Line #95 Main/CreepyCleanliness


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12	When a scene of absolute tidiness and polish is portrayed as unnerving. Possibly also related to the creepiness of sterile settings, like hospitals, laboratories, or all those white, sterile, futuristic/sci-fi corridors. The reasons may vary. It can be relied to the fear of dehumanization, or germophobia if you feel that something rotten is hiding behind that smooth surface. If played well, it might lead to MindScrew.
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14	Can be related to a NeatFreak, especially if AffablyEvil, or to a DepravedDentist. May happen if [[DidWeJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu Cthulhu invites you to have tea with him]] and you find out its lair is actually ''too clean''.
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16	SisterTrope of RoomFullOfCrazy and StraightEdgeEvil. See also SpringCleaningFever and AsceticAesthetic when this is a building or even ''[[EnvironmentalSymbolism setting]]'' motif. Compare NothingIsScarier, for the suspicious emptiness of a clean room, and OrderIsNotGood for where something arranged in an orderly fashion hides something sinister.
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19	!!Examples:
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21	[[foldercontrol]]
22
23	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
24	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Pachyderme}}'': A 9-year-old girl is dropped off at her grandparents' house for a ten-day stay. She notes how spotlessly clean and perfectly organized the house is, down to all the wooden logs for the fire being grouped by size and all the books on the shelves being in alphabetical order. This is another early sign that something is wrong in grandma and grandpa's house -- it is eventually revealed that her grandfather sexually abuses her.
25	[[/folder]]
26
27	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
28	[[AC:Examples by creator:]]
29	* Some of Creator/StanleyKubrick's movies -- including ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', ''Film/AClockworkOrange'' and (to a lesser degree) ''Film/TheShining'' -- contain unsettling scenes set in futuristic, aseptic spaces.
30	[[AC:Examples by title:]]
31	* ''Film/AmericanBeauty'': Ricky's disturbed mother apologizes for the state of her spotless home.
32	* In ''Film/AmericanPsycho'', Patrick Bateman's apartment is stark white and spotlessly clean, displaying Bateman's psychotic fixation on appearance and utter shallowness.
33	* The protagonist's apartment in Nanni Moretti's ''Film/{{Bianca}}'' is a good example, especially given that he has sterilized the sink, the toilet and the bathtub by setting little fires in them.
34	* The asylum from ''Film/CultOfChucky'' where most of the story takes place, is brightly white and disturbingly sterile-looking.
35	* Dr. Alan Feinstone's study in both ''Film/TheDentist'' and its sequel. The opening credits are a great example.
36	* The totalitarian architecture in ''Film/{{Equilibrium}}'' (which [[PuttingOnTheReich borrows much from the Third Reich]]).
37	* In ''Film/FallingDown'', VillainProtagonist Bill Foster's bedroom at his mother's house is shown to be disturbingly immaculate. When SympatheticInspectorAntagonist Prendergast tries to compliment his mother, she replies that it was all Bill as she's too scared of his HairTriggerTemper to risk messing anything up. Bill himself dressed in picture-perfect business casual attire, which becomes unsettling when it's discovered that [[UnconfessedUnemployment he was fired over a month ago]].
38	* Stanley Uris's bath in ''Film/It1990'' is perfectly clean -- ''so'' clean that you can easily guess [[DrivenToSuicide what is going to happen]].
39	* In ''Film/{{Mental}}'', Nancy's house is oppressively white and clean.
40	* The alienating yet spotless scenery of ''Film/{{Metropolis}}''.
41	* The whole of Paris/Tativille from ''Film/{{Playtime}}''. It doesn't create fear, but a great sense of distress.
42	* The shower scene from ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' could fit this trope.
43	* ''Franchise/StarWars'': The Empire's ships are always spotless and shiny, emphasizing their coldness and sterility. The Alliance's are always used and lived-in. (Creator/GeorgeLucas had fights with the unionized cleaning staff, who kept trying to clean the Alliance sets up for contractual reasons after he had them deliberately dirtied.)
44	%%* Sticking with Lucas, ''Film/THX1138''.
45	* Nazi architecture shown in ''Film/TriumphOfTheWill'', mainly because it is HarsherInHindsight.
46	* The SinisterSubway in ''Film/TheWiz'' is the cleanest and brightest subway station put on film, with its cleanliness and emptiness aside from a creepy peddler's giant {{Perverse Puppet}}s and other murderous {{Animate Inanimate Object}}s that go after the heroes only providing peak 'liminal space' horror.
47	[[/folder]]
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49	[[folder:Literature]]
50	* In Creator/GKChesterton's ''The Ball and the Cross'', much of the inherent wrongness of the protagonists' prison cells in connected with the fact that they are kept antiseptically clean by periodic automated cleansing.
51	* In ''Literature/BlackTideRising'', Sergeant Decker's obsessive (even for a military man) fixation on being neat, clean and properly groomed is one of the more visible signs of his SanitySlippage.
52	* Applies to Margaret's house in ''Literature/{{Carrie}}''.
53	* Played for BlackComedy in the short story "A Clean Sweep" from the anthology ''Superheroes'', when one of the police at the end comments on how the house where they found dozens of skeletons was the cleanest they'd ever seen, bones included.
54	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
55	** The watchmaker in ''Literature/ThiefOfTime'' has a characteristic watchmaker's love of precision, which extends to an immaculately clean-living space. He's also a rather sad, lonely sort who organizes his life meticulously to compensate for how empty it is.
56	** Stanley Howler from ''Literature/GoingPostal'' is a young post office worker whose [[ThisIsMySide half of his dorm room]] is perfectly clean -- he snips off the corner of a paper that crosses onto his turf. While he's a good man at heart, he's obsessive in his interests to the point of concern, and has occasional "little moments" that sometimes involve threatening his boss's life with an iron kettle.
57	* Mr. Duffy's room in ''Literature/{{Dubliners}}'' is dominated by order, cleanliness and symmetry, however it becomes creepier as you keep on reading. It stands for the protagonist's ''paralysis'', as well as the ''[[{{Pun}} sterility]]'' of his own life.
58	* In ''Literature/FlowersForAlgernon'', clean, stark settings are associated with the dehumanizing scientists, while Faye, the artist character who is in touch with her emotions, lives in a disorderly apartment.
59	* In ''Literature/TheGodsAreBastards'', the upper layers of the dungeon known as the Crawl are disconcertingly absent of dust and cobwebs. Probably has something to do with the Crawl being an EldritchLocation.
60	* In ''A House with Good Bones'' by Creator/UrsulaVernon, the protagonist's terrible emotionally abusive grandmother kept a rose garden, which is still there. The garden is beautiful and perfect, to the point of absolute sterility--and contains not a single insect, which should be impossible, and deeply unnerves our entomologist heroine. By contrast, the grandmother's gardening nemesis, who is a kind and helpful person, has a messy, bug-filled garden. [[spoiler:It turns out that not only was Grandma a real piece of work, she was also a sorcerer who anchored her dark magic using the roses.]]
61	* The main character in ''Letting Ana Go'' begins acting obsessive-compulsively cleanly while she succumbs to anorexia. As her anorexia gets worse, her cleanliness also gets worse.
62	* In the ''Literature/{{Spellsinger}}'' novel ''The Day of the Dissonance'', an extremely neat and clean orphanage appears to be on the up-and-up until Mudge points out that with so many orphans present, it should be dirtier. The protagonists investigate and discover [[spoiler:that the operators are puritanical religious fanatics who regularly beat and neuter the orphans]].
63	* The replacements for women in ''Literature/TheStepfordWives'' have an unhealthy obsession with being the perfect housewife and making sure their homes and gardens are pristine and perfect.
64	* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'''s preeminent TortureTechnician Semirhage prefers to use {{Agony Beam}}s on [[ShamefulStrip Shamefully Stripped]] victims in brightly lit, stark, sterile laboratories.
65	[[/folder]]
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67	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
68	* ''Series/{{Andor}}'': Imperial buildings are preternaturally clean, perhaps most unsettlingly in the sterile deadly prison Cassian ends up in while everything else is lived in worn used dusty and otherwise realistically imperfect. Even Mon Mothma's clean high class senator apartment is an emblem of the Empire as it is state property and she has no say over decor and how it is maintained.
69	* The beginning of the ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS4E22TheBigWheel The Big Wheel]]" depicts the ObsessivelyOrganized killer going through his eerily over-sanitized morning routine, including wearing different slippers in different parts of the house to avoid cross-contamination. It's very, very effective.
70	* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter keeps his apartment very clean and organized.
71	* [[StepfordSmiler Bree]] and [[AffablyEvil Orson]] Hodge's house in ''Series/DesperateHousewives'' is always neat and clean. However, Bree cried her heart out [[NeatFreak after polishing the silverware]] [[spoiler:when she found out that her first husband Rex had passed away]] and, in her spotless bathroom, she [[spoiler:was almost killed by Gloria Hodge, who had already murdered Orson's father that way]]. So, does it still look so welcoming? Orson is also an expert in removing stains, probably because he [[spoiler:had to wash away his mistress's blood after his mother had murdered her]], and as a child, Bree cleaned the blood of her mother up (when she was hit by a drunk driver and was rushed off to the hospital) off the drive.
72	* Superhoodie's lair on ''Series/{{Misfits}}'' is the most spotlessly sterile RoomFullOfCrazy ''ever''. Not surprising, as he is revealed to be [[spoiler:Simon, who has learned to harness his creepily obsessive and [[StalkerWithACrush stalkerish]] tendencies in order to become a pretty efficient superhero]].
73	* ''Series/MoonKnight2022'': [[spoiler:After being killed by Arthur Harrow, Marc Spector wakes up in a pure white clean mental hospital that is populated with the faces of people he's seen before.]]
74	* In a flashback episode of ''Series/TheOddCouple1970'', little Felix is so neat that his grandfather (played by Tony Randall) tells him: "There are two things people don't like -- a dirty old man and a clean young boy!"
75	[[/folder]]
76
77	[[folder:Music]]
78	* Bath Haus of [[Music/LadyGaga Gaga]] in the "Music/BadRomance" video.
79	* "The Garden" by Rudimentary Peni sounds eerie enough until the lyrics kick in, describing how perfect the garden is, ending with the last word being screamed in a gut-wrenching manner.
80	-->In the garden where the roses have no thorns\
81	The growth is steady and quite natural (No parasites, no harm)\
82	Immortal existence, perpetual existence, forever peace and charm\
83	Forever peace and charm\
84	Forever peace and charm\
85	Forever peace and cha-ARM!
86	[[/folder]]
87
88	[[folder:Podcasts]]
89	* ''Podcast/TheMagnusArchives'': In the episode "Contaminant", the statement giver Lester Chang's father-in-law Greg, already a [[NeatFreak very clean man]], goes off the deep end after losing his wife and his daughter in the same year, obsessively cleaning his house until the smell of bleach is overpowering and he starts to damage fixtures from the repeated scrubbing. Lester initially thinks the problem is entirely in his head until Greg says he has [[FesteringFungus mold in his drains]]. [[spoiler:Greg's cleanliness doesn't save him.]]
90	[[/folder]]
91
92	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
93	* One evil Nazi scientist NPC in ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'' is described as keeping his lab exceptionally clean. Lampshaded, in that the book points out that this is usually the sign of a proportionally unclean mind.
94	* ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'' has the Melissiadae bloodline, who are known for keeping everything so clean that you can smell the cleaning fluids. As their sanity (and [[KarmaMeter Humanity]]) decays, they slowly act more and more like insects, starting with this OCD-like behavior. The "something rotten" is the large number of mind-wiped slave "drones" they keep around.
95	[[/folder]]
96
97	[[folder:Video Games]]
98	* ''VideoGame/Ashes2063'': Certain parts of the old world's ruins, mostly underground structures, can sometimes be found untouched by post-apocalypse dwellers and in as pristine condition as can be after 70-odd years. The problem is, most of these places are intact for a reason: a few such clean spots visited in ''Afterglow'' house a strange phenomenon called "[[TheCorruption background despair]]", with odd paranormal effects and close ties to [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Haunts]].
99	* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' hits you with this when you visit [[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Vault_112 Vault 112]] in the course of the main plot. Compared to most of the other abandoned and dilapidated locations you've been to, 112 is even more pristine than the protagonist's home vault; perfectly maintained, locked rooms full of supplies, et cetera. It seems more like a tomb than a shelter... [[spoiler:because it's a virtual hell that exists for the pleasure of a single megalomaniac, who tortures the other inhabitants for his own amusement in an environment where no-one can die]].
100	* ''VideoGame/MirrorsEdge'', a dystopia where even the rooftops are kept clean and shining.
101	* ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'':
102	** The first part of [[VideoGame/Portal1 the first game]] can be considered this, making the "rat man"'s dens a sharp contrast. You eventually get to personally see the "something rotten" hiding behind the smooth surface when you go OffTheRails later in the game.
103	** The ruined test chambers at the start of ''VideoGame/Portal2'' might be considered a deconstruction of these.
104	* The Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Pheromosa from ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' is an EldritchAbomination that takes the form of an [[WhiteIsPure ethereally white]], [[InsectoidAliens humanoid cockroach]] StatuesqueStunner. In an {{inver\|tedTrope}}sion of CreepyCockroach, it's said to be disgusted by our world, with an adamant refusal to touch anything in order to maintain its said beauty.
105	* After traveling through the squalid city streets and industrial areas of ''VideoGame/Stray2022'', the protagonists eventually make their way into [[spoiler:the Control Room]], which sticks out like a sore thumb due to being clean to the point of sterility. Even the robots found therein are still unquestioningly obedient to their long-deceased human masters, compared to all the others below who have since developed their own minds and souls.
106	* Most of ''VideoGame/TheWhiteChamber'' takes place on a space station that appears to have gone halfway into [[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 the Warp]], tooth-lined walls, staring eyes, and whirling blades. At the very end it reverts to normal, a pristine, white environment that's just as creepy as the previous version.
107	[[/folder]]
108
109	[[folder:Webcomics]]
110	* Issue #5 (The Complex) of ''Webcomic/ParticleFiction''.
111	* ''Webcomic/Trevor2020'': Given that the story takes place in a location where medical experiments preformed, the facility is spotless at the start of the story. This makes the location seem all the more unnatural, and highlights the ensuing carnage.
112	[[/folder]]

Context Main / CreepyCleanliness