Basic Trope: Apartment buildings are terrible places to live, whether for supernatural or mundane reasons.
- Straight:
- Bob rents a place in Troper's Tower Apartments, and soon finds out that pests are abundant, the neighbors are inconsiderate, and the landlord has washed his hands of the whole thing.
- Bob rents a place in Troper's Tower Apartments, only for one of his neighbors to turn up dead. It turns out that another neighbor is a vampire preying on the tenants.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob rents a place in Troper's Tower Apartments. The day he moves in, all his food is eaten by rats; his neighbors steal his furniture, and the landlord burns the building down for insurance money.
- Bob rents a place in Troper's Tower, only to discover that a group of vampires lives there and they eat the human tenants whenever they're hungry.
- Downplayed:
- Bob rents a place in Troper's Tower Apartments. Over the next few weeks, he finds that he has one loud neighbor; he gets a mild ant infestation, and the landlord takes his time responding to complaints.
- Bob rents a place in Troper's Tower Apartments. He discovers that one of his neighbors is a vampire...but a Vegetarian Vampire, and therefore relatively safe as long as no one messes with his blood deliveries.
- Justified: ???
- Inverted:
- Bob rents a place in Troper's Tower Apartments. He soon finds out that birds sing a chorus every morning; the neighbors are incredibly friendly, and the landlord practically lives to make his tenants' lives easier.
- Bob rents a place in Troper's Tower Apartments. He soon finds out that Alyss, one of the inhabitants, is a fairy. She takes a liking to Bob and uses her abilities to make his life easier and safer.
- Subverted:
- Bob walks into Troper's Tower Apartments to hear a radio playing loudly and see a pest control man chasing a rat through the halls. However, it turns out he just caught them on a bad day; the place is ordinarily pretty nice.
- Bob rents a place in Troper's Tower Apartments. One of the tenants disappears, and Bob notices that one of the other tenants has pale skin and doesn't seem to like sunlight...but it turns out he's a well-meaning guy with a skin condition who sent the other tenant to visit her sick mother for a month on his tab.
- Doubly Subverted: However, then Bob finds out the hard way that the pale-faced tenant is a vampire when he can't get his weekly blood deliveries on time and goes on a feral rampage from hunger.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: Troper's Tower Apartments is no more unpleasant or dangerous than you would expect.
- Enforced: The author originally sets the story in a neighborhood, but the producers change it to an apartment building to save money on set construction.
- Lampshaded:Bob: Houses may be expensive, but with the terrible things that happen in apartments, it's worth it!
- Invoked: The owners try to drive the tenants out so they can sell to a developer.
- Exploited: A despair-eating monster moves into Troper's Tower, knowing it will eat well there.
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Charlie suggests Bob get an apartment, but Bob shakes his head and says, "No way. Never again."
If you're thinking you might want to rent a one-bedroom in the Apartment Complex of Horrors, I'd suggest you keep looking.
