Line #43 Literature/TheGhostsOfSleath


1	[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2018_05_17_at_173941.png]]
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3	A 1994 novel by Creator/JamesHerbert.
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5	Three years after a nervous breakdown induced by the events of ''Literature/{{Haunted\|1988}}'', parapsychologist [[RecurringCharacter David Ash]] remains dedicated to exposing hoaxes, but has been [[SkepticNoLonger irresistibly convinced]] of the actuality of ghosts.
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7	Called to the secluded village of Sleath to investigate appearances to bereaved mother Ellen Preddle by the ghost of her recently deceased son Simon, Ash learns of a recent influx of ghostly encounters throughout the village. Disembodied children's voices are heard singing from a disused and empty school, the haystack fire which incinerated George Preddle is seen to burn again, and the ghost of George has apparently returned to further molest the ghost of his son.
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9	Insight from the vicar's daughter Grace Lockwood and maverick psychic Seamus Phelan hint at a sinister connection between the hauntings...
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11	!! The tropes of Sleath:
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13	* AbusiveParents: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]].
14	--> '''Ash:''' Men have slaughtered their families and women have smothered their babies under the misguided notion that they were protecting their loved ones from the wicked realities of life.
15	* AccidentalMurder: Trainee poacher Mickey Dunn, on a nightly raid on the Lockwood Estate, is petrified by a strange haze in which float several slowly assembling human body parts. He fires his crossbow, and unwittingly kills gamekeeper Jack Buckler.
16	* AnomalousArt: In the Reverend Lockwood's study, a painting of Lockwood Hall, independently of any perceptible flame, melts, cracks and smokes.
17	* ArbitraryScepticism: Farmer Sam Gunstone, having seen a spectral haystack fire, puts the phenomenon down to hallucination - but on seeing it again in the dead of night, realises he's fooling himself.
18	* AwfulWeddedLife: Black Boar Inn owners Tom and Rosemary Jinty, while outwardly civil, secretly loathe each other.
19	* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Hellfire Club founder Sir Francis Dashwood is depicted to have taken the credit for doing so from Sebastian Lockwood, whose [[spoiler: murderous attempt to harness spiritual energies]] had some success.
20	* BewareOfHitchhikingGhosts: Or rather jaywalking ghosts - driving to Sleath, Ash is horrified to see, in the road before his car, the figure of a young boy. Ash swerves, and thinks he's hit him - but the boy is [[OffscreenTeleportation nowhere in sight]].
21	* BigEater: As well as his own pub breakfast, Seamus eats half of Ash's.
22	* BigFancyHouse: Lockwood Hall, now derelict and inwardly charred, was the seat of generations of Lockwoods, several of whom held in Sleath some role of ecclesiastical authority. The basement was used for [[spoiler: HumanSacrifice]], and holds the embalmed corpses of several Lockwoods.
23	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: While Ash is bereaved by the horrifying death of Grace, the danger is passed, and the villagers begin to come to terms with their trauma.]]
24	* BloodyHorror: Sleath's old whipping post is sometimes seen to bleed.
25	* CameBackWrong: Having drowned in the bath, the ghost of eleven-year-old Simon Preddle remains naked, wet, and seems unaware of his grieving mother's presence.
26	* CreepyChildrenSinging: From inside an empty school, an unseen choir of children are heard to sing the hymn "Lord of the Dance."
27	* CripplingCastration: Seen to have been inflicted on the ghost of Joseph Munce.
28	* DarkerAndEdgier: Much more depravity than in ''Literature/{{Haunted\|1988}}''.
29	* DeathOfAChild: Eleven-year-old Simon Preddle, [[spoiler: and numerous HumanSacrifice victims throughout Sleath's history.]]
30	* FlayedAlive: [[spoiler: The last Lockwood descendants, Carl Beardsmore and Grace Lockwood,]] by the ghostly victims of the Lockwood rituals.
31	* EldritchLocation: Sleath is believed to stand on a "ley line" of the earth which nurtures spectral activity. This has apparently been enhanced by RitualMagic.
32	* ElementalBarrier: When the hauntings escalate, an uncannily dense fog descends on Sleath, to deliberately enclose the village.
33	* EverythingsDeaderWithZombies: Seamus Phelan, leaving the abruptly darkening church, hears, from behind, a stone sliding from the sarcophagus of Sir Gareth Lockwood. On [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere abrupt exit]], Seamus catches hints of a fetid smell; slow footsteps, and a shadowed figure. Whether the centuries-old corpse really is animate, or this is just a [[YourMindMakesItReal spectrally induced impression]], [[NothingIsScarier isn't entirely certain.]]
34	* {{Foreshadowing}}: The ghostly young boy seen by Ash on the road is [[spoiler: Grace's classmate Timmy Norris]] - who, during a mystic ritual at Lockwood Hall, was [[spoiler: sacrificed in her place]].
35	* GoOutWithASmile: Whilst inspecting a return of the spectral haystack fire, [[spoiler: Nellie Gunstone, wife of farmer Sam, succumbs to emphysema]], and in death, retains a look of horror. However, on [[spoiler: lifting of the vengeful, village-wide spectral fog]], this fades to a look of deathly peace.
36	* HumanSacrifice: A large part of the Lockwood dynasty's RitualMagic. The church records reveal [[SinisterMinister Robert Guy Lockwood]], under pretence of religious penance, to have [[spoiler: overseen the drowning in the village pond of numerous mentally and bodily ill children.]]
37	* ImmortalitySeeker: Sir Gareth Lockwood, thirteenth century governor of Sleath and practitioner of RitualMagic learned from his stint in {{UsefulNotes/The Crusades}}. Several of his descendants followed suit, the latest being Carl Beardsmore.
38	* KillTheCutie: [[spoiler: [[NightmareFuel Horrifyingly]] and [[TearJerker devastatingly]] so with Grace.]]
39	* MagneticMedium: While Sleath's spiritual turbulence has heightened to general revelation of ghosts, Ash and Grace's psychic buoyancy, to Lockwood Hall's crypt, aids the arrival of [[spoiler: a frenzied spectral mob of murder victims]].
40	* MentalFusion: In a sudden, sensual embrace, Grace and Ash suddenly sense each other's memories.
41	* MergerOfSouls: Numerous victims of the Lockwood rituals manifest as an amorphous haze.
42	* MinionWithAnFInEvil: [[spoiler: Reverend Lockwood]], heir to the depraved mysticism of the Lockwoods, managed to [[spoiler: save young Grace from sacrificial murder, and sent her away from the village for protection]].
43	* NothingIsScarier: Seamus Phelan, on exiting the empty church, isn't ''quite'' sure whether someone is following him...
44	* OccultDetective: Ash might be considered one. Having predicted various disasters with minimal success in their aversion, psychic Seamus Phelan has come to investigate Sleath.
45	* OminousFog: On the morning following Seamus Phelan's unearthing of Sleath's horrific history, a dense, pale yellow mist has descended on the village. Amidst it, the quiet streets hold briefly manifest silhouettes; and the village pond [[GhostlyChill freezes over]].
46	* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Ghosts here range from harmless discarnate spirits to numerous disconnected spectral body parts floating in an [[OminousFog ethereal haze]], to [[spoiler: amorphous, semi-corporeal hordes able to form lethal claws.]]
47	* PsychicPowers:
48	** Ash and Grace share an intuitive insight, both into the emerging crisis and each others' pasts.
49	** Seamus Phelan, having predicted several major disasters, hopes to prevent such horror in Sleath.
50	* PsychicSex: During lovemaking, Ash and Grace's thoughts once more merge; this time in emulation of their current bodily exchange.
51	* RapeAsDrama: The mutilated ghost of a child molester returns to haunt his victim.
52	* RevengeByProxy [[spoiler: The ghostly victims of the Lockwood [[HumanSacrifice rituals]] seek this on the Lockwood descendants.]]
53	* RitualMagic: Used by Sir Gareth Lockwood and his descendants to harness the transition of the spirit, in attempt to [[ImmortalitySeeker pursue immortality]].
54	* SadClown: Seamus Phelan, outwardly genial and flamboyant, is inwardly burdened by the horrors anticipated by his sixth sense.
55	* {{Sadist}}: Eighteenth century squarson Sebastian Lockwood, for such crimes as unlicensed trade, kept enthusiastic record of such punishment as fatally lashing the miller to his own millwheel.
56	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere:
57	** With the inn parlour beset by lethal [[{{Poltergeist}} poltergeist]] activity, Rosemary runs - [[spoiler: leaving husband Tom fatally impaled by shards of glass]].
58	** Following the crisis, [[spoiler: a devastated Ash just wants to get away from Sleath.]]
59	* SinisterMinister: Sir Gareth Lockwood, thirteenth century governor of Sleath and veteran of {{UsefulNotes/The Crusades}}, was more a "mercenary of the Devil" than a "soldier of God." Several of his descendants entered the clergy, and continued his macabre practises.
60	* TownWithADarkSecret: A not-quite-forgotten history of [[spoiler: BlackMagic, sadistic corporal punishment and infanticidal HumanSacrifice]]. While many villagers suddenly intuitively anticipate belated dire consequence, they keep their vague suspicions to themselves.
61	* TraumaInducedAmnesia: When their thoughts merge, Ash perceives Grace's memory to be blocked by a murky blank spot. When she was a child, [[spoiler: her father, member of a centuries-old occult society which preyed on the spiritual vitality of children, reluctantly took her to such rites at Lockwood Hall, where he narrowly managed to avert her ritual murder]].
62	* VengefulGhost: A singularly horrifying example - in Lockwood Hall's crypt, spectral victims of ritualistic murders assemble in an amorphous haze of intermittently realised figures, whose ethereal claws [[spoiler: relentlessly strip the flesh from Lockwood descendant Carl Beardsmore.]] And then [[spoiler: Grace]].
63	* VillainousLineage: For centuries throughout the Lockwood lineage - although not all of them. Carl Beardsmore, cousin to Reverend Edmund Lockwood, [[ImmortalitySeeker aims to reap]] the earnings of his [[HumanSacrifice murderous ancestors]], and scorns Edmund and Grace as weak.
64	* WouldHurtAChild:
65	** Several of the historical Lockwoods.
66	** Munce the child molester.
67	* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: During their brief psychic union, Grace senses Ash's childhood memory of older sister Juliet's drowning, and denies his culpability.

Context Literature / TheGhostsOfSleath