History Main / MonsterCloset

Compare TeleportingKeycardSquad, MookMaker and ChestMonster. [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Has nothing to do with]] being closeted.

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[[folder: Shoot Em Up ]]

[[folder: Survival Horror ]]

[[folder: Turn Based Tactics ]]

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Compare TeleportingKeycardSquad, MookMaker and ChestMonster.

* ''VideoGame/SilenbtHill'' has the [[https://silenthill.fandom.com/wiki/Monster_in_the_Locker Monster in the Locker]].

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' explains it by way of the monsters getting into unused drywalled-off corridors due to random teleporting.

[[folder:Non-Video Game Examples]]
!Theme Parks:
* ''Ride/TheHauntedMansion'' has a whole Corridor of Doors where undead monsters are banging at the doors, all trying to get out. [[NothingIsScarier You never see them]] — you only hear their rasping breath and door-banging, and see the doors shake and bulge.
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* In ''MetroidPrime'', the first Sheegoth that you fight bursts out of a wall that was concealing a room just big enough for said Sheegoth, with no way in or out.

[[Non-Video Game Examples]]

-->-- '''WebVideo/ZeroPunctuation''' on ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2''

** Skewered and fricassed in WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation's Review of ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'', a modern adherent to the original version of the trope. The narrator notes that monsters pop out of identical air vents so often there's no surprise when they do, but that the air vent doesn't go anywhere, suggesting the poor beastie had to pry off the cover, put the cover back on once it was inside, and just take a nap. Since ''Franchise/DeadSpace'' is a SurvivalHorror game, knowing where the enemies are all but guaranteed to jump out from certainly removes a ton of suspense.

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* In ''VideoGame/TheMatrixPathOfNeo'' there's a level where vampires start bursting out of walls and columns with no way, logical, way of getting inside said walls and columns.

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** ''FreemansMind'' points out that not only is this the reason the facility is falling apart, but that an alien could [[TeleFrag teleport into a person]]. [[ParanoiaFuel At any time.]]

-->''"I shone my torch around one of those vents once, and saw that there were no ways in or out. So either the monsters grow in there like a fungus, or the monster carefully replaced the cover after climbing inside. Perhaps to have a little sleep. Perhaps what I thought was a hostile attempt to ambush me was actually someone waking up in a panic and realizing that they're late for work."''
-->--'''WebVideo/ZeroPunctuation''' on ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2''

* ''VideoGame/{{Condemned}}'': Happens once in the subway level of ''Criminal Origins'' -- the player opens a locker and gets jumped by a pale, emaciated woman wielding a rebar.

Compare TeleportingKeycardSquad and MookMaker.

* Several ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games have the "Monster-in-a-box!", special encounters (often with a special opponent and rare loot) whom you face when you open a seemingly innocent treasure box. Why, exactly, are the monsters hiding out in the boxes?

-->--'''WebVideo/ZeroPunctuation''' on '''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'''

** They did it with ''Doom 3'', where it stretched believability to the breaking point. "They're breaking through the walls!" (radio transmission)

* Before ''VideoGame/{{Doom}} 3'', the ''VideoGame/{{Descent}}'' series was the king of this trope. You could often find dozens of these in every single level. ''Descent'' also justifies the trope as the robots setting traps for you, and since they are, in fact, ''mining robots'', it makes sense that they could carve small rooms out of the walls of the level for this purpose.

-->''"I shone my torch around one of those vents once, and saw that there were no ways in or out. So either the monsters grow in there like a fungus, or the monster carefully replaced the cover after climbing inside. Perhaps to have a little sleep. Perhaps what I thought was an attempt to ambush me was actually someone waking up in a panic and realizing that they're late for work."''

-->''"I shone my torch around one of those vents once, and saw that there were no ways in or out. So either the monsters grow in there like a fungus or they carefully replaced the cover after climbing inside. Perhaps to have a little sleep. Perhaps what I thought was an attempt to ambush me was actually someone waking up in a panic and realizing that they're late for work."''
-->--'''WebVideo/ZeroPunctuation'''

* The final boss fight with Koarx in ''VideoGame/{{Hexen}}'' is about chasing him as teleports and opens doors to Monster Closets.

* The first ''VideoGame/{{Unreal|I}}'', generally averted this trope, placing enemies in sensible positions, still plays it straight once near the start. Up to that moment you've only encountered Brutes (slow and easy to kill, if quick to shoot), tentacles (plants that shoot nearly harmless spikes) and birds (quick but easy to dodge and kill), wiping out the whole of them. The task at hand is to deactivate a generator powering a forcefield. Upon coming back from this task, the long, narrow corridor you've already walked through before starts getting dark, as lights switch off. [[spoiler:Right about the time you start to wonder what the hell's going on, a Skaarj Warrior jumps out from the darkness from a previously closed closet-sized empty room and proceeds to scare the living daylights out of you.]]

* ''SeriousSam'' does it occasionally.
* While the closets in ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' are not hidden, several contain absolutely nothing except respawned [[PlayerCharacter survivors]]. However, sometimes a Horde may spawn in it.
** Also, some walls are fragile and allow zombies to burst through them.
** Since the AI Director chooses which closets are used, exploring players will find empty dead ends that could have been monster closets.
** Hordes of 30 zombies spawning out of a closet is pretty much one of the main game mechanics.
** At least in the spirit of this trope, though, as you play ''Left 4 Dead'' or ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'', you will encounter plenty of zombie configurations that will make you stop and ask, "How the hell did this happen? How did these guys get here? Why did they stay?"

** As the Versus game mode is PlayerVersusPlayer, it isn't unheard-of for particularly sneaky or particularly evil [[EliteZombie Special Infected]] players to take advantage of small, ignored closets by sitting and waiting until Survivors pass by...or coming up behind them from what they thought was a safe zone.

* ''VideoGame/{{Condemned}}'': Happens once in the subway level of ''Criminal Origins''-the player opens a locker and gets jumped by a pale, emaciated woman wielding a rebar.
* ''VideoGame/{{Heretic}}'': Korax teleports away once and opens doors to Monster Closets, summoning mooks to help him.
* ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist'': During the end segment of "First World Bank", it's entirely possible for [[EliteMooks a specialist]] ([[OhCrap like, say,]] [[HeavilyArmoredMook a Bulldozer]]) to burst out of a door [[PersonalSpaceInvader right into your face]], or just behind the crew in an attempt to pick one of you off. An update lets this also happen on other heists, such as in the alleys of "Heat Street" and "Panic Room."

** Subverted in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis'': While Nemesis is certainly not adverse to jumping through windows, he prefers to use OffscreenTeleportation - which makes him scarier, because ''those appearances aren't scripted''.

[[AC:Non-Videogame examples]]
* This can show up in real life in haunted house design, although it's uncommon (as it's better to have a "backstage" hallway network connecting areas). Probably the most justified version of the trope.
* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'': Technically, the closets aren't hidden, but it's impossible to tell from the outside when one of them's gonna open and reveal a monster.

* Before ''{{Doom}} 3'', the ''{{Descent}}'' series was the king of this trope. You could often find dozens of these in every single level. ''Descent'' also justifies the trope as the robots setting traps for you, and since they are, in fact, ''mining robots'', it makes sense that they could carve small rooms out of the walls of the level for this purpose.

One must question a few aspects of this situation:

* As another RPG example, there are a few very straight cases of this trope in the High Entia Tomb in ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}''. Justified, as not only is the place supposed to be full of traps, but the "monsters" that jump you are ancient machines built to guard the place. And there's a twist too, exactly one of them is more than just a closet: it's an actual secret passage that leads to a hidden area.

* ''VideoGame/LegendOfGrimrock''

* Several ''FinalFantasy'' games have the "Monster-in-a-box!", special encounters (often with a special opponent and rare loot) whom you face when you open a seemingly innocent treasure box. Why, exactly, are the monsters hiding out in the boxes?

* ''FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'' has one in Interval 7-2 where a Replica squad ambushes you from behind a revolving office partition. There are also the elevator ambushes throughout the game.