One way to make a character look creepy is to have deep, dark circles surrounding their eyes in the form of shadows or natural pigmentation, giving them a sinister, skull-like appearance. Often goes hand in hand with Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette and Evil Old Folks, combined with Evil Eyebrows.
A character that Looks Like Cesare tends to have these eyes, as well as The Insomniac, Creepy Loner Girl, and other deranged characters, since eye pigmentation can occur from lack of sleep (though if this is just temporary see Exhausted Eye Bags). Some characters may artificially try to replicate this effect with make-up, resulting in Excessive Evil Eyeshadow, or Guyliner, but it just doesn't have the same effect and is not the trope. (Though an artist or makeup person who overdoes the effect may make the character look a bit like they’ve been hitting the eyeshadow.)
Compare Face Framed in Shadow. When the whole eyes are in shadow, to the point that you can't make them out at all, it's Hidden Eyes. This effect may be induced or go hand in hand with a Kubrick Stare.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Dr. Hiyari and daughter Hiyariko from Anpanman. They're both mad scientists. Thanks to the simple artwork of the series, their eyes express this by being a dark ring around their eyes (black for Dr. Hiyari, dark purple for Hiyariko).
- Case Closed:
- Shuichi Akai, FBI agent and good guy is drawn having eyes which have permanent bags underneath them that make him appear sleep deprived and other characters describe him as evil-eyed. It even becomes a Plot Point: Both Conan and the readers use his distinctive look to identify him when in disguise - and also relatives of his, such as his sister Masumi Sera, who has the same eyes, and Mary, the mysterious girl hiding in Sera's hotel room.
- While jokes are made at her being a night owl, such as calling her an "evil-eyed yawning girl", Ai Haibara doesn't normally possess them. However, an arc that features a minor event of Haibara and Ayumi getting makeup put on them ends with Haibara looking like she has bags under her eyes while she's cleaning it off. Conan sees this and immediately notices a striking resemblance between Haibara and Mary.
- Death Note:
- L, an Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette, has circles around his eyes so dark, he has the fan nickname "Panda".
- Light in the manga is shown to have dark circles around his eyes after he became Kira that magically disappear with his Memory Gambit.
- My Hero Academia: Gentle and La Brava both have thick black lines around their eyes. They're only natural in La Brava's case, the result of countless nights since a middle school love rejection spent in front of a computer in deep depression. When she made the decision to approach Gentle, she wasn't able to do anything about them and hoped he wouldn't be put off. On the contrary, he accepted her gladly and, upon noticing how much she stressed over them regardless, took up drawing dark rings under his own eyes to emphasize their partnership. In the present the rings look almost like domino masks when coupled with their costumes.
- Naruto: In the original Japanese, Gaara's darkly circled eyes are expressly stated to be Tanuki-like marks he was born with, signifying the animal the Tailed Beast sealed within him resembles, much like the way Naruto has whisker-marks resembling those of a fox (whose own Tailed Beast is based on the Kitsune). In the English dub, they were explained to be caused by his insomnia, which not only makes sense (rather than just assuming the audience wouldn't know what a Tanuki was or just calling it a "raccoon demon") but significantly ups the creep-factor.
- This is the identifying trait of Tomoko Kuroki from No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!, which reduces her physical appeal and self-esteem. Strangely enough, it seems to be genetic since her brother and her mother have eye bags as well. The mother's are less pronounced, though, suggesting the siblings (or at least Tomoko) made theirs worse through poor sleeping habits.
- In one epsiode of Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, Ash is possessed by an ancient king in an orb, complete with magic eyeliner.
- School Zone Girls: High school girl Fuji was either born with tremendous bags under her eyes, or she developed one hell of a psycho stare after spending every waking moment at the arcade trying to win a stuffed animal from a crane game.
Comic Books
- Anya's Ghost: Emily has these in her news article picture that inform Anya she was a murderer, not murdered.
- The Legend of Wonder Woman (2016): After becoming Hades' high priestess Menalippe has constant prominent dark circles.
Fan Works
- Danganronpa: Paradise Lost: Junpei Ichikawa, an antagonistic, jaded Straw Nihilist, is the only participant to be depicted with shadowed undereyes, to emphasize his unsettling temperament.
Films — Animated
- Pitch, the villain of Rise of the Guardians, has sunken pale-yellow eyes and deep, dark shadows under them.
- Arrow from Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie. The fur around his eyes are darker than the rest of his body, to show he is a Jerkass.
Films — Live-Action
- Loki has dark circles under his eyes in The Avengers (2012), especially notable in his first scene, to emphasise his Big Bad Slippage between Thor and The Avengers, in which he is the main villain and generally much more menacing than he was in the former (in which he didn't have them). Completed with a Kubrick Stare. Attentive viewers will notice the people he mind controls also develop them, probably because he doesn't let them stop working to sleep.
- The "thralls" in Avengers Grimm sport Excessive Evil Eyeshadow that's intended to be natural coloring from their curse.
- Betelgeuse from, well, Beetlejuice has dark rings around his eyes and is a malevolent ghost. This is actually due to the fact that Tim Burton originally conceived the character as having no eyes at all but changed his mind after noticing how expressive Michael Keaton's were.
- Gríma Wormtongue from The Lord of the Rings film series is a deceptive, manipulative and evil character with a very creepy and offputting appearance. Brad Dourif is made up to look extremely pale with heavy bags under his eyes: [1]
- Riff Raff, The Igor who is secretly plotting against his master in The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Richard O'Brien is made up to look deathly pale with dark circles under his eyes that practically make him look like a raccoon in some shots. He generally comes across as very sinister and offputting. Given that the character is Frank's Beleaguered Assistant and a drug addict, there might be some overlap with Exhausted Eye Bags, but it's certainly menacing and by the end of the film he's proved himself to be very dangerous.
Literature
- In The Twilight Saga, all the vampires are described as having dark 'bruised' shadows under their eyes, implied to be a symptom of never sleeping.
Live Action TV
- Common in members of The Addams Family:
- Wednesday has a fairly mild case (the film version has them slightly more noticeably, and is creepier, but even in the show Wednesday can be pretty creepy...after all, she's a 6-year-old girl who keeps pet spiders and plays with guillotines).
- Fester in the TV show has quite pronounced eyebags, and otherwise looks like a fat version of Orlok—again, the 90s films then exaggerate this to the point of looking more like Alice Cooper makeup.
- Unlike the others, the shadows under Gomez's eyes are often more prominent in the show than in the films—though they vary from episode to episode, and in some cases look more like straight-up Guy Liner than natural dark circles. They certainly accentuate his frequent Kubrick Stare and Cheshire Cat Grin or sometimes full-on Slasher Smile. [2]◊ is one example where it's particularly noticeable, and ambiguously either this trope or Guy Liner. (Or both—given the Addams Family's gothic perspective on the world, they probably consider such features attractive, so it would make sense for them to play them up with makeup even if they naturally have them.)
- Riverdale: Jughead, a tall, Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette has perpetual dark shadows under his eyes and does not look like he gets much sleep at all — it lends to his Creepy Good and slightly intimidating appearance.
- In the Supernatural episode "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part One" (S02, Ep21), the Acheri demon has dark circles around her eyes.
- Kitchen Nightmares: One particularly infamous episode, "Amy's Baking Company", featured the titular crazy owner who wore a lot of mascara and also had very wide, intense eyes, giving her a creepy stare.
Music
Video Games
- All human characters in Don't Starve have them, but the most prominent belong to Wilson, Wendy, and Maxwell. They all go insane pretty quickly, except Maxwell.
- Loghain in Dragon Age: Origins has extremely dark circles under his eyes. Though his high stress life makes it totally reasonable for him to have them, the cartoonish appearance of his dark circles has been the subject of much mockery, and even lead many players to correctly predict his treachery and resultant villain status. Some of them were apparently so irritated by the raccoon rings around his eyes that they created mods to tone them down.
- Colonel Radec removes his goggles at one point in Killzone 2, showing that he is quite pale and unhealthy looking with pronounced bags and redness under his eyes.
- Members of the Parasite Unit in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain have faded inkblot-like markings around their eyes, caused by the parasites living under their skin. This, combined with their paleness and erratic movements, reinforces their "undead" appearance.
- The Medic in Team Fortress 2 has dark circles under his eyes and is a deranged mercenary who experiments on people. They're fairly subtle, but compared to the other characters it's a reasonably noticeable feature. It's probably to make his eyes stand out behind his glasses, show that he's no spring chicken, and suggest that he's the kind of person who likely stays up late doing horrible medical experiments. And maybe the stress of his thankless job is getting to him.
- Tekken: Sergei Dragunov has the Looks Like Cesare part down with black hair, pale skin and dark circles under his sunken eyes. In story, he is widely feared as the "White Angel of Death".
Visual Novels
- Kanato Sakamaki from Diabolik Lovers has a pale complexion and sunken eyes. It gives his face a skull-like effect which reflects his morbid and vindictive personality, but also contrasts with his child-like demeanor - he carries around a stuffed bear and he cries easily.
- Prosecutor Simon Blackquill in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies has dark streaks under both eyes. Combined with his dark hair and pale skin, they make him look creepy, but also somewhat pitiable; the artbook states they're the result of him crying while in prison and never bothering to wipe the tears.
Webcomics
- Girl Genius: After the Time Skip Gil remains awake for weeks while in The Madness Place with his self control slipping and gets dark circles around his eyes as a result. Fittingly these bruise like dark circles become even more pronounced when he's not the one in the driver's seat.
- Stand Still, Stay Silent: Väinö, the elderly solitary guardian mage of a Forbidden Zone border whose only regular companions are his seagull helpers, has eyes that are beady and have pronounced outlines compared to the rest of the cast.
- Exaggerated with Star Impact's Etna, for the entirety of the area around her eyes is wreathed in shadow to highlight her manic nature in the ring. Even when she's leaning all the way back, the shadow doesn't go away.
- Deadpan Snarker Colin from Two Keys has this, as seen in the picture above. Which is actually a milder version. Sometimes he has this to the point where it looks like he's got the Black Eyes of Evil. It's unclear whether he has this due to insomnia, If his magic has a physically draining effect on him or if it has something to do with his Mysterious Past. Not to be confused with when he has his occasional moments of Black Eyes of Crazy.
Web Original
- Freshy Kanal's Rap Battle!: In "Zelda Goldman vs. Charlie Graham", Charlie is drawn with shadows around her eyes, adding the creepiness to the Creepy Child.
- In Half-Life but the AI is Self-Aware, the main antagonist Benrey is depicted in the thumbnail art and in fan works with dark shadows under his eyes to distinguish him from other security guards.
Western Animation
- Several Danny Phantom villains have dark circles under their eyes for the look of evil, starting with Vlad.
- Looney Tunes shorts directed by Chuck Jones often have characters gain an eye shadow if they're really angry or stressed.
- Miraculous Ladybug: Akumatized victims almost always have a red stained patch around their eyes. A handful of corner casesnote suggest that this coloration represents their negative emotions.
- Mike's evil personality Mal from Total Drama All Stars has two main distinguishing features from his good alter: his bangs covering one eye and the shadows under the eyes. When he impersonates Mike by putting up his hair, the shadowy eyes remain as a visual cue that it's Mal.
