The infamous [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzWDzGxqqa0 "Man behind Winkies"]] scene.
** ''Film/TwinPeaksFireWalkWithMe'' -- Any daytime scene featuring Laura's [[spoiler:father]].
** ''Film/WildAtHeart'' -- Lula lets Bobby Peru use her toilet.
*** Any of the {{Troubled Backstory Flashback}}s.

!!!'''By Movie:'''
* ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'' as well as ''Film/TwentyEightWeeksLater'' have the infected attack during the day. The opening of ''28 Weeks Later'' was in broad daylight, over some nice green fields, with a horde of zombies. It seems as if the light was modified to be pale and whiter than normal. It adds to the horror; even the sunlight seems lifeless.
* ''Film/AlienCovenant'': As Daniels, Lope and Walter escape from David's citadel in the early morning, a Xenomorph chases after them — possibly the first time we've seen one of the creatures in action during the day.
* In the second half of ''Film/{{Anaconda}}'', the Anaconda repeatedly attacks in broad daylight and [[SwallowedWhole devours still-living people whole.]]
* The whole of ''Film/AndSoonTheDarkness'' takes place in a sunny afternoon.
* Most of ''Film/Annihilation2018'' takes place not only in blindingly bright sunlight but in [[SceneryPorn incredibly colorful and gorgeous]] arboreal scenery. The [[spoiler: bear attacks]] do happen at nighttime, however.
* The school shooting in ''Film/AprilShowers'' naturally takes place during the daytime.
* ''Film/ArlingtonRoad'' -- Most of the movie is filled with lots of daylight paranoia and moments of bloated anticipation and creepiness as terrorists operate in broad daylight, undercover as you and me, but especially the tense interaction between Cheryl and Brooke at the payphone.
* ''Film/TheAxiom'' largely takes place in a monster-haunted EldritchLocation that looks like a normal piece of the woods except that the sun never sets.
* A great deal of ''Film/TheBay'' takes place on a bright and sunny Fourth of July.
* Creator/NicholasRay's {{Melodrama}} ''Film/BiggerThanLife'' is a drama about a poor schoolteacher Ed Avery (Creator/JamesMason) abusing his prescription medication and progressively going insane in his work and life. [[spoiler:The finale where he decides to become PaterFamilicide and kill his wife and son happens in broad daylight.]]
* Most of the bird-attacks in ''Film/TheBirds'' occur during one bright day.
* The majority of ''The Breed'' takes place during the daytime. Super-aggressive killer dogs probably don't care much whether it's night or day.
* ''Film/TheBurning'': The raft massacre and everything following it takes place in broad daylight.
* The first ''Film/{{Candyman}}'' movie had many scenes set during the day. This includes when Candy Man himself first appears in a brightly-lit garage and many of the kills/gory scenes.
* Both ''Film/CannibalHolocaust'' and its spiritual successor ''Film/TheGreenInferno'' take place in the bright sunny Amazon, which only serves to highlight the excessive amount of {{Gorn}} they feature.
* The frightening and unexpected closing scenes of ''Film/{{Carrie 1976}}'' occur during the daytime.
* While most of ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}'' takes place during the night, the last ten minutes or so take place in the early morning on May 23rd. Somehow this doesn't make encountering the giant monstrosity that's none the worse for wear after an entire night being attacked by the U.S. military any less unsettling. [[spoiler:Especially when it leans down to look at one of the protagonists, then bites them in half.]]
* This gets mentioned in ''Film/CourageUnderFire'', when a soldier recalls being TrappedBehindEnemyLines in UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar, and waiting all through the night, knowing that the Iraqis were going to overwhelm them come dawn. As he puts it to another soldier interviewing him years afterward, "I don't know why people think only good things happen in the daytime".
* The beginning of ''Film/TheCrazies2010'' -- People gather at the local baseball field to watch the game, and everything is sunny and normal. Then a guy with a shotgun walks into the middle of the game...
* The final scene of ''Film/{{Creep|2014}}'', where [[spoiler:the viewpoint character is axed in the head]], takes place in the middle of the day in a beautiful public park.
* The ''Series/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.
* ''Film/{{Cube}}'':
** In the first film the Cube is very bright in some chambers.
** In ''Film/Cube2Hypercube'', EVERY chamber is practically a WhiteVoidRoom.
* ''Film/{{Cujo}}'' -- A mother and son are trapped in a broken-down car. They can't leave the car because of a rabid dog that stalks the car for days. One of the main elements being that the car is blistering hot because of the brilliant summer sun. The night time is when the mother and son can get some relief from the sweltering heat.
* The Canadian slasher movie ''Curtains'' has a scene where a figure skater is attacked [[spoiler:and ultimately decapitated]] by a masked killer in broad daylight.
* Obvious examples include ''Film/DayOfTheDead1985'' and [[Film/DayOfTheDead2008 its remake]]. The same goes for ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978''. Despite its name, the very first zombie attack in ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' also occurs in daylight.
* ''Film/DeathProof'' constantly skirts the line between being an incredibly violent car chase movie and being an inordinately action-heavy ''slasher movie.'' Either way, the bulk of the movie is set in the scorching desert, in broad daylight.
* Many of the scenes of horror in ''Film/TheDevilsRejects'' take place during the day. One victim even dies the next morning, outside in broad daylight, after the killers have vacated the premises.
* ''Film/{{Duel}}'' takes place in light of day which makes the terror worse because the protagonist can see the semi that's stalking him but he nor the audience ever really see the driver and which adds to the horror because instead of being pursued by a madman, which is bad but comprehensible, he's being pursued by a ''thing''.
* The final scene of ''Film/TheEvilDead1981'' (and subsequently, one of the first scenes of [[Film/EvilDead2 the second movie]]) shows that the awful night has finally ended: [[spoiler: Ash is alive, the deadites are gone, and all is well... then we're hit with ShakyPOVCam]].
* A number of scenes in ''Film/TheExorcist'' have been remarked upon for taking place in daylight, notably one with Reagan's spinning head.
* The 1983 film ''Eyes Of Fire'' is about Native American ghosts attacking a heretic and his cult during the colonial period. Most scenes take place in daylight in wide open wooded areas but it doesn't take away from the eerie, claustrophobic feel.
* ''Film/AFieldInEngland'' entirely takes place in a wide open field during a day with decent weather and even many moments of sunshine. The uneasiness never comes from the presence of monsters or anticipation of a JumpScare. Instead, the villainous alchemist O'Neill describes it as a land that is close to other places, while the more simple minded ones believe it's the Devil itself. Or possibly a punishment from God. Or maybe they are all [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane just tripping on mushrooms]].
* ''Franchise/FinalDestination'': To drive home the point that death waits for nobody and could strike at any moment, a lot of the deaths occur during the middle of the day, when the characters are doing mundane activities. The disaster that open each movie even alternates between night and day, with those of 2, 4 and 5 ([[spoiler:a prequel to 1, meaning it still fits the pattern]]) taking place during the day.
* ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'':
** While [[Film/FridayThe13th1980 the very first film]] kills off most of its characters at night, the third kill happens in broad daylight. Not to mention the ending, which famously has [[spoiler:Alice being ambushed by Jason Voorhees (not yet a hulking monster, but undead and ''extremely'' unexpected) during the day, although it ends up being a dream]].
** The final scare of [[Film/FridayThe13thPartIII the third movie]] happens during the day as well.
** [[Film/FridayThe13th2009 The 2009 remake]] had the typical "people take off their clothes and go out to the lake, only to be killed by Jason" scene. This time, however, it happened during the day.
* ''Film/FullCircle'' begins with a woman's young daughter choking to death on a bright, sunny morning.
* As this ''Godmonster of Indian Flats'' trailer demonstrates, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLTUV1RitPM this trope doesn't always work.]] WARNING: Serious {{Narm}}.
* While it has its fair share of awful things happening in the dark, the indisputably most horrific image in ''Film/{{Hereditary}}'' comes in blindingly bright sunlight, when we get to see the mind-shredding sight of [[spoiler:a child's rotting severed head covered in ants]] in broad daylight.
* ''Film/TheHillsHaveEyes1977'': Being the sadistic bastards that they are, the mutants preferred to take down most of their victims in broad daylight rather than at night when they're most vulnerable.
* Most of ''Film/TheHitcher'' takes place in the broad daylight.
* ''Homebodies'', from 1974, an agoraphobic, elderly woman is chased outside, where she is greeted by the dazzling sun, which momentarily blinds her, allowing her pursuer to get closer.
* ''Film/TheHost2006'' 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.
* 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 ''Website/SomethingAwful'' repeatedly keeps pointing out that "'''nothing is fucking scary in broad daylight'''".
* In ''Film/IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer'', [[spoiler: Julie finds Max's corpse in the trunk of her car in the middle of the day while parked in a sunny suburb. The final scene, in which the killer attacks Julie in the shower just as the movie ends, also seems to take place during the day]].
* The infamous "nuke the fridge" scene from ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'' actually starts off very creepy before becoming ridiculous. Franchise/IndianaJones stumbles upon a seemingly average suburban town in the middle of a sunlit desert, populated by many UncannyValley mannequins posed to act as if they're engaged in various mundane activities as saccharine music plays. It turns out to be a Nevada Test Site, and a countdown starts before a nuclear bomb gets dropped to see what happens to a normal, American town.
* Most of the attacks in ''Film/{{Indigenous}}'' occur during daylight hours, although the chupacabra are clearly active at night as well.
* ''Film/{{Insidious}}'':
** There is the scene where the demon pops up in plain sight behind Josh's shoulder at the coffee table in the middle of the day, which gave audiences a good startle just because it was so unexpected.
** Combining this trope with SoundtrackDissonance, the entire "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" sequence comes out of nowhere on a well-lit afternoon.
** The second film has the ghost appearing to Renai, stealing her baby, and knocking her out, all in the full bright of day.
* ''Film/ISpitOnYourGrave'' is a movie from the "rape / revenge" genre, where most or all of the rape and revenge take place during the day, depending on which version you watch.
* While several key scenes in ''Film/ItFollows'' do take place in the dark, a big part of the movie's horror stems from the fact that the monster keeps pursuing its victims no matter the time of day, and can only be seen by those who have already contracted the curse. Some of the most terrifying shots in the film show the monster in one of its various human shapes making its way towards a victim in broad daylight, while everyone else looks on as if nothing is happening.
* Many of the scary scenes in ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' happen during the day, including the climax.
* The Creeper's first on-screen kill in ''Film/JeepersCreepers2'' is in broad daylight. And it's absolutely terrifying.
* ''Film/{{Juon}}'' and ''Film/TheGrudge'' (and numerous sequels): It doesn't matter if you're in your apartment with the lights on, in a bus, at school, in America thousands of miles away from Japan, or driving a taxi down the road in a Santa outfit delivering a cake to a certain cursed household, the grudge will get you no matter where you are...
* While more of ''Film/JuRei'' takes place at night than in the day, some of its later "chapters" are set entirely in daylight.
* The Creator/KenRussell film ''Film/TheLairOfTheWhiteWorm'' was, at the time, a rare movie for showing vampires stalking victims during the daytime. The movie was based on a novel by Creator/BramStoker. See also: Literature.
* ''Film/TheLastHouseOnTheLeft'' is a rape / revenge movie with various versions where the rape, humiliation, torture and murder takes place during the day, and by virtue is more horrific than the revenge which takes place at night, since the more normal among us cheer on the revenge more than the other stuff.
* ''Film/LastNight'' is set entirely at night during the Earth's final few hours of existence, and yet the sun doesn't go down. At all. In fact, it gets brighter throughout the film, as it is implied that the coming apocalypse is related to the Sun in some ways (quite possibly a supernova).
* Film/LivingDeadSeries: Zombies and horror are shown more than once in each film in broad daylight. Even in ''[[Film/NightOfTheLivingDead Night]]'', the first zombie attack and first death happens in daylight.
* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'':
** In ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing The Fellowship of the Ring]]'', the Ring Wraiths chase Arwen and Frodo across an open field on a very clear and sunny day. The climactic [[HalfHumanHybrid Uruk-hai]] attack also takes place in daylight.
** In ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers The Two Towers]]'', there's the scene where Frodo falls into the Dead Marshes. True, the water itself was fairly dark, but the whole scene took place during the day.
** In ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing The Return of the King]]'', the soldiers' decapitated heads are catapulted over the walls of Minas Tirith in broad daylight...
* ''Film/{{Mama}}'': Many of the [[Characters/{{Mama}} titular ghost]]'s appearances happen in broad daylight.
* ''Film/{{Midsommar}}'' is, as the title implies, set during midsummer, specifically at a Swedish pagan festival for the summer solstice. At this latitude and time of year, the sun never completely sets and most scenes take place during the bright, sunny daytime, and that includes most of the horrific acts that are committed throughout the film.
* ''Film/TheMist'', though it's so foggy it's hard to tell, a thick, soupy fog that also hides various monsters.
* Franchise/MonsterVerse: This franchise's movies have received quite a bit of criticism for making the settigs too dark for audiences to make out a thing of the Kaiju, so it's often positively received when this trope is in effect.
** ''Film/Godzilla2014'': Whenever the male MUTO appears, and throughout the pair's stay in San Francisco, it's either nighttime or completely overcast. But when [[Characters/MonsterVerseKaiju the female]] is first seen rampaging in Nevada, she's in broad daylight.
** ''Film/KongSkullIsland'': Almost all of the ''really'' horrifying scenes (like the [[GiantSpider Mother Longlegs]], the Boneyard [[NothingIsScarier Skullcrawler hunt]], and [[spoiler:Nieves']] [[SurprisinglySuddenDeath death]]) take place in broad daylight, against [[SceneryPorn gorgeous tropical scenery]] to boot!
** ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': [[Characters/MonsterVerseKingGhidorah Mechagodzilla]], [[spoiler:once it's taken over by Ghidorah's remnant consciousness,]] emerges upon Hong Kong and battles Kong and Godzilla in the broad daylight of a grim, grey morning. Specifically, Mechagodzilla emerges just after dawn has broken.
* ''Film/{{Moonraker}}''. When the villain discovers that his assistant has been helping Bond, he sets his dogs on her, who proceed to chase her through a beautiful, sunlit forest.
* ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'':
** The final sequence in ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet1984'' movie invoked this trope, going so far as to give the audience a false sense of security [[HopeSpot before pulling the rug]].
** In ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet4TheDreamMaster'', Freddy attacks Kristen in one of her dreams on a sunny beach. She actually tries to dream about a nice and bright place in the hopes that Freddy won't appear, but alas.
* The cropduster attack in the cornfield from ''Film/NorthByNorthwest''.
* Part of what makes the Argentinian movie ''Olympic Garage'' -- ''Garage Olimpo'' in the original, set in the dictatorship that took place in the country in the 70s-80s -- so disturbing despite not being overly graphic is the use of this trope (along with TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse). Kidnappings, executions, [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled death to avoid torture]], ColdBloodedTorture, [[spoiler:a girl being allowed to walk semi-free from a torture chamber for a few hours and then forced to go back]] and [[spoiler:dozens of people being thrown to the sea]] all happen in broad daylight, filmed with wide-shots on well-lit (sometimes even beautiful) environments, even in interiors. One scene has the torturers in the titular garage turning on the radio while doing their work; the scene cuts to the street while the torture goes on, where only the pleasant boleros from the radio can be heard.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/{{Overboard|1987}}'' when the RichBitch-turned-ServileSnarker wakes up from her dream of upper class society and faces a day of menial work. She tells her reflection in the mirror, "You're living in a nightmare that starts at the crack of dawn."
* Near the end of ''Film/ParanormalActivity'', the demon begins acting in broad daylight, whereas it has only ever been active in the dead of night prior to that point. It's used to help drive home just how bad the situation has become.
* The 80's slasher flick ''Film/{{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.
* While not horror per se, the strange and mysterious disappearance of Mrs. Appleyard's students in the 1973 Australian classic ''[[Film/PicnicatHangingRock]]'' is a good example, as the main events unfold in the blistering sunlight of a hot February day in Victoria.
* As a [[ContrastingSequelAntagonist contrast]] with the undead pirates of the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl first]] ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' movie, who were reasonably frightening in daylight but appeared as half-decayed skeletons by moonlight, Davy Jones and his crew of FishPeople from ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest Dead Man's Chest]]'' and ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' are scary-looking all the time. We see one of them for the first time in a dimly lit ship's hold and the rest are introduced during a night scene, but in most of their scenes after that they're in broad daylight.
* ''Film/PoltergeistIITheOtherSide'' -- The sequel's introduction to [[SinisterMinister Reverend Kane]]. Even in [[Film/Poltergeist1982 the first movie]], although the very worst stuff happens at night, eventually the ghosts start playing havoc during the day -- moving furniture around, causing the contents of a child's bedroom to float through the air to form a vortex.
* ''Film/{{Predator}}'' was mostly set during the course of a single day, yet the monster was still hidden due to invisibility, making those scenes more intense.
* ''Film/{{Psycho}}'': Though all of the scary events take place at night, the four scariest scenes in the film -- the shower scene, Arbogast's death, the reveal of Norman Bates as the killer, and the final scene where Norman has an extremely creepy interior monologue -- all occur not just in well-lit rooms, but rooms with lights that are actually intense and glaring in the case of the shower and reveal scenes.
* ''Film/AQuietPlace'': The aliens will kill anything that makes a sound, day or night. [[Film/AQuietPlacePartII The sequel]] reveals that the alien invasion began on a sunny day.
* All of the outdoor scenes in ''Film/TheReflectingSkin'' were shot during the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_hour_(photography) golden hour]] to give them the feeling of "hallucinogenic summer."
* ''Film/ResidentEvilExtinction'' is set almost entirely during the day.
* ''Film/TheRing'': Many of the scarier scenes in the original films happen during the daytime. In the American remake, only a few scenes were set at night (though the daylight scenes were still extremely cloudy).
* ''Film/{{Scream}}'':
** ''Film/Scream1996'': Sidney gets attacked by Ghostface in the school bathroom between classes. He's also shown stalking both her and Tatum during the afternoon before the party.
** ''Film/Scream2'': [[spoiler:Randy]]'s death happens in the middle of a bright day. On the college campus. ''In a wide field full of students.''
** ''Film/Scream2022'': [[spoiler:Judy Hicks and her son Wes]] are killed off by Ghostface during the day.
* In ''Film/{{Serenity}}'', every scene before the protagonists reach Miranda is brighter than the last, and Miranda itself is almost painfully brilliant (including broad panels of spotless concrete and glass), but it's still absolutely littered with corpses and where our BigDamnHeroes discover [[spoiler: how the Pax caused everyone on the planet to either calmly allow themselves to die or become Reavers]]. And it's ''terrifying''.
* ''Film/Session9'': The final scenes are not only bathed in sunlight, but birdsong too.
* While there are clues that the events start prior to that point, ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'' shows the proper zombie apocalypse kicking off in the morning as Shaun wakes up with a hangover. In his half-asleep daze, he fails to notice the corpses everywhere and the zombies hunting the living as he goes to the store and returns to his apartment. Most of the action following this happens in broad daylight.
* ''Film/ShinGodzilla'': Unlike the original ''[[Film/Godzilla1954 Godzilla]]'' and ''Film/TheReturnOfGodzilla'', the majority of Godzilla's attacks are during daylight hours. Only one scene is set at night, to highlight the intensity of its rays.
* Creator/StanleyKubrick's version of ''Film/TheShining'' rarely shows darkness. It has many scenes in the day, the hotel always has all of its lights on, and there is a white blanket of snow on the ground outside that makes everything... well, [[{{Pun}} shiny]].
* The "birthday party video" scene from ''Film/{{Signs}}''. It's arguably scarier than any of the scenes that take place at night.
* The opening scene of ''Sinister'' involves a family murdered in broad daylight.
* The 2005 film ''Slaughterhouse of the Rising Sun'' features many scenes of daylight horror.
* ''Film/StandByMe'' -- This Creator/StephenKing story features many scary moments in the daylight: The train chase, Chopper, the violent gang, "[[AdultFear It should have been you]]," the leeches, and ultimately... the body.
* The ground battles in ''Franchise/StarWars'' almost all take place during the day, making it all the easier to see the legions of enemy troopers or Imperial walkers destroying everything in their path. ''Film/RogueOne'' takes this further when the bright blue sky over Scarif is suddenly filled with [[spoiler:the Death Star]].
* Several scares (or otherwise eerie, suspenseful scenes) in the Korean horror-drama ''A Tale Of Two Sisters'' to demonstrate that the nightmares don't end even if you're awake and the sun is shining through the window.
* ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'':
** All of the nuclear holocaust sequences are during the daytime. Particularly, ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' shows burning children. The [[Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles TV show]] has two brothers watching the nukes fly overhead as they play baseball in their front yard. The ending of ''[[spoiler: Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines]]'' shows [[spoiler: beautiful landscapes illuminated by sunlight... obliterated by many nukes]].
** Many of the assassination sequences, as well, for instance the smiling deliveryman in ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'' who shoots a RedShirt, but also ends up [[spoiler:taking out [[AnyoneCanDie Derek.]]]] Also, for instance, the assassination of one of the Sarah Connors in [[Film/TheTerminator the original movie]].
--->"Sarah Connah?"\\
"Yes?"
* A good portion of ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre1974'' takes place during the daylight hours, probably due to budget reasons, but also helps employ the use of surprise (including Leatherface's first appearance which shocked a lot of people back in 1974), as well as the gruesome detail of some of the macabre set pieces (like when Pam stumbles into the room full of body parts). Later, the camera lovingly lingers on Leatherface's mask as he looks out the window into the sunlight. After a lengthy night portion, the movie has the FinalGirl burst through the painted glass of the window to find that it's actually daylight outside, and that the killers are going to continue mutilating her as she runs into a public area where others gawk in horror at the mayhem.
* ''Film/{{Tremors}}'' takes place almost entirely during the day. A few scenes did have one of the creatures trap the protagonist trio overnight on top a cluster of boulders (which also protects them as they can't tunnel through rock). The point is that like moles, the eponymous worms, do not need light to navigate their surroundings and will attack regardless if it's day or night. There's a single nighttime death scene, but it's really less terrifying than the daytime graboid scenes because, at night, it's pretty conventional horror movie stuff.
* ''Film/UltramanTigaTheFinalOdyssey'' has this nightmarish vision from the protagonist; Tokyo is in the middle of the day, when suddenly an entire swarm of Zoiger is released from R'lyeh on the other side of the world, in a flock thick enough to cover the sun, and Ultraman Tiga is unable to help... because his true identity as [[DarkIsEvil Dark Tiga]] has taken over and is actively joining the Zoigers in attacking civilians.
* ''Film/UTurn'' [[spoiler: - Bobby barely escapes from the town, only to fry in the desert heat]].
* ''Film/VHS2'': The most horrific parts of the ''A Ride in the Park'' and ''Safe Haven'' segments take place in the middle of the day.
* Most of the scenes in ''Film/TheWickerMan1973'' take place in broad daylight, including the terrifying climax. This lets the audience take in the [[SceneryPorn beautiful Celtic landscape]], but also helps sink in the deranged surreality of Summer Isle. The things the villagers do in full view of one another wouldn't be nearly as off-putting if it happened at night.
* ''Film/TheWitch'' has long stretches of time in the middle of the day where ''[[NothingIsScarier nothing]]'' happens, and it's terrifying as all hell, using the "even in broad daylight, [[ParanoiaFuel you're not safe]]" principle to chilling effect. An especially good example is when [[spoiler: Samuel]] vanishes.
* One of the murder scenes in ''Film/{{Zodiac}}'' takes place on a bright and sunny day, made all the more frightening by the fact that it was base on a true story.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
%%* Any StealthBasedGame where it's crucial to stick to the shadows and avoid the light, such as...
%%** ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}''
%%** ''VideoGame/{{Manhunt}}''
%%** ''VideoGame/SplinterCell''
%%** ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}''
* [[http://web.archive.org/web/20090608212343/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.
* ''VideoGame/ArizonaSunshine'' has you shooting zombies on bright, sunny days.
* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'': Columbia starts off as this, but then gets noticeably darker as the game progresses.
* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'': [[DeathWorld Pandora]] is quite beautiful, with blue skies and majestic vistas visible most of the time, even more so in the sequel. This would all be nice and dandy if everything in the planet wasn't trying to kill you, and it wasn't infested with psychopathic bandits who would gladly drive a buzzaxe through your face at a moment's notice.
* ''VideoGame/BrighterDay'' is set in a brightly-colored mental hospital on a cloudless day... and the player is all alone except for the giant eyeballs that are everywhere looking for you.
* ''VideoGame/TheBureauXCOMDeclassified'' is set mostly during daytime. Earlier games in the series also had missions that would take place in daylight, depending on when your soldiers arrived at a terror site.
* Most of ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyInfiniteWarfare'' is, like the rest of the series, a run and gun power fantasy. That makes the encounter on the 3 Vesta mining colony all that much more jarring. Sent fatally close to the sun and given a high rotational speed by a Set Def attack, the asteroid is a molten nightmare where the civilian population has been either burned to death by solar radiation or [[spoiler:slaughtered by worker and security drones that get to work committing mass murder every time the colony rotates back into sunlight]]. Nothing moves, except when it jumps to life to kill you.
* The ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos'' games have several good examples of this. Most notably, ''Trilby's Notes'', generally agreed to be the scariest game in the series, takes place entirely during the day apart from the opening sequence (albeit primarily indoors).
* The final battle against the Alien Cell in ''{{VideoGame/Contra}}: Hard Corps'' takes place in broad daylight.
* In ''Videogame/DarkSouls'', one of the most dangerous areas in the game is Anor Londo, a bright shiny city where it is always sunny [[spoiler:courtesy of Gwyndolin's illusion]]. The area is full of very dangerous enemies [[spoiler:also courtesy of Gwyndolin's illusion]]. Fittingly, the place becomes much safer [[spoiler:after breaking the illusion plunges Anor Londo into darkness. The only enemies that remain are Gwyndolin's pissed off servants]].
* In ''VideoGame/DeadIsland'', most of the clips and scenes take place during the daytime, which makes it scarier as it makes the player a more visible target.
* A large chunk of ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' takes place during daylight.
* ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' mostly takes place under the sunlight (when it's not BeneathTheEarth), including a desert territory brimming with undead buzzards and demonic locusts (barring the need to undo a magical eclipse at one point). ''{{VideoGame/Diablo}}'' is always night (and the action is entirely BeneathTheEarth). Much of ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'''s demonslaying action takes place during the daylight hours, including much of Act II, the siege of Bastion's Keep in Act III, and [[spoiler:the battle in the High Heavens]] in Act IV. Kormac the Templar, one of your followers who has a serious case of BlackAndWhiteMorality, is definitely troubled by this.
* While ''VideoGame/{{Doom 3}}'' featured most of its fighting in dark rooms and corridors, ''VideoGame/Doom2016'' returns to the ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' franchise's earlier roots by having most of the demonic encounters occur in brightly light areas at nearly all times so that you can see you foes in all of their horrific glory.
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'', this is {{Invoked|Trope}} by Dhaunayne Aundae (the Ancient of the Aundae clan of [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]]), who (if you become a vampire of the Aundae clan) sends you to kill a vampire hunter in the city of Ald'ruhn... in [[DaywalkingVampire broad daylight]], as a message that not even the light of the sun will protect enemies of the vampires.
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', it is possible to invoke this yourself if you become a [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolf]] through the Companions' questline. Unlike past games where becoming a werewolf was an InvoluntaryTransformation at night time, the particular type of lycanthropy the Companions possess allows for a ''voluntary'' transformation once per day, even in broad daylight.
* ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'' has one of the characters wandering around a spooky mansion in the day with the sun getting ready to set and still manages to give off the uneasy feeling that monsters are watching you and can strike at any moment.
* In ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'', it doesn't matter whether it's day or night - if Alma's around, it's always scary. The very end of the first game takes place just past a sunny day's sunrise, and Alma crawling into the helicopter is not made any less terrifying because of it.
* In ''VideoGame/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.
* Most of the ''VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead'' series takes place during the day, with only a few levels during nighttime.
** While the game takes place during the night, you fight the FinalBoss of ''VideoGame/HouseOfTheDeadOverkill'', Mother, in broad daylight.
* At least half of the missions in ''VideoGame/{{Killer7}}'' take place in sunny locations, like Texas, the Dominican Republic, and a well-lit Amusement Park ([[AmusementParkOfDoom of Doom]]). But since this is a SurrealHorror we're talking about, the bright light emphasizes the bizarre, cel-shaded, technicolor palette, making the world around you only look that much more alien and hostile. Hell, one of the most horrific scenes in the game ([[spoiler: Ulmeyda turning into a Heaven Smile and the ensuing boss fight]]) takes place in the Texas desert in broad daylight.
* While most of your encounters with [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Clickers]] take place in dark tunnels and sub-basements, a good deal of the fighting in ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'' takes place outside, or at least in well-lit areas. One of the more notable examples would probably be your first encounter with a [[BossInMooksClothing Blo]][[OhCrap ater]], which happens in a bright, if rather run down, gymnasium.
* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'''s daytime segments don't just change the lighting, but the behavior of one of the [[EliteZombie Special Infected]]. [[SavageSetpiece Witches]] normally sit in one place at night; during the day they wander around. To compensate, they're considerably harder to aggravate. With most of the campaigns taking place in the daytime, the nasty details of the infected and special infected can be seen more clearly.
* Similar to the ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis'' example, as soon as it hits 4 AM of the final night in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' it gets quite light out, but it's also the most tense and unsettling moment of the game: the sky has a sickly pink tone to it, the land rumbles, and the [[ForDoomTheBellTolls bells of the clock tower echo in the distance]] reminding you that you have about two minutes until TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
* Though not outright horror, some of the levels in ''Franchise/MassEffect'' at least go for Daylight Creepy, like Feros and Ilos, and the prologue on Eden Prime to some degree. In ''Mass Effect 2'', [[DarkerAndEdgier almost every level is like this]].
** A specific example is Horizon, a colony in the process of being abducted by the Collectors. It's a beautiful, summery day and the colony looks like any prefabricated community, a place where people live, farm, work and sleep. And then you come across humans frozen in place in the process of fleeing, falling, screaming, hiding, trying to help each other...and then you ''stop'' coming across them, and it's like they were never there at all.
** Taken several notches up in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' with ''Sanctuary''. It's a refugee camp on Horizon that takes in human refugees from planets destroyed by the Reapers and the reception area looks a lot like an [[CrystalSpiresAndTogas elegant and clean airport with huge skylights and indoor parks]], except for some very recent damage from firefights and crashed shuttles. As you arrive the last enemy troops are on full retreat and [[NothingIsScarier there is nobody else there]], while the PA keeps blaring out instructions to new arrivals, which sound increasingly like cult propaganda. From terminals you learn that new arrivals are confined to the reception area and have to leave behind all their possessions. If you volunteer as a receptionist, you are promised better accommodations once you are permitted inside the main compound. From which nobody has ever returned. [[spoiler:It's actually a kind of concentration camp where refugees are turned into brainwashed cyborg soldiers and everyone who is not suitable is turned into test subjects for anti-zombie weapons.]]
* Daylight will not keep the creature from hunting you in ''VideoGame/{{Miasmata}}''. Not that night does. either.
* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'': Most enemies spawn in darkness and burn in direct sunlight, with the exception of five mobs:
** The first is the giant spider, which becomes passive and stops attacking the player without provocation after the sun comes up.
** The second exception, [[DemonicSpiders The Creeper]], is an ActionBomb which combines several annoying traits. Its body is mottled green, so it blends in rather well with trees. It's completely silent except for a hissing sound it makes right next to you moments before detonating. Its [[ArtificialBrilliance AI is advanced enough]] that it can ambush the player, hiding in alcoves or around corners waiting to catch you by surprise. And most importantly for this trope, sunlight neither harms nor pacifies creepers, so when you leave your shelter in the morning, they'll be waiting for you.
** The third is the very creepy Endermen, which just stand there... until you look at their faces...
** The fourth is the Husk, a [[UndergroundMonkey desert variant]] of the Zombie that only spawns in deserts, doesn't burn in sunlight, and will inflict a hunger status on hit.
** The fifth is the Drowned, an AquaticMook variant of the zombie that can spawn at day if the light level at the seafloor is low enough, or if a normal zombie is submerged in water for a bit of time. It surfaces to attack the player, and doesn't burn in sunlight easily since the water it tends to be in puts out the flames. Drowned may also spawn with a Trident, in which case it gains a painful ranged attack.
** Meanwhile in [[PlanetHeck the Nether]], while there isn't any daylight ([[EldritchLocation or daytime]]), there's often plenty of magma to light things up. You might prefer dark, cramped tunnels after a run-in with Ghasts, which are large enough to be restricted to more open areas.
* The [[ExaggeratedTrope entirety]] of ''VideoGame/{{NieR}}'' takes place in broad daylight, even the beginning in the middle of an EndlessWinter. The Shades don't like the sun, but considering they can walk around in light overcast [[spoiler: and [[ItCanThink armor]]]], means some terrible stuff can still happen. It's actually a part of the backstory that the sun never sets.
** In the sequel, ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'', some of the most gruesome stuff happens in broad daylight and in especially well-lit areas. Crimes against sanity include: crucifying your enemies and brain-jacking them to become living turrets while butt-naked and in constant pain from taking orders from an insane fashionista, fighting your way past an army of LARP fanatics to kill their king only to realize he's just a baby robot and then watch him get skewered by a rogue agent, robot shakespeare, robot cannibalism, robot zombification, mass robot suicide, etc.
* Dryfield, the monster-infested town from ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve2''.
* ''VideoGame/{{Pathologic}}''. Though even the noon of the sunniest day in the game has a withered, autumn atmosphere and can look mildly gloomy.
* ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'': Most of the series takes place during the day, as the night is when enemies become more active and all of the player characters automatically retreat to their ships to avoid them. This does not prevent encountering enemies like the Smoky Progg, a creature covered in its own toxin that makes it resemble a ghost-like figure. Or giant (by the player character's standards) spiders crashing into the field. Or the final boss of the third game, [[spoiler:a strange, shape-shifting, possibly immortal entity of "plasm" that is dead-obsessed with capturing Olimar for reasons unknown]].
* ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'': [[DishingOutDirt Groudon's]] Drought ability automatically makes the weather sunny and bright... which escalates to drying up all water sources and violently expanding continents. In the remakes, the day and night cycles are included, but this ultimately makes no difference since Groudon's power disrupts the cycle and ''makes it look like the sky is burning''.
* [[HeroKiller The main villain]] of ''VideoGame/PokemonSuperMysteryDungeon'' has no restraints on [[TakenForGranite petrifying Pokemon]] during the day. The protagonists see this for themselves during a beautiful day at Baram Town in which they see two large rocks crashing down into a forest only to find out that Latias and Latios failed to escape.
* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'':
** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'' The final few moments of the game take place at the crack of dawn. [[spoiler: The game seems to be over and you're waiting for the helicopter to rescue you in the happy daylight, when suddenly the Tyrant comes back for a jump scare.]]
** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis'' as well. Until you get out of the police station that is. The horrifying aspect being that the day and night are nearly indistinguishable since the smoke from the burning town is blotting out the sun. [[spoiler:It's used to great effect during the finale when you can clearly see it's getting lighter out as you're fleeing the factory: the city's going to be obliterated with a nuke at dawn, so all the light does is remind you ''you're minutes away from death''.]]
** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica'' has one half of the game set in the Antarctic, where Capcom remembered that since it's December, and therefore Summer in the southern hemisphere, it's constantly day out. Not that you'll notice since Chris and Claire are indoors almost the entire time.
** Downplayed in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4''. The opening of the game takes place during the daytime, which doesn't prevent Leon from getting mobbed by AxCrazy villagers. However, once night falls, it turns out that you really ''were'' safer in the daytime, since [[PuppeteerParasite Las Plagas]], which are sensitive to bright light, will start emerging from their hosts once the sun has gone down.
** Many levels in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'' take place during the day, out in the blinding sun. Enemies with their backs to the sun are a major annoyance.
** All of the Terragrigia levels in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRevelations'' take place in daylight, as the city was built to take advantage of the sun. Ironically, it is vaporized and destroyed by the sunlight after a huge crowd of Hunters invade. The levels are some of the most tense in the game.
* The vast majority of the ''VideoGame/ShiningForce'' series takes place during the day. Even the battles against the {{Big Bad}}s take place during high noon. In ''Gaiden'', only one battle took place at night; other than that and the hidden character, it was just another standard battle.
* ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'':
** In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'', most of the game is perfectly lit -- all the better to see the [[DeathWorld devastated]], [[BleakLevel ruined]] [[NightmareFuel wreck]] that once was Tokyo. Also, the "sun" is actually [[spoiler: a giant cybernetic demon acting as representative of YHWH and ready to murder everything on earth simultaneously, because the entire world is literally built around it like a dyson sphere with weekly murder-fests from frenzied demons due to the sun's harmful mana-radioactive pulses]]. You may scream now.
** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'':
*** The game has [[spoiler:Blasted Tokyo, which is an AlternateTimeline version of Tokyo in which the forces of Law seize the metropolis.]] There is a desert [[spoiler:where Tokyo once stood]], there are massive craters [[spoiler:that mark where major Tokyo districts used to be]], the poisonous atmosphere infects and eventually kills humans exposed to it, and demons roam the land killing off humans who dare to wander outside the sole human shelter. Yes, the sun shines [[spoiler:on this Tokyo thanks to the lack of a Firmament]], but that's the reason [[spoiler:the nuclear missiles were able to blow Tokyo to pieces]], leaving only a massive DeathWorld.
*** The ''For the Past, For the Future'' DLC episode shows that [[spoiler:the nuclear strike that leveled Tokyo]] and [[spoiler:[[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan the fight to get Masakado to his senses and raise the Firmament]]]], which is the game's ultimate BonusBoss fight, take place during the daytime.
** In ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'', the stranded people and demons within the Yamanote Loop go about their infighting and struggle for survival and resources during the day. At night, it all calms down and people are able to message each other on their [=COMPs=].
* A few of the games in the ''Franchise/SilentHill'' franchise start off in the day, granted a dark and gloomy day, before moving on to night. The first two games both alternate between daylight and nighttime at key points, but the infamous DarkWorld is, as you'd reckon, almost always cloaked in darkness (the mall in ''VideoGame/SilentHill3'' being one exception, where the orange light of dusk can still be seen outside a few windows).
* Most of the horror and tragic moments of ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'' take place during the day. This includes Gould's death, [[spoiler:the White Phosphorous incident, the Radioman's sudden demise, Lugo's hanging and a good chunk of the hallucinations]].
* In one of the later areas of ''VideoGame/SpookysHouseOfJumpScares'', you appear to walk outside into a brightly-lit forest. Unfortunately, you are still not out of the mansion, and the deer you see will attack you if you get close enough.
* Lake Yantar in ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'' is somehow more creepy during the day than during night. During the highly overcast day you can often see zombiefied Stalkers shuffling in the distance or Snorks crawling through the bushes while at night it's just a usual dark wilderness level.
* There's only one chapter in ''VideoGame/StillLife2'' that takes place in daylight and it plays exactly like an earlier chapter of danger-free investigation. All of which only makes the end-of-chapter [[OhCrap gut punch]] that much punchier.
* Uncharacteristically ghastly enemies from the usually bubbly and sunny ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' series: The Unagis, giant, bug-eyed eels with gaping mouths filled with fangs. The Mega Unagi is a larger version of normal Unagis. The Mega Unagi cannot be killed. It eats everything in its path as it tries to kill Mario in the sunlit waters.
* ''VideoGame/SystemShock'': Well there's no "daylight" because you're on a space station, but much of the game takes place in bright, well-lit and alarmingly colourful levels (and is set to [[SoundtrackDissonance fairly upbeat electronic music]]) as you rifle through the corpses of Citadel Station's butchered crew trying to find enough supplies to hold off the twisted mutants, cyborgs and reprogrammed robots trying to slaughter you on the commands of an insane, sadistic AI that is planning to destroy the Earth. The only exceptions are the maintenance level and the grooves, which are set to unnerving music and mostly empty environments.
* In ''VideoGame/TombRaiderTheLastRevelation'', Lara's first encounter with the [[DemBones animated skeletons]] takes place in full daylight.
* ''Videogame/TheWitcher'' has Noonwraiths, which are corpse-like spectral women that, as their name implies, only appear in daytime specially during hot and sunny days, they lure travelers and make them dance in the sunlight until they literally drop dead from the heat and exhaustion.
* All scenes in ''VideoGame/TheWitchsHouse'' that are set outdoors [[spoiler:including the heart wrenching True Ending]] take place during the day, and the windows leading outside show sunlight immediately before [[spoiler:"Viola's" final encounter with "Ellen"]]. Time is confusing and ambiguous inside of the house, but outside, it's apparently been day throughout the entire course of the game.
* In the ''VideoGame/WorldOfHorror'', it doesn't matter what time of day it is: you're never safe. Threats can emerge at any time, from the most mundane of sources.
* The main premise of ''VideoGame/YandereSimulator'' revolves around the player, who is controlling the titular {{Yandere}}, killing rivals during a normal school day. How they choose to kill rivals and other students is up to them, whether by drowning, stabbing, poisoning, pushed off a roof, or any other various killing methods.
[[/folder]]

* ''Film/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.

** While [[Film/FridayThe13th the very first film]] kills off most of its characters at night, the third kill happens in broad daylight. Not to mention the ending, which famously has [[spoiler:Alice being ambushed by Jason Voorhees (not yet a hulking monster, but undead and ''extremely'' unexpected) during the day, although it ends up being a dream]].

* ''Film/FridayThe13th2009'' had the typical "people take off their clothes and go out to the lake, only to be killed by Jason" scene. This time, however, it happened during the day. The final scares of both [[Film/FridayThe13th1980 the original installment]] and [[Film/FridayThe13thPartIII the third movie]] both take place during the daytime as well.

* ''Film/{{Insidious}}'' had the scene [[spoiler: where the demon pops up in plain sight behind the woman's shoulder at the coffee table in the middle of the day]] which gave audiences a good startle just because it was so unexpected. Combining this trope with SoundtrackDissonance, the entire "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" sequence comes out of nowhere on a well-lit afternoon.

* ''Series/SquidGame'': The show is focused on DeadlyGame iterations of children's games, and for that many take place in areas that are built to resemble brightly colored open fields, playgrounds and neighborhoods lit in warm late afternoon sunlight, which horribly contrast the bloody and violent events taking place as the contestants play for their lives. An excellent example is Episode 1's first game of "Red Light, Green Light", with the contestants having to run towards an UncannyValley little girl-looking giant robot doll and stay still when it [[ExorcistHead turns its head a full 180 degrees]]. Anyone failing to stay still gets shot death.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''::

* ''VideoGame/BrighterDay'' is set in a brightly-colored mental hospital on a cloudless day...and the player is all alone except for the giant eyeballs that are everywhere looking for you.

* The second chapter of ''Webcomic/TheBongcheonDongGhost'' takes place in the middle of the day at a train station.
* Justified for ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'''s trolls, who are nocturnal and live on a world where the nastiest threats all come out under the blistering rays of the sun.

* The demons in ''Webcomic/SoulToCall'' have no lighting preferences whatsoever.

* Though all of the scary events in ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' take place at night, the four scariest scenes in the film -- the shower scene, Arbogast's death, the reveal of Norman Bates as the killer, and the final scene where Norman has an extremely creepy interior monologue -- all occur not just in well-lit rooms, but rooms with lights that are actually intense and glaring in the case of the shower and reveal scenes.
* The aliens in ''Film/AQuietPlace'' will kill anything that makes a sound, day or night. [[Film/AQuietPlacePartII The sequel]] reveals that the alien invasion began on a sunny day.

** ''Film/{{Scream 1996}}'': Sidney gets attacked by Ghostface in the school bathroom between classes. He's also shown stalking both her and Tatum during the afternoon before the party.
** ''Film/{{Scream 2}}'': [[spoiler:Randy]]'s death happens in the middle of a bright day. On the college campus. ''In a wide field full of students.''

* The final scenes of ''Film/{{Session 9}}'' are not only bathed in sunlight, but birdsong too.

* Any StealthBasedGame where it's crucial to stick to the shadows and avoid the light, such as...
** ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}''
** ''VideoGame/{{Manhunt}}''
** ''VideoGame/SplinterCell''
** ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}''

* Columbia in ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' starts off as this, but then gets noticeably darker as the game progresses.
* The planet of [[DeathWorld Pandora]] in ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' is quite beautiful, with blue skies and majestic vistas visible most of the time, even more so in the sequel. This would all be nice and dandy if everything in the planet wasn't trying to kill you, and it wasn't infested with psychopathic bandits who would gladly drive a buzzaxe through your face at a moment's notice.
* The indie horror game ''Brighter Day'' is set in a brightly-colored mental hospital on a cloudless day...and the player is all alone except for the giant eyeballs that are everywhere looking for you.

* Most of the ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'' series takes place during the day, as the night is when enemies become more active and all of the player characters automatically retreat to their ships to avoid them. This does not prevent encountering enemies like the Smoky Progg, a creature covered in its own toxin that makes it resemble a ghost-like figure. Or giant (by the player character's standards) spiders crashing into the field. Or the final boss of the third game, [[spoiler:a strange, shape-shifting, possibly immortal entity of "plasm" that is dead-obsessed with capturing Olimar for reasons unknown]].

* While not horror per se, the strange and mysterious disappearance of Mrs. Appleyard's students in the 1973 Australian classic "[[Film/PicnicatHangingRock]]" is a good example, as the main events unfold in the blistering sunlight of a hot February day in Victoria.

* Most often, the writers want to play on the false sense of security we feel about light and turn it on its head.

* Explicitly or [[RuleOfSymbolism implicitly]], there's an idea that it's a greater violation of [[BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil the natural order]]: If the forces of darkness are invading the realm of light, that's a worse state of affairs than if they just stick to hiding in the shadows and prey on those who enter those kind of places.

* ''WebAnimation/InAHeartbeat'' goes for a similar feeling to Tarzan, with standing in the light being associated with exposure and danger.

* A number of scenes in ''Film/TheExorcist'' have been remarked upon for taking place in daylight, notably TheOneWith Reagan's spinning head.

* Taken UpToEleven in ''FanFic/RainbowDoubleDashsLunaverse''. As a result of Corona being bound into the sun, the sun itself is something to be feared. In particular, nopony will ever willingly be out-of-doors at high noon.

* The ground battles in ''Franchise/StarWars'' almost all take place during the day, making it all the easier to see the legions of enemy troopers or Imperial walkers destroying everything in their path. ''Film/RogueOne'' takes this UpToEleven when the bright blue sky over Scarif is suddenly filled with [[spoiler:the Death Star]].

* ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite'' starts off as this, but then gets noticeably darker as the game progresses.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* An [[http://imgur.com/gallery/mlutw adamtots comic]] shows the sun, saying that it wants to warm you up, to burn you, to kill you.

* Franchise/MonsterVerse:

** ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': Unlike the [=MUTOs=] and Ghidorah himself in previous [=MonsterVerse=] movies, [[Characters/MonsterVerseKingGhidorah Mechagodzilla]], [[spoiler:once it's taken over by Ghidorah's remnant consciousness,]] emerges upon Hong Kong and battles Kong and Godzilla in the broad daylight of a grim, grey morning. Specifically, Mechagodzilla emerges just after dawn has broken.

* Both ''Film/CannibalHolocaust'' and its spiritual successor ''Film/TheGreenInferno'' take place in the bright sunny Amazon, which only serves to highlight the excessive amount of Gorn they feature.

** During the classic series, the showrunners often had to contend with lighting engineer guidelines intended for light entertainment shows which bordered it in the schedules. Invariably the engineers wanted to light everything to levels that shoot beautifully on chat shows, and the producers would want more atmospheric levels appropriate for GothicHorror. You can generally tell how tight a leash the producer had on the team at the time by how dark or bright a horror episode is; Philip Hinchcliffe's completely controlled Season 14 contained the very dark [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E6TheTalonsOfWengChiang "The Talons of Weng-Chiang"]] and even gave the Doctor a low-lit churchike TARDIS instead of the blindingly-lit previous model, but much of the mid-to-late 80s are illuminated to levels that could have given the actors sunburn. It's worth pointing out that SpecialEffectsEvolution was also a factor — as video camera technology improved over the years, more atmospheric lighting effects became possible.

* In "Literature/GenreSavvy", Edgar decides to take the ScenicRoute home after a night of movie marathon SleepDeprivation. He finds himself out in the middle of nowhere with an injured, barefoot girl screaming for help and then [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere drives away]] because Good Samaritans [[GenreSavvy get killed helping]] the victims in horror movies.

** [[TheAntiGod the Darkness]] rises in the [[Recap/SupernaturalS10E23MyBrothersKeeper Season 10 finale]].