History Main / SinisterSuffocation

* ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'': [=BoJack=] spends the latter half of Season 5 becoming [[AddledAddict increasingly addicted]] to prescription opioids and suffers from serious mental effects as a result. In episode 11, "The Showstopper", he becomes LostInCharacter as Philbert, a detective who is actually an amnesiac SerialKiller, which causes him to violently strangle his co-star and girlfriend Gina in a [[AxCrazy drug-fuelled psychotic rage]]. While nobody is killed, he is horrified when he recovers from the drugs and realizes what he's done, and Gina utters the season's PrecisionFStrike to signal that their relationship is [[ThisIsUnforgivable ruined forever]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': Zaheer used his airbending to suffocate Earth Queen Hou-Ting and bring anarchy to Ba Sing Se. This is the one of few times airbending is used to kill due to the Air Nomads preaching pacifism.

* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'': Randall intends to kidnap countless human children across the globe and subject them to a machine that forces them to scream uncontrollably, leading to death by suffocation. Mike is clearly terrified when Randall tries to use him as a test subject, while Sully goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge when the villain attempts to use the device on a human girl he had befriended.

* ''Roleplay/DinoAttackRPG'': Finister, the AlternateTimeline counterpart of the fittingly-named Sam Sinister, uses a torture device of his own design called the Truth Receiver. As a ShoutOut to the Scream Extractor from ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'', the Truth Receiver is essentially a giant vacuum that repeatedly suffocates its victims without letting them pass out. Its horrific nature is especially played up in the Director's Cut, in which it highlights Finister as the cruelest member of FUTURE. When Finister reveals that he killed Roger Remous with the Truth Receiver, Rex notes that it must have been a ghastly way to die.

* In the opening scene of ''Film/WalledIn'', a young girl named Julie wakes up to find herself about to suffocate in a small sealed room that is quickly filling with cement. It is later revealed her murder was an intentional HumanSacrifice as the architect who designed the building wanted to preserve it and believed this method was used in the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

* In the opening scene of ''Film/WalledIn'', a young girl named Julie wakes up to find herself about to suffocate in a small sealed room that is quickly filling with cement.

Overlaps with BuriedAlive, when the burial is intentional. Another common method is the VorpalPillow or being ThrownOutTheAirlock. This is one way to end up with BloodlessCarnage, as suffocation victims don't usually end up covered in gore. Can occasionally overlap with NeckLift or PsychicStrangle.

** Kowase regularly tries drowning his victims [[{{Sadist}} for kicks]], stopping just short of actually killing them. When [[GrewASpine Yajima stands up to him]] as he's in the middle of a VillainousBreakdown, he comes dangerously close to actually killing her in this manner until Maria sedates and kidnaps him before Yajima can see her. Maria then gives Kowase ATasteOfHisOwnMedicine by stuffing him in a DrowningPit.

While this can just be done with ChokeHolds, the victims can also be drowned, smothered, [[HangingAround hanged]], or starved for air in any other way, such as locked in a room with a depleting oxygen supply. The villain will also typically have some evil fun doing it -- they wouldn't do it if they didn't get a kick out of watching their victim suffer. If they're ''particularly'' cruel, they'll draw it out even longer by giving their victim a few seconds of air in between the suffocating -- if they're planning to keep the victim alive, this makes for an effective form of torture. As a matter of fact, the real-life act of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding waterboarding]] typically involves simulating the feeling of drowning. It's just a brutal thing to put someone through, and even if they're intending to leave their victim alive, it's all too easy to go too far and accidentally murder the poor guy.