How could I make an incredibly sunny city feel threatening and unwelcoming?

So I’m finally beginning to work on a story I’ve been wanting to do. It involves a 20 Minutes into the Future alternate timeline where the Cold War resulted in a massive Russian civil war and thousands of refugees fleeing to the West Coast of the US. The year is now 2034 and the story takes place in a fictional Wretched Hive tourist city called Mercy near the Nevada-California border modeled after Las Vegas.

I really like the idea of flipping the typical City Noir trope of “always night, always rainy” and making the city oppressively sunny and hot (hence why it’s taking place in Nevada). It’s basically Sunshine Noir. However, I really want the city to feel foreboding and hostile in the same way as a typical noir setting with lots of Daylight Horror sprinkled in. The sun makes the city almost maddeningly hot for people who actually live there as opposed to tourists and highlights every bizarre and horrific crime in sunlight for all to see.

What are some ways to make this incredibly sunny city still feel threatening to live in?

Edited by DissinYoSandwich on Mar 10th 2022 at 10:59:39 AM

Well, since it's well-lit, one can see further—and thus potentially see more crimes taking place. (And that without intervention by authorities, or with intervention that makes things worse.)

Another thought is that you could lean on the architecture a bit: Perhaps there are tall, ominous buildings near the centre of the city that loom over everything—and which, due to the lighting and lower buildings all around, are pretty much always visible.

You mentioned heat: If there are lots of tarmac road-surfaces, and the right sort of building-materials, then those might gather and re-emit quite a bit of heat, making it feel as though the city itself were conspiring with the sun to bake everything within. (Not to mention that tarmac could become unpleasantly and inconveniently sticky in the heat.)

Oooooohhhh good idea, I didn’t even think of the tarmac point.

I also like your point about the architecture. I could see the government pouring tons of money into the entertainment district (casinos, brothels and such) while the actual residents have to survive in shoddy Khrushchyovka or Plattenbau style communal houses with the bare minimum necessities given.

Using lots of neon if your story goes past sundown could work too, especially if the lights are too strong. Makes it more of a "so fronting and plastic and artificial it's unsettling" thing, I think.

Edited by megarockman on Mar 11th 2022 at 11:45:37 AM

How about the use of shadows in this sunshine city?

Think about it.

If "darkness equals danger" and the "light it too hot" then people would be forced into the darkness (aka "dangerous situations") when the heat becomes too much of them to bear, despite the safety it provides from the darkness.

The citizens and tourists will be put in a sadistic choice, through the whole stay in that city, thanks to this dilemma.

Nvm

Edited by Synchronicity on Mar 11th 2022 at 11:27:35 AM

That’s a really good idea, the point about the shadows. I could certainly see someone looking for a spot to cool only to witness something shady occurring (or worse yet, become a victim).

Glare could still make it hard to see, depending.

The Noir aesthetic is based on the idea that internal moral decay manifests itself as external decay in the surrounding environment. Provided that buildings are rundown, the streets are dusty, electric lights are not working, the water tastes funny, and on like that, you have a noir setting without any rain required.

Of course, the sunlight itself can become oppressive and overwhelming. The movie Insomnia is your go-to trope codifier for that (seriously, with Al Pacino and Robin Williams playing opposite each other, a very under-rated movie).

Your point about the visual symbolism of the noir setting was really intriguing. That had completely slipped my mind before this, but now it seems so obvious.

I’m starting to grasp more of what I’m visualizing the city to be like. I’d imagine now it would be like Tijuana or Dubai where there are huge metropolis areas for tourists but the actual general populace is rife with poverty and crime. There would be a huge entertainment district complete with high profile shopping centers, casinos, brothels and such but the people living in the city outside this district are forced into blisteringly hot ghettos with shoddy “commie block” style communal houses from when the government needed a cheap way to house all these new immigrants.

Also, the Insomnia shout-out seems interesting. I’ll definitely look into the movie!

Imagine the scene where the private dick leans back at his grungy desk, pulls down the blinds against the glare, failing to keep out the tinny fake music playing for the tourists, while he drowns his sun headache with a strong shot of local hooch.

Two words: Heat Wave. The sun's bleaching everything and burning the life out of everything.

Edited by generation81 on Mar 14th 2022 at 4:30:43 AM

Watch the movie MFKZ. It's a French animated movie that takes place in the setting of Dark Meat City, which is basically all your worse stereotypes of Los Angeles cranked up to eleven. The city is bright, trashy, and overall a horrible place to live in with the main character emphasizing this a lot through his narration. Watch from 1:35 to 3:00 to get an idea of how Dark Meat City is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo9cPsfHUQo

Edited by Bornstellar on Mar 14th 2022 at 3:42:15 AM

@Bornstellar Holy shit, this is actually almost exactly the vibe I was imagining for this place! Also, I had completely forgotten MFKZ existed after seeing a commercial for it a few years back and am really happy you reminded me of it.

Heavy surveillance could help. Light reveals. Darkness conceals. With no dark there's nowhere to hide. No escape from the watchful eye.

It might not have the vibes you're looking for, but The City from Mirror's Edge is a great example of a bright, shining metropolis under the oppressive thumb of government repression and surveillance.