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* ''WesternAnimation/{{Centaurworld}}'': [[spoiler:The Nowhere King]]'s head is a fleshless deer skull [[GlowingEyelightsOfUndeath with green lights in its eye sockets]].
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* ''WesternAnimation/{{Centaurworld}}'': [[spoiler:The Nowhere King]]'s head physical form is made up of a fleshless deer skull [[GlowingEyelightsOfUndeath with green lights in its eye sockets]].mass of black ooze that he can control as he pleases.
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* Inque from ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' is a mercenary who allowed herself to be experimented on for money. Whatever the purpose of the experiment, it left her a dark-hued [[VoluntaryShapeshifting polymorph]] mutant capable of assuming malleable or even liquid forms, hence why she chose the alias "Inque". However, she remains vulnerable to electricity, which messes with her cells, and water, in which she dissolves.
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* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'': Inque from ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' is a mercenary who allowed herself to be experimented on for money. Whatever the purpose of the experiment, it left her a dark-hued [[VoluntaryShapeshifting polymorph]] mutant capable of assuming malleable or even liquid forms, hence why she chose the alias "Inque". However, she remains vulnerable to electricity, which messes with her cells, and water, in which she dissolves.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Centaurworld}}'': [[spoiler:The Nowhere King]]'s head is a fleshless deer skull [[GlowingEyelightsOfUndeath with green lights in its eye sockets]].
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* In the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS4E1EdgeOfTomortyRickDieRickpeat Edge Of Tomorty]]", Morty's attempts at following the crystal's predictions come to a head when he steals some ferrofluid from Rick's lab and uses it on himself. Essentially an oily, black semi-liquid that continuously sprouts roots and tentacles, it envelops Morty in a monstrous techno-organic tree in which he's determined to wait until the crystal shows him the next step to dying in Jessica's arms. Thankfully, Rick, Wasp Rick and Hologram Rick are there to drag him out of it. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, it then fuses with Hologram Rick, giving him a physical body and transforming him into a giant. Proclaiming himself a god, he tries to kill the other three - only to be brought down by Wasp Rick's parasitic larvae.]]
* Brushogun of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansTroubleInTokyo'' used to be a normal artist until he turned to dark magic to make one of his creations alive. The price was his own transformation into an ink-filled, paper-skinned entity with the ability to create inky minions. Both Brushogun and the minions can look normal, but their true form is pure ink.
[[/folder]]
* Brushogun of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansTroubleInTokyo'' used to be a normal artist until he turned to dark magic to make one of his creations alive. The price was his own transformation into an ink-filled, paper-skinned entity with the ability to create inky minions. Both Brushogun and the minions can look normal, but their true form is pure ink.
[[/folder]]
to:
* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': In the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS4E1EdgeOfTomortyRickDieRickpeat Edge Of of Tomorty]]", Morty's attempts at following the crystal's predictions come to a head when he steals some ferrofluid from Rick's lab and uses it on himself. Essentially an oily, black semi-liquid that continuously sprouts roots and tentacles, it envelops Morty in a monstrous techno-organic tree in which he's determined to wait until the crystal shows him the next step to dying in Jessica's arms. Thankfully, Rick, Wasp Rick and Hologram Rick are there to drag him out of it. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, it then fuses with Hologram Rick, giving him a physical body and transforming him into a giant. Proclaiming himself a god, he tries to kill the other three - -- only to be brought down by Wasp Rick's parasitic larvae.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansTroubleInTokyo'': Brushogunof ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansTroubleInTokyo'' used to be a normal artist until he turned to dark magic to make one of his creations alive. The price was his own transformation into an ink-filled, paper-skinned entity with the ability to create inky minions. Both Brushogun and the minions can look normal, but their true form is pure ink.
[[/folder]][[/folder]]
----
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansTroubleInTokyo'': Brushogun
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* "[[Literature/Slime1953 Slime]]" by Creator/JosephPaynePayneBrennan: The title creature is a black amorphous blob from the bottom of the sea.
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* "[[Literature/Slime1953 Slime]]" by Creator/JosephPaynePayneBrennan: Creator/JosephPayneBrennan: The title creature is a black amorphous blob from the bottom of the sea.
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* "[[Literature/Slime1953 Slime]]" by Creator/JosephPaynePayneBrennan: The title creature is a black amorphous blob from the bottom of the sea.
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[[folder: Web Comics]]
* As suggested by its name, the Black Touch in ''WebComic/{{Wurr}}'' appears to be a glistening, bubbling tar-like substance that occurs in pools within the Crater, and is an extremely dangerous MutagenicGoo capable of making the hounds that live there grow all sorts of interesting extra or misshapen body parts.
[[/folder]]
* As suggested by its name, the Black Touch in ''WebComic/{{Wurr}}'' appears to be a glistening, bubbling tar-like substance that occurs in pools within the Crater, and is an extremely dangerous MutagenicGoo capable of making the hounds that live there grow all sorts of interesting extra or misshapen body parts.
[[/folder]]
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* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' has the black blood, a freezing cold, pitch black liquid that seems from the walls and runs in rivers through a vast cavern in the deepest level of the Darklands. Not only is it cold enough to cause harm, it's unholy and mutagenic, causing creatures to become amphibious monstrosities with additional abilities even as it slowly kills all but the strongest hosts. Drinking it also provides a power boost to necromantic spells, assuming it doesn't kill you. Naturally the stuff is a prized commodity among liches, exiled fiends, derro, driders, and pretty much every nasty under the earth with either sanity or morals in short supply.
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* ''ComicBook/{{Nnewts}}'' has Blakk Mudd, a black liquid that turns any Nnewt it touches [[ReforgedIntoAMinion into a Lizzark]].
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* ''ComicBook/{{Nnewts}}'' has Blakk Mudd, a black liquid that turns any Nnewt it touches [[ReforgedIntoAMinion into a Lizzark]].
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* ''ComicBook/{{Nnewts}}'' has Blakk Mudd, a black liquid that turns any Nnewt it touches [[ReforgedIntoAMinion into a Lizzark]].
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[[caption-width-right:350: Nothing says horror like an oil spill on a heavenly background.]]
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[[caption-width-right:350: Nothing says horror like an oil spill on a [[AsceticAesthetic heavenly background.]]
background]].]]
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In fiction, not all harmful substances take the form of a [[SicklyGreenGlow sickly green]] poison that [[PoisonIsCorrosive eats through anything it touches]]: indeed, there's a growing tendency for harmful, deadly or just plain evil substances to be depicted as inky black slime, often reminiscent of oil, tar or even ink.
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In fiction, not all harmful substances take the form of a [[SicklyGreenGlow sickly green]] poison that [[PoisonIsCorrosive eats through anything it touches]]: indeed, there's a growing tendency for harmful, deadly or just plain evil substances to be depicted as inky glistening black slime, often reminiscent of oil, tar or even ink.
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* A recurring element in ''VideoGame/CallOfTheSea''. The island produces a mysterious black ooze that either drives people murderously insane or [[spoiler:morphs them into a FishPerson.]]
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-->--'''The Buzzing,''' ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld''
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* Most representations of [[Creator/HPLovecraft]]'s shoggoths ({{Blob Monster}}s that are arguably some of the most fearsome non-godlike entities of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos) usually has them as gigantic masses of black or very dark metamorphic sludge, from which they constantly extrude and retract limbs, maws and sensory organs.
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* Most representations of [[Creator/HPLovecraft]]'s Creator/HPLovecraft's shoggoths ({{Blob Monster}}s that are arguably some of the most fearsome non-godlike entities of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos) usually has them as gigantic masses of black or very dark metamorphic sludge, from which they constantly extrude and retract limbs, maws and sensory organs.
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* Most representations of [[Creator/HPLovecraft]]'s shoggoths ({{Blob Monster}}s that are arguably some of the most fearsome non-godlike entities of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos) usually has them as gigantic masses of black or very dark metamorphic sludge, from which they constantly extrude and retract limbs, maws and sensory organs.
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* In ''Literature/Elantris'', everything in the once-beautiful, now-accursed city of Elantris is covered in a grimy blackish substance, and anyone who lives there rapidly gets covered in it too. Unusually for this trope, it’s turns out that it’s not fundamentally harmful, can be cleaned off with sustained effort, and has a mundane explanation: it’s a type of phosphorescent microbe that made the buildings shine during the city’s glory days and that died when the city, in effect, lost its power source.
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* In ''Literature/Elantris'', ''Literature/{{Elantris}}'', everything in the once-beautiful, now-accursed city of Elantris is covered in a grimy blackish substance, and anyone who lives there rapidly gets covered in it too. Unusually for this trope, it’s turns out that it’s not fundamentally harmful, can be cleaned off with sustained effort, and has a mundane explanation: it’s a type of phosphorescent microbe that made the buildings shine during the city’s glory days and that died when the city, in effect, lost its power source.
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* In ''Literature/Elantris'', everything in the once-beautiful, now-accursed city of Elantris is covered in a grimy blackish substance, and anyone who lives there rapidly gets covered in it too. Unusually for this trope, it’s turns out that it’s not fundamentally harmful, can be cleaned off with sustained effort, and has a mundane explanation: it’s a type of phosphorescent microbe that made the buildings shine during the city’s glory days and that died when the city, in effect, lost its power source.
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* In the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS4E1EdgeOfTomortyRickDieRickpeat Edge Of Tomorty]]", Morty's attempts at following the crystal's predictions come to a head when he steals some ferrofluid from Rick's lab and uses it on himself. Essentially a oily black semi-liquid that continuously sprouts roots and tentacles, it envelops Morty in a monstrous techno-organic tree in which he's determined to wait until the crystal shows him the next step to dying in Jessica's arms. Thankfully, Rick, Wasp Rick and Hologram Rick are there to drag him out of it. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, it then fuses with Hologram Rick, giving him a physical body and transforming him into a giant; proclaiming himself a god, he tries to kill the other three - only to be brought down by Wasp Rick's parasitic larvae.]]
* Broshogun of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansTroubleInTokyo'' used to be a normal artist until he turned to dark magic to make one of his creation alive. The price was his own transformation into an ink-filled, paper-skinned entity with the ability to create inky minions. Both Broshogun and the minions can look normal, but their true form is pure ink.
* Broshogun of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansTroubleInTokyo'' used to be a normal artist until he turned to dark magic to make one of his creation alive. The price was his own transformation into an ink-filled, paper-skinned entity with the ability to create inky minions. Both Broshogun and the minions can look normal, but their true form is pure ink.
to:
* In the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS4E1EdgeOfTomortyRickDieRickpeat Edge Of Tomorty]]", Morty's attempts at following the crystal's predictions come to a head when he steals some ferrofluid from Rick's lab and uses it on himself. Essentially a oily an oily, black semi-liquid that continuously sprouts roots and tentacles, it envelops Morty in a monstrous techno-organic tree in which he's determined to wait until the crystal shows him the next step to dying in Jessica's arms. Thankfully, Rick, Wasp Rick and Hologram Rick are there to drag him out of it. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, it then fuses with Hologram Rick, giving him a physical body and transforming him into a giant; proclaiming giant. Proclaiming himself a god, he tries to kill the other three - only to be brought down by Wasp Rick's parasitic larvae.]]
*Broshogun Brushogun of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansTroubleInTokyo'' used to be a normal artist until he turned to dark magic to make one of his creation creations alive. The price was his own transformation into an ink-filled, paper-skinned entity with the ability to create inky minions. Both Broshogun Brushogun and the minions can look normal, but their true form is pure ink.
*
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[[folder: Film - Live Action]]
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[[folder: Film - Live Action]]Live-Action]]
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[[folder: Live Action TV]]
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[[folder: Live Action Live-Action TV]]
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* ''WesternAnimation/ThePiratesOfDarkWater'' had the titular "Dark Water", an amorphous blob that roams the seas, devouring anything in its path.
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* The Ruin of VideoGame/AliceMadnessReturns: a noxious black pollutant found splattered across Wonderland, it corrupts and ruins the environment, and it’s also capable of moulding itself into doll-headed monstrosities for Alice to do battle with. It’s actually runoff from the Infernal Train destroying Wonderland - and Alice’s mind.
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* The Ruin of VideoGame/AliceMadnessReturns: ''VideoGame/AliceMadnessReturns'': a noxious black pollutant found splattered across Wonderland, it corrupts and ruins the environment, and it’s also capable of moulding itself into doll-headed monstrosities for Alice to do battle with. It’s actually runoff from the Infernal Train destroying Wonderland - and Alice’s mind.
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* The Ruin of VideoGame/AliceMadessReturns: a noxious black pollutant found splattered across Wonderland, it corrupts and ruins the environment, and it’s also capable of moulding itself into doll-headed monstrosities for Alice to do battle with. It’s actually runoff from the Infernal Train destroying Wonderland - and Alice’s mind.
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* The Ruin of VideoGame/AliceMadessReturns: VideoGame/AliceMadnessReturns: a noxious black pollutant found splattered across Wonderland, it corrupts and ruins the environment, and it’s also capable of moulding itself into doll-headed monstrosities for Alice to do battle with. It’s actually runoff from the Infernal Train destroying Wonderland - and Alice’s mind.
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* The Ruin of VideoGames/AliceMadessReturns: a noxious black pollutant found splattered across Wonderland, it corrupts and ruins the environment, and it’s also capable of moulding itself into doll-headed monstrosities for Alice to do battle with. It’s actually runoff from the Infernal Train destroying Wonderland - and Alice’s mind.
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* The Ruin of VideoGames/AliceMadessReturns: VideoGame/AliceMadessReturns: a noxious black pollutant found splattered across Wonderland, it corrupts and ruins the environment, and it’s also capable of moulding itself into doll-headed monstrosities for Alice to do battle with. It’s actually runoff from the Infernal Train destroying Wonderland - and Alice’s mind.
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* The Ruin of VideoGames/AliceMadessReturns: a noxious black pollutant found splattered across Wonderland, it corrupts and ruins the environment, and it’s also capable of moulding itself into doll-headed monstrosities for Alice to do battle with. It’s actually runoff from the Infernal Train destroying Wonderland - and Alice’s mind.
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* The eponymous ''ComicBook/BlackGas'' starts out as just that, a volcanic cloud of black DeadlyGas, but when inhaled it causes a rapid series of neurological changes, suppressing its hosts' rationality and stripping away all civilized impulses. At the same time, the host constantly weeps black tears and drools BadBlackBarf -- if an uninfected person gets an infected's bodily fluids in their mouth, eyes, or an open wound, they'll slowly be overcome.
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* The [[TheVirus NARVIK-B virus]] in ''Series/{{Helix}}'' modifies its victims' behavior so they become super-strong, paranoid, aggressive and biologically driven to infect others via forcible transmission, which entails assaulting and restraining victims and [[BadBlackBarf vomiting a black secretion]] into their mouths. The [[TechnicallyLivingZombie vectors]] also develop TaintedVeins as their blood turns black, and adding growth factor to a petri dish of monkey blood infected with NAVIK-B results in an [[MeatMoss explosive growth of black biomass]]. The black gunk is such an integral visual motif that it's featured dripping off the "X" in the series TitleCard.
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* The [[TheVirus NARVIK-B virus]] in ''Series/{{Helix}}'' modifies its victims' behavior so they become super-strong, paranoid, aggressive and biologically driven to infect others via forcible transmission, which entails assaulting and restraining victims and [[BadBlackBarf vomiting a black secretion]] into their mouths. The [[TechnicallyLivingZombie vectors]] also develop TaintedVeins as their blood turns black, and adding growth factor to a petri dish of monkey blood infected with NAVIK-B NARVIK-B results in an [[MeatMoss explosive growth of black biomass]]. The black gunk is such an integral visual motif that it's featured dripping off the "X" in the series TitleCard.
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* ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'': Features prominently in Bojack's dream in [[Recap/BojackHorsemanS6E15TheViewFromHalfwayDown "The View From Halfway Down"]], as a tar-like substance that drips from the ceiling. At the end of the episode, the black liquid consumes Bojack's entire dream world, [[spoiler:symbolizing the water getting into his body after he drowns himself]].
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* ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'': Features prominently in Bojack's dream in [[Recap/BojackHorsemanS6E15TheViewFromHalfwayDown "The View From Halfway Down"]], as a tar-like substance that drips from the ceiling. At As the end of episode climaxes, the episode, empty void beyond the door which people keep disappearing into reaches out as more of the black liquid and consumes Bojack's the entire dream world, [[spoiler:symbolizing representing not only the darkness and despair of death and depression that seem inescapable to him, but also harkening back to a metaphor of the tarpits in LA symbolizing the toxicity he carries with him and its effect on himself and the people around him, [[spoiler: and (more literally) the water getting into his body after he drowns as he's drowning himself]].
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* In all of the ComicBook/{{Venom}} Symbiote's incarnations, it is a [[BlobMonster shapeshifting blob of black gunk]] that can bond with a host and give them superhuman powers ([[TheCorruption usually at]] [[HorrorHunger great cost]]).
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* In all of the ComicBook/{{Venom}} Symbiote's incarnations, it is a [[BlobMonster shapeshifting blob of black gunk]] that can bond with a host and give them superhuman powers ([[TheCorruption usually at]] [[HorrorHunger great cost]]). However, as a species the Symbiotes vary in color. ComicBook/{{Carnage}} is blood-red.
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--> ''It is always 3 AM in the Filth. It is liquid 3 AM, black and dripping.''
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[[quoteright:350: [[Series/{{Supernatural}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bbnbnbjnbjngi3nf.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350: Nothing says horror like an oil spill on a heavenly background.]]
--> ''It is always 3 AM in the Filth. It is liquid 3 AM, black and dripping.''
-->--'''The Buzzing,''' ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld''
In fiction, not all harmful substances take the form of a [[SicklyGreenGlow sickly green]] poison that [[PoisonIsCorrosive eats through anything it touches]]: indeed, there's a growing tendency for harmful, deadly or just plain evil substances to be depicted as inky black slime, often reminiscent of oil, tar or even ink.
An offshoot of DarkIsEvil, it's not uncommon for such substances to be associated with much more unpleasant effects than other {{Technicolor Toxin}}s from across fiction, including agonizing pain, mutations, mind control, a CruelAndUnusualDeath, or even a FateWorseThanDeath. In some depictions, this substance can even be ''alive,'' resulting in many a horrific BlobMonster.
The exact reasoning behind depictions such as these remains unknown, though it's possible that they were inspired by the threat posed by oil spills or tar pits, both of which are well known for being serious hazards - not to mention environmental blights. With this in mind, it may lend itself to depictions of the MuckMonster.
Whatever the case, if an unidentified black liquid crops up in fiction, it'll probably mean something very, very bad.
May result in BadBlackBarf.
----
!!Examples
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder: Anime & Manga]]
* Dark Paint from ''Anime/SmilePrettyCure'' is said to be the essence of the show's BigBad, Emperor Pierrot. The QuirkyMinibossSquad break open tubes of it and swipe it across blank books in order to "paint your bright future(s) black", referring to the VictimOfTheWeek, which sends them into near-hopeless despair.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Audio Plays]]
* ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho:''
** In ''[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho133CityOfSpires City Of Spires]]'', a visit to 18th-century Scotland reveals that the place is littered with anachronistic pumpjacks owned by the Hirudin Corporation. The Doctor soon discovers that what they're extracting isn't oil, though it looks the part: called "Black Water," it's often seen [[BodyHorror being pumped into unwilling victims]] [[ReforgedIntoAMinion to create]] [[TheBrute Red Caps]], the corporation's SuperpoweredMooks.
** The next episode in line, "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho134TheWreckOfTheTitan The Wreck Of The Titan]]," sends the Doctor and Jamie on a complicated voyage that somehow ends with them aboard Captain Nemo's ''Nautilus'', hunting giant squid for their ink. As it turns out, when refined, the ink is identical to the Black Water. Also, harvesting it is a good way of enraging even bigger squid...
** The conclusion of the trilogy, "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho135LegendOfTheCybermen Legend Of The Cybermen]]" reveals the truth: [[spoiler: all three stories are set in the Land of Fiction, and the Black Water is actually ink, a precious resource used to recreate fictional characters killed in battle with the Cybermen. Though more beneficial than the last two instances, it's still played for tension when it turns out that fictional characters ''bleed'' ink - revealing that the Jamie who's been travelling with the Doctor for the past few episodes isn't real.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Comic Books]]
* In all of the ComicBook/{{Venom}} Symbiote's incarnations, it is a [[BlobMonster shapeshifting blob of black gunk]] that can bond with a host and give them superhuman powers ([[TheCorruption usually at]] [[HorrorHunger great cost]]).
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Fan Fiction]]
* In the ''Literature/WorldWarZ'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6115555/1/The-Way-Is-Shut The Way Is Shut]],'' a recon team investigates the ruins of North Korea in the wake of the ZombieApocalypse, eventually finding the entrance to the UndergroundCity the population retreated to. However, one of the doors is leaking a black ooze that "smelled of death," the result of rotten flesh decomposing to the point of liquefaction and mixing with floodwater. Either because the pumps have failed or because there's no-one left alive to operate them, a huge lake full of corpses has built up behind the doors - and at least some of them are zombies. And if that black slime is leaking out ''now,'' [[spoiler: it won't be long until the hastily-built shelter bursts open and releases all those millions of zombies back into the world.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Film - Animated]]
* Hexxus, the primeval spirit of destruction in ''WesternAnimation/FernGullyTheLastRainforest'', initially emerges from his prison tree in the form of a tiny blob of dark brown slime, gradually expanding his mass by feeding on the Leveller's exhaust until he can metamorphose into a wraith made of black smoke. After losing control of the Leveller in the finale, he goes OneWingedAngel and assume his ultimate form: [[HumanoidAbomination a giant skeletal monstrosity]] made entirely of black ooze.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', Mr. Incredible is subdued in Syndrome's SupervillainLair by dozens of unremovable "balloons" of black goo that expand and completely engulf him.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' movie ''Secret Of The Lost Kingdom,'' a black goo makes up the gate to a dimension in which the people of Domino are imprisoned. Said dimension is literally called Obsidian Circle.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Film - Live Action]]
* ''Film/Creepshow2'': In "The Raft", a group of college kids on a raft in the middle of a lake are tormented and eaten by a [[BlobMonster large, black blob]] reminiscent of an oil slick floating on the surface of the water.
* The plot of ''Film/District9'' first begins to heat up when Wikus finds the cylinder of MutagenicGoo that Christopher Johnson was saving up, and fiddling with it results him accidentally getting a spray of oily black gunk to the face. Before long, Wikus is puking up BadBlackBarf and transforming into one of the aliens...
* In ''Film/EvilDead2'', several people possessed by demons are seen [[BadBlackBarf drooling black ooze]]. At one point Ash is hit with a ''torrent'' of it after blowing a hole in the cabin wall with his shotgun.
* The Dark Queen of ''Film/MirrorMask'' has the power to [[CastingAShadow create]] strange liquid shadows by literally [[BadBlackBarf vomiting them into existence]]: first encountered oozing along walls and floors like oil, they can also sprout tentacles or even shape themselves into birds in order to ensnare their victims - which are fatally petrified unless the Queen's taken an interest. They can even be used as part of a OneWingedAngel transformation.
* In ''Film/{{Overlord}},'' the substance the Nazis are experimenting with is literally petroleum tar. However, it contains a chemical found nowhere else except a little town in France that is the active ingredient in their SuperSerum, which is bright red when distilled. However, it's distilled by injecting people with the raw tar and extracting it from their blood.
* The black liquid in ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'', a potently mutagenic [[OrganicTechnology bioweapon]] made up of millions of small micro-organisms that has the ability to [[spoiler:mutate any Terrestrial life-form in horrible, parasitic ways into rapidly evolving flesh-eating nasties, deadly parasites and rampaging mutants, and can turn a habitable planet into an all out DeathWorld overrun with techno-organic nightmares]].
* ''Film/Venom2018'' sees the titular symbiote and its kin naturally take the form of sentient mobile slimes and though all have dark colourations, only Venom is pitch black - even then, the trope is {{Inverted|Trope}} over the course of the movie, [[spoiler: in that Venom, the black one, is the only one of their number to undergo a HeelFaceTurn into something that can [[NominalHero vaguely be described as heroic]]]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Literature]]
* ''[[Literature/DarkShores Dark Skies]]'': The blight. At first it is believed to be just a nuisance, a river of foul-smelling black goo flowing through the countryside. Later, however, it turns out that it also brings a MysticalPlague, which turns any living being that comes into contact with it into a zombie-like creature. Not to mention the fact that it can [[spoiler: undermine city walls]].
* In ''Literature/TheHungerGames: Literature/{{Mockingjay}}'' one of the many traps deployed against the rebels in the Capitol is a wave of a black tar-like that threatens to engulf anyone in its path - featured in horrific detail in the [[Film/TheHungerGamesMockingjay film adaptation.]]
* ''Literature/SkeletonCrew'': In the short story "The Raft", four college students decide to take an end-of-summer swim at a remote lake, and find a carnivorous "oil slick" that eats them one by one. This story was adapted in the movie ''Film/Creepshow2''.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Live Action TV]]
* In ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', Luxans have an unusual biological quirk that [[BizarreAlienBiology causes their blood to become dangerously toxic upon exposure to air]]; when this happens, the blood turns a shade of red so dark it appears ''black''. The only cure for this is for the wound to be repeatedly pummelled to stimulate the blood flow and cleanse the poison - whereupon the black blood turns transparent and runs clear until the wound heals.
* The [[TheVirus NARVIK-B virus]] in ''Series/{{Helix}}'' modifies its victims' behavior so they become super-strong, paranoid, aggressive and biologically driven to infect others via forcible transmission, which entails assaulting and restraining victims and [[BadBlackBarf vomiting a black secretion]] into their mouths. The [[TechnicallyLivingZombie vectors]] also develop TaintedVeins as their blood turns black, and adding growth factor to a petri dish of monkey blood infected with NAVIK-B results in an [[MeatMoss explosive growth of black biomass]]. The black gunk is such an integral visual motif that it's featured dripping off the "X" in the series TitleCard.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E22SkinOfEvil Skin of Evil]]", an away team beaming down to a planet to rescue a crashed shuttle finds their path blocked by a pool of tar-like black liquid, which moves to bar their passage them when they try and maneuver around it. It turns out to be a living entity called Armus, who is literally MadeOfEvil: he's the cast-off imperfection of a race that [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence transcended]] a long time ago, and while he can take on a roughly humanoid form, he always retains his tarry complexion. [[spoiler: On top of screwing around with Riker, Geordi, Troi and Data, he also murders Tasha Yar.]]
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
** Ectoplasm is a thick, slimy substance that is only produced by ghosts that are particularly angry or dangerous; the most common form of it is pitch-black.
** The true forms of both [[EldritchAbomination Leviathans]] and [[PrimordialChaos the Shadow]] are shown to be black sludge, which are capable of possessing people through OrificeInvasion.
* The Black Oil of ''Series/TheXFiles''; a sapient parasitic mind-controlling goo used by the alien colonists to reproduce and take over the universe, it can often be found invading potential hosts through their eyes, mouth, nose or ears. Ironically, the slime itself isn't the danger: "Purity" - as the aliens call it - is actually a virus that thrives in oil deposits deep underground, hence its oily appearance. However, that doesn't stop the show from playing its petroleum-like aspect for horror, with hosts sporting BlackEyesOfEvil and BadBlackBarf.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Podcasts]]
* In ''Podcast/TheAdventureZoneBalance,'' [[spoiler: the Hunger, an evil sentient plane of existence, is described as tar-like with the coloring of black opal.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* One of the monsters featured in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' is the Black Pudding, a living puddle of corrosive black slime that engulfs anything and everything it can.
* In the ''TabletopGame/TheEndOfTheWorld: ZombieApocalypse'' scenario "Under The Skin," the menace of the story is an ancient PuppeteerParasite unearthed by a mining operation. It takes the form of a tarry black fungal gunk infesting any living thing it touches, gradually reducing its victims to decomposing zombies. This is bad enough, but if allowed to clump together after their host bodies break down, the parasite can form a giant BlobMonster of Kaiju proportions. [[spoiler: The stuff is so dangerous that the governments of the world opt to move their people into underground bunkers and nuke the surface to a crisp rather than let the parasite roam free.]]
* In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering,'' Phyrexian Oil is a black substance that [[MutagenicGoo infects and corrupts anything it touches]], ultimately consuming the plane of Mirrodin and transforming it into New Phyrexia.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Video Games]]
* Oozium 238 from ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars: Dual Strike]]'' is a slow-moving, black blob-like bioweapon developed by the Black Hole army, and is capable of [[OneHitKill instantly dissolving anything it touches]].
* The eponymous [[MechanicalAbomination Ink Machine]] from ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheInkMachine'' seemingly both runs on ink and produces it in infinite -- and exponentially growing -- quantities. The ink covers the entire studio, and can both bring cartoon characters to life (albeit with a healthy dose of BodyHorror) and turn humans into ink monsters, the most common of which are the Searchers, deformed and incomplete beings of ink, and [[spoiler:the Lost Ones, humanoid masses of dripping, shifting ink]].
* In Episode 4 of ''VideoGame/CommanderKeen'', the Isle of Tar is one of the three islands located in the southeastern Three-Tooth Lake. It has many pits of boiling black tar which kills Keen instantly upon contact, and at one point he has to go through the deepest pit in order to grab a blue gem and climb back alive (by using some weak platforms to avoid falling). The tar makes an appearance in other levels in the episode, but it's not as concerning in them as it is here.
* In the Nintendo DS adaptation of ''WesternAnimation/DuckAmuck'', the game may start a minigame based on the section where the screen frame is used in an attempt to crush Daffy. However, as it would be impossible to move the DS's screen frame in such a way, a thick black ooze instead is used to crush Daffy.
* ''VideoGame/EpicMickey'': The game's main antagonist, the Blot, is an enormous monster made from an oozing black mixture of paint and thinner. Its corrupting slime has dripped and spread all over Wasteland, creating smaller enemy blobs called Blotlings and causing all sorts of destruction.
* [[PsychoExGirlfriend Sasha]] of ''VideoGame/{{Infamous}}'' has the power to exude a mind-controlling black tar from her body. By force-feeding it to the Reapers, she transformed them into loyal soldiers, and by [[WaterSourceTampering introducing it to the local water supply]], she hopes to recruit the civilians of the Neon District into her growing army. For added horror, the boss battle reveals that Sasha is ''milking'' her body to produce the tar in bulk - to the point that it's become part of her ensemble: close examination reveals that she's technically naked apart from the black gunk covering her lower body.
* The FinalBoss of the multiplayer campaign of ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter 4 Ultimate'', Gogmazios, attacks with a black, tar-like substance that incapacitates hunters and, if not gotten rid of quickly, will explode and cause them massive damage. Supposedly, the monster got all this substance in its body after a lifetime diet of sulphur and gunpowder.
* The FesteringFungus in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'' covers many locations in thick sheets of black, oozing mould, and also creates [[MushroomMan Mushroom Men]] comprised of tangled ropes of fungal matter. Worse still, it's also capable of infesting people like the [[HillbillyHorrors Baker family]], enhancing their strength, driving them insane, and [[spoiler: rendering them subservient to [[BigBad Eveline]], who emits this stuff by nature.]]
* ''VideoGame/RogueStormers'' features the Goop, an oily black substance that horribly mutates living beings in addition to powering {{Dieselpunk}} tech. It's even drilled from the depths of the Earth like real oil.
* The Filth of ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld''. This MysticalPlague can take on many forms across the setting, but the most common variant is a tarry black slime studded with writhing tentacles. Forming huge puddles, oily creepers and vast bubble-studded swamps of the stuff, one touch is enough to kick off infection, resulting in paranoia, delusions, violent insanity, hideous mutations, and subservience to the will of [[EldritchAbomination the Dreamers]] - for the Filth itself is their ''dream'' of [[SealedEvilInACan escaping from captivity]] made manifest as a disease. Infectees are covered in an oily layer of Filth that only draws further attention to the tentacles and GlowingEyesOfDoom they sport, and later-stage infectees are ''made'' of it - transcending humanity to become monstrous entities of pure Filth. Fortunately, the player characters are immune to the mutations and brain-warping effects, so it can only kill them - [[ResurrectiveImmortality temporarily]]. Everyone else... not so much.
* In ''VideoGame/SlimeRancher'', the Tarr are highly dangerous and widely feared {{Blob Monster}}s that eat the other slimes being ranched by the PlayerCharacter... [[ToServeMan and the rancher]]. Appropriately enough, they're mainly black with subtle rainbow-stripes.
* Structure Gel in ''VideoGame/{{SOMA}}'' is a black, slimy chemical that can serve both as an electrical conductor and as MutagenicGoo that forcibly melds flesh and metal together. By the time of the game, [[TheComputerIsYourFriend WAU]] has covered PATHOS-II with Structure Gel MeatMoss in its quest to assimilate the remnants of humanity into itself; as a result, you'll find the gel itself leaking from the ceiling at various points across the station. [[spoiler: Simon's half-corpse half-machine body is actually held together with it, and late in the game, he has to acquire more Structure Gel in order to build a new body capable of entering the [[EldritchOceanAbyss Abyss]].]]
*''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog''
**''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' has Oil Ocean Zone. The black oil that covers the bottom of the level is thicker and nastier than other liquids, and if you fall in it, it will drag you down unless you make a series of rapid jumps to get out again.
**''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog4'': Oil Desert Zone is a [[NostalgiaLevel remix]] of Oil Ocean.
**The original Oil Ocean Zone returns in ''VideoGame/SonicMania'', and now it gets set ''on fire'' between Acts 1 and 2, resulting in thick smoke that will cause gradual damage unless Sonic periodically pulls switches that dispel it.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'': The "black mud" of [[spoiler: Angra Mainyu, which resides in the Holy Grail]] contains "All the World's Evil" and is basically TheCorruption in (mostly) liquid form.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Western Animation]]
* Inque from ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' is a mercenary who allowed herself to be experimented on for money. Whatever the purpose of the experiment, it left her a dark-hued [[VoluntaryShapeshifting polymorph]] mutant capable of assuming malleable or even liquid forms, hence why she chose the alias "Inque". However, she remains vulnerable to electricity, which messes with her cells, and water, in which she dissolves.
* ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'': Features prominently in Bojack's dream in [[Recap/BojackHorsemanS6E15TheViewFromHalfwayDown "The View From Halfway Down"]], as a tar-like substance that drips from the ceiling. At the end of the episode, the black liquid consumes Bojack's entire dream world, [[spoiler:symbolizing the water getting into his body after he drowns himself]].
* In the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS4E1EdgeOfTomortyRickDieRickpeat Edge Of Tomorty]]", Morty's attempts at following the crystal's predictions come to a head when he steals some ferrofluid from Rick's lab and uses it on himself. Essentially a oily black semi-liquid that continuously sprouts roots and tentacles, it envelops Morty in a monstrous techno-organic tree in which he's determined to wait until the crystal shows him the next step to dying in Jessica's arms. Thankfully, Rick, Wasp Rick and Hologram Rick are there to drag him out of it. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, it then fuses with Hologram Rick, giving him a physical body and transforming him into a giant; proclaiming himself a god, he tries to kill the other three - only to be brought down by Wasp Rick's parasitic larvae.]]
* Broshogun of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansTroubleInTokyo'' used to be a normal artist until he turned to dark magic to make one of his creation alive. The price was his own transformation into an ink-filled, paper-skinned entity with the ability to create inky minions. Both Broshogun and the minions can look normal, but their true form is pure ink.
[[/folder]]
[[caption-width-right:350: Nothing says horror like an oil spill on a heavenly background.]]
--> ''It is always 3 AM in the Filth. It is liquid 3 AM, black and dripping.''
-->--'''The Buzzing,''' ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld''
In fiction, not all harmful substances take the form of a [[SicklyGreenGlow sickly green]] poison that [[PoisonIsCorrosive eats through anything it touches]]: indeed, there's a growing tendency for harmful, deadly or just plain evil substances to be depicted as inky black slime, often reminiscent of oil, tar or even ink.
An offshoot of DarkIsEvil, it's not uncommon for such substances to be associated with much more unpleasant effects than other {{Technicolor Toxin}}s from across fiction, including agonizing pain, mutations, mind control, a CruelAndUnusualDeath, or even a FateWorseThanDeath. In some depictions, this substance can even be ''alive,'' resulting in many a horrific BlobMonster.
The exact reasoning behind depictions such as these remains unknown, though it's possible that they were inspired by the threat posed by oil spills or tar pits, both of which are well known for being serious hazards - not to mention environmental blights. With this in mind, it may lend itself to depictions of the MuckMonster.
Whatever the case, if an unidentified black liquid crops up in fiction, it'll probably mean something very, very bad.
May result in BadBlackBarf.
----
!!Examples
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder: Anime & Manga]]
* Dark Paint from ''Anime/SmilePrettyCure'' is said to be the essence of the show's BigBad, Emperor Pierrot. The QuirkyMinibossSquad break open tubes of it and swipe it across blank books in order to "paint your bright future(s) black", referring to the VictimOfTheWeek, which sends them into near-hopeless despair.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Audio Plays]]
* ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho:''
** In ''[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho133CityOfSpires City Of Spires]]'', a visit to 18th-century Scotland reveals that the place is littered with anachronistic pumpjacks owned by the Hirudin Corporation. The Doctor soon discovers that what they're extracting isn't oil, though it looks the part: called "Black Water," it's often seen [[BodyHorror being pumped into unwilling victims]] [[ReforgedIntoAMinion to create]] [[TheBrute Red Caps]], the corporation's SuperpoweredMooks.
** The next episode in line, "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho134TheWreckOfTheTitan The Wreck Of The Titan]]," sends the Doctor and Jamie on a complicated voyage that somehow ends with them aboard Captain Nemo's ''Nautilus'', hunting giant squid for their ink. As it turns out, when refined, the ink is identical to the Black Water. Also, harvesting it is a good way of enraging even bigger squid...
** The conclusion of the trilogy, "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho135LegendOfTheCybermen Legend Of The Cybermen]]" reveals the truth: [[spoiler: all three stories are set in the Land of Fiction, and the Black Water is actually ink, a precious resource used to recreate fictional characters killed in battle with the Cybermen. Though more beneficial than the last two instances, it's still played for tension when it turns out that fictional characters ''bleed'' ink - revealing that the Jamie who's been travelling with the Doctor for the past few episodes isn't real.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Comic Books]]
* In all of the ComicBook/{{Venom}} Symbiote's incarnations, it is a [[BlobMonster shapeshifting blob of black gunk]] that can bond with a host and give them superhuman powers ([[TheCorruption usually at]] [[HorrorHunger great cost]]).
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Fan Fiction]]
* In the ''Literature/WorldWarZ'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6115555/1/The-Way-Is-Shut The Way Is Shut]],'' a recon team investigates the ruins of North Korea in the wake of the ZombieApocalypse, eventually finding the entrance to the UndergroundCity the population retreated to. However, one of the doors is leaking a black ooze that "smelled of death," the result of rotten flesh decomposing to the point of liquefaction and mixing with floodwater. Either because the pumps have failed or because there's no-one left alive to operate them, a huge lake full of corpses has built up behind the doors - and at least some of them are zombies. And if that black slime is leaking out ''now,'' [[spoiler: it won't be long until the hastily-built shelter bursts open and releases all those millions of zombies back into the world.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Film - Animated]]
* Hexxus, the primeval spirit of destruction in ''WesternAnimation/FernGullyTheLastRainforest'', initially emerges from his prison tree in the form of a tiny blob of dark brown slime, gradually expanding his mass by feeding on the Leveller's exhaust until he can metamorphose into a wraith made of black smoke. After losing control of the Leveller in the finale, he goes OneWingedAngel and assume his ultimate form: [[HumanoidAbomination a giant skeletal monstrosity]] made entirely of black ooze.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', Mr. Incredible is subdued in Syndrome's SupervillainLair by dozens of unremovable "balloons" of black goo that expand and completely engulf him.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' movie ''Secret Of The Lost Kingdom,'' a black goo makes up the gate to a dimension in which the people of Domino are imprisoned. Said dimension is literally called Obsidian Circle.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Film - Live Action]]
* ''Film/Creepshow2'': In "The Raft", a group of college kids on a raft in the middle of a lake are tormented and eaten by a [[BlobMonster large, black blob]] reminiscent of an oil slick floating on the surface of the water.
* The plot of ''Film/District9'' first begins to heat up when Wikus finds the cylinder of MutagenicGoo that Christopher Johnson was saving up, and fiddling with it results him accidentally getting a spray of oily black gunk to the face. Before long, Wikus is puking up BadBlackBarf and transforming into one of the aliens...
* In ''Film/EvilDead2'', several people possessed by demons are seen [[BadBlackBarf drooling black ooze]]. At one point Ash is hit with a ''torrent'' of it after blowing a hole in the cabin wall with his shotgun.
* The Dark Queen of ''Film/MirrorMask'' has the power to [[CastingAShadow create]] strange liquid shadows by literally [[BadBlackBarf vomiting them into existence]]: first encountered oozing along walls and floors like oil, they can also sprout tentacles or even shape themselves into birds in order to ensnare their victims - which are fatally petrified unless the Queen's taken an interest. They can even be used as part of a OneWingedAngel transformation.
* In ''Film/{{Overlord}},'' the substance the Nazis are experimenting with is literally petroleum tar. However, it contains a chemical found nowhere else except a little town in France that is the active ingredient in their SuperSerum, which is bright red when distilled. However, it's distilled by injecting people with the raw tar and extracting it from their blood.
* The black liquid in ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'', a potently mutagenic [[OrganicTechnology bioweapon]] made up of millions of small micro-organisms that has the ability to [[spoiler:mutate any Terrestrial life-form in horrible, parasitic ways into rapidly evolving flesh-eating nasties, deadly parasites and rampaging mutants, and can turn a habitable planet into an all out DeathWorld overrun with techno-organic nightmares]].
* ''Film/Venom2018'' sees the titular symbiote and its kin naturally take the form of sentient mobile slimes and though all have dark colourations, only Venom is pitch black - even then, the trope is {{Inverted|Trope}} over the course of the movie, [[spoiler: in that Venom, the black one, is the only one of their number to undergo a HeelFaceTurn into something that can [[NominalHero vaguely be described as heroic]]]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Literature]]
* ''[[Literature/DarkShores Dark Skies]]'': The blight. At first it is believed to be just a nuisance, a river of foul-smelling black goo flowing through the countryside. Later, however, it turns out that it also brings a MysticalPlague, which turns any living being that comes into contact with it into a zombie-like creature. Not to mention the fact that it can [[spoiler: undermine city walls]].
* In ''Literature/TheHungerGames: Literature/{{Mockingjay}}'' one of the many traps deployed against the rebels in the Capitol is a wave of a black tar-like that threatens to engulf anyone in its path - featured in horrific detail in the [[Film/TheHungerGamesMockingjay film adaptation.]]
* ''Literature/SkeletonCrew'': In the short story "The Raft", four college students decide to take an end-of-summer swim at a remote lake, and find a carnivorous "oil slick" that eats them one by one. This story was adapted in the movie ''Film/Creepshow2''.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Live Action TV]]
* In ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', Luxans have an unusual biological quirk that [[BizarreAlienBiology causes their blood to become dangerously toxic upon exposure to air]]; when this happens, the blood turns a shade of red so dark it appears ''black''. The only cure for this is for the wound to be repeatedly pummelled to stimulate the blood flow and cleanse the poison - whereupon the black blood turns transparent and runs clear until the wound heals.
* The [[TheVirus NARVIK-B virus]] in ''Series/{{Helix}}'' modifies its victims' behavior so they become super-strong, paranoid, aggressive and biologically driven to infect others via forcible transmission, which entails assaulting and restraining victims and [[BadBlackBarf vomiting a black secretion]] into their mouths. The [[TechnicallyLivingZombie vectors]] also develop TaintedVeins as their blood turns black, and adding growth factor to a petri dish of monkey blood infected with NAVIK-B results in an [[MeatMoss explosive growth of black biomass]]. The black gunk is such an integral visual motif that it's featured dripping off the "X" in the series TitleCard.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E22SkinOfEvil Skin of Evil]]", an away team beaming down to a planet to rescue a crashed shuttle finds their path blocked by a pool of tar-like black liquid, which moves to bar their passage them when they try and maneuver around it. It turns out to be a living entity called Armus, who is literally MadeOfEvil: he's the cast-off imperfection of a race that [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence transcended]] a long time ago, and while he can take on a roughly humanoid form, he always retains his tarry complexion. [[spoiler: On top of screwing around with Riker, Geordi, Troi and Data, he also murders Tasha Yar.]]
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
** Ectoplasm is a thick, slimy substance that is only produced by ghosts that are particularly angry or dangerous; the most common form of it is pitch-black.
** The true forms of both [[EldritchAbomination Leviathans]] and [[PrimordialChaos the Shadow]] are shown to be black sludge, which are capable of possessing people through OrificeInvasion.
* The Black Oil of ''Series/TheXFiles''; a sapient parasitic mind-controlling goo used by the alien colonists to reproduce and take over the universe, it can often be found invading potential hosts through their eyes, mouth, nose or ears. Ironically, the slime itself isn't the danger: "Purity" - as the aliens call it - is actually a virus that thrives in oil deposits deep underground, hence its oily appearance. However, that doesn't stop the show from playing its petroleum-like aspect for horror, with hosts sporting BlackEyesOfEvil and BadBlackBarf.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Podcasts]]
* In ''Podcast/TheAdventureZoneBalance,'' [[spoiler: the Hunger, an evil sentient plane of existence, is described as tar-like with the coloring of black opal.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* One of the monsters featured in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' is the Black Pudding, a living puddle of corrosive black slime that engulfs anything and everything it can.
* In the ''TabletopGame/TheEndOfTheWorld: ZombieApocalypse'' scenario "Under The Skin," the menace of the story is an ancient PuppeteerParasite unearthed by a mining operation. It takes the form of a tarry black fungal gunk infesting any living thing it touches, gradually reducing its victims to decomposing zombies. This is bad enough, but if allowed to clump together after their host bodies break down, the parasite can form a giant BlobMonster of Kaiju proportions. [[spoiler: The stuff is so dangerous that the governments of the world opt to move their people into underground bunkers and nuke the surface to a crisp rather than let the parasite roam free.]]
* In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering,'' Phyrexian Oil is a black substance that [[MutagenicGoo infects and corrupts anything it touches]], ultimately consuming the plane of Mirrodin and transforming it into New Phyrexia.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Video Games]]
* Oozium 238 from ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars: Dual Strike]]'' is a slow-moving, black blob-like bioweapon developed by the Black Hole army, and is capable of [[OneHitKill instantly dissolving anything it touches]].
* The eponymous [[MechanicalAbomination Ink Machine]] from ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheInkMachine'' seemingly both runs on ink and produces it in infinite -- and exponentially growing -- quantities. The ink covers the entire studio, and can both bring cartoon characters to life (albeit with a healthy dose of BodyHorror) and turn humans into ink monsters, the most common of which are the Searchers, deformed and incomplete beings of ink, and [[spoiler:the Lost Ones, humanoid masses of dripping, shifting ink]].
* In Episode 4 of ''VideoGame/CommanderKeen'', the Isle of Tar is one of the three islands located in the southeastern Three-Tooth Lake. It has many pits of boiling black tar which kills Keen instantly upon contact, and at one point he has to go through the deepest pit in order to grab a blue gem and climb back alive (by using some weak platforms to avoid falling). The tar makes an appearance in other levels in the episode, but it's not as concerning in them as it is here.
* In the Nintendo DS adaptation of ''WesternAnimation/DuckAmuck'', the game may start a minigame based on the section where the screen frame is used in an attempt to crush Daffy. However, as it would be impossible to move the DS's screen frame in such a way, a thick black ooze instead is used to crush Daffy.
* ''VideoGame/EpicMickey'': The game's main antagonist, the Blot, is an enormous monster made from an oozing black mixture of paint and thinner. Its corrupting slime has dripped and spread all over Wasteland, creating smaller enemy blobs called Blotlings and causing all sorts of destruction.
* [[PsychoExGirlfriend Sasha]] of ''VideoGame/{{Infamous}}'' has the power to exude a mind-controlling black tar from her body. By force-feeding it to the Reapers, she transformed them into loyal soldiers, and by [[WaterSourceTampering introducing it to the local water supply]], she hopes to recruit the civilians of the Neon District into her growing army. For added horror, the boss battle reveals that Sasha is ''milking'' her body to produce the tar in bulk - to the point that it's become part of her ensemble: close examination reveals that she's technically naked apart from the black gunk covering her lower body.
* The FinalBoss of the multiplayer campaign of ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter 4 Ultimate'', Gogmazios, attacks with a black, tar-like substance that incapacitates hunters and, if not gotten rid of quickly, will explode and cause them massive damage. Supposedly, the monster got all this substance in its body after a lifetime diet of sulphur and gunpowder.
* The FesteringFungus in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'' covers many locations in thick sheets of black, oozing mould, and also creates [[MushroomMan Mushroom Men]] comprised of tangled ropes of fungal matter. Worse still, it's also capable of infesting people like the [[HillbillyHorrors Baker family]], enhancing their strength, driving them insane, and [[spoiler: rendering them subservient to [[BigBad Eveline]], who emits this stuff by nature.]]
* ''VideoGame/RogueStormers'' features the Goop, an oily black substance that horribly mutates living beings in addition to powering {{Dieselpunk}} tech. It's even drilled from the depths of the Earth like real oil.
* The Filth of ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld''. This MysticalPlague can take on many forms across the setting, but the most common variant is a tarry black slime studded with writhing tentacles. Forming huge puddles, oily creepers and vast bubble-studded swamps of the stuff, one touch is enough to kick off infection, resulting in paranoia, delusions, violent insanity, hideous mutations, and subservience to the will of [[EldritchAbomination the Dreamers]] - for the Filth itself is their ''dream'' of [[SealedEvilInACan escaping from captivity]] made manifest as a disease. Infectees are covered in an oily layer of Filth that only draws further attention to the tentacles and GlowingEyesOfDoom they sport, and later-stage infectees are ''made'' of it - transcending humanity to become monstrous entities of pure Filth. Fortunately, the player characters are immune to the mutations and brain-warping effects, so it can only kill them - [[ResurrectiveImmortality temporarily]]. Everyone else... not so much.
* In ''VideoGame/SlimeRancher'', the Tarr are highly dangerous and widely feared {{Blob Monster}}s that eat the other slimes being ranched by the PlayerCharacter... [[ToServeMan and the rancher]]. Appropriately enough, they're mainly black with subtle rainbow-stripes.
* Structure Gel in ''VideoGame/{{SOMA}}'' is a black, slimy chemical that can serve both as an electrical conductor and as MutagenicGoo that forcibly melds flesh and metal together. By the time of the game, [[TheComputerIsYourFriend WAU]] has covered PATHOS-II with Structure Gel MeatMoss in its quest to assimilate the remnants of humanity into itself; as a result, you'll find the gel itself leaking from the ceiling at various points across the station. [[spoiler: Simon's half-corpse half-machine body is actually held together with it, and late in the game, he has to acquire more Structure Gel in order to build a new body capable of entering the [[EldritchOceanAbyss Abyss]].]]
*''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog''
**''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' has Oil Ocean Zone. The black oil that covers the bottom of the level is thicker and nastier than other liquids, and if you fall in it, it will drag you down unless you make a series of rapid jumps to get out again.
**''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog4'': Oil Desert Zone is a [[NostalgiaLevel remix]] of Oil Ocean.
**The original Oil Ocean Zone returns in ''VideoGame/SonicMania'', and now it gets set ''on fire'' between Acts 1 and 2, resulting in thick smoke that will cause gradual damage unless Sonic periodically pulls switches that dispel it.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'': The "black mud" of [[spoiler: Angra Mainyu, which resides in the Holy Grail]] contains "All the World's Evil" and is basically TheCorruption in (mostly) liquid form.
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[[folder: Western Animation]]
* Inque from ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' is a mercenary who allowed herself to be experimented on for money. Whatever the purpose of the experiment, it left her a dark-hued [[VoluntaryShapeshifting polymorph]] mutant capable of assuming malleable or even liquid forms, hence why she chose the alias "Inque". However, she remains vulnerable to electricity, which messes with her cells, and water, in which she dissolves.
* ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'': Features prominently in Bojack's dream in [[Recap/BojackHorsemanS6E15TheViewFromHalfwayDown "The View From Halfway Down"]], as a tar-like substance that drips from the ceiling. At the end of the episode, the black liquid consumes Bojack's entire dream world, [[spoiler:symbolizing the water getting into his body after he drowns himself]].
* In the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS4E1EdgeOfTomortyRickDieRickpeat Edge Of Tomorty]]", Morty's attempts at following the crystal's predictions come to a head when he steals some ferrofluid from Rick's lab and uses it on himself. Essentially a oily black semi-liquid that continuously sprouts roots and tentacles, it envelops Morty in a monstrous techno-organic tree in which he's determined to wait until the crystal shows him the next step to dying in Jessica's arms. Thankfully, Rick, Wasp Rick and Hologram Rick are there to drag him out of it. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, it then fuses with Hologram Rick, giving him a physical body and transforming him into a giant; proclaiming himself a god, he tries to kill the other three - only to be brought down by Wasp Rick's parasitic larvae.]]
* Broshogun of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansTroubleInTokyo'' used to be a normal artist until he turned to dark magic to make one of his creation alive. The price was his own transformation into an ink-filled, paper-skinned entity with the ability to create inky minions. Both Broshogun and the minions can look normal, but their true form is pure ink.
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