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The Living Dead

174 statements
32 feature instances
24 referencing feature instances

The Living Dead	type	FeatureClass
The Living Dead	label	The Living Dead
The Living Dead	page	TheLivingDead
The Living Dead	comment	There are two ways to simulate corpses on TV — get a good dummy or model, or use a live actor. The problem with using a live actor is that they're a live actor. Live actors need to breathe. Either they hold their breath, the camera doesn't let you see their chest, or you get this — when you see a corpse visibly breathe on camera. Having the corpse concealed from view immediately after death can often help prevent this. Modern special effects have introduced another option, of course; for that reason, this trope rarely appears in more recent movies (big-budget ones, anyway), which tend to have larger budgets and therefore can afford the special effects and editing to ensure that dead characters appear properly dead. Related to Corpsing, which is when an actor breaks into a fit of unscripted (and almost always inappropriate) laughter during a take, whether or not said actor is supposed to be playing dead. The worst time to get a case of the giggles, of course, is when you're playing a corpse, and thus the term stuck. Compare Playing a Tree for a similarly thankless role. See Eye Awaken, Raised Hand of Survival, or Finger-Twitching Revival for when the character's supposed corpse moves to reveal they're not as dead as previously thought. For the other kind of "living dead", see The Undead, Tropes of the Living Dead, or Living Dead Series.
The Living Dead	fetched	2023-10-30T12:46:28Z
The Living Dead	parsed	2023-10-30T12:46:28Z
The Living Dead	processingComment	Dropped link to Averted: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
The Living Dead	processingComment	Dropped link to DiesWideOpen: Not an Item - FEATURE
The Living Dead	processingComment	Dropped link to LongRunner: Not an Item - FEATURE
The Living Dead	processingComment	Dropped link to OffscreenInertia: Not an Item - FEATURE
The Living Dead	processingComment	Dropped link to RagingStiffie: Not an Item - FEATURE
The Living Dead	processingComment	Dropped link to ReplicantSnatching: Not an Item - FEATURE
The Living Dead	processingUnknown	Averted
The Living Dead	isPartOf	DBTropes
The Living Dead / int_1e015a5d	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_1e015a5d	comment	In The Empire Strikes Back Michael Culver (Captain Needa) can be seen moving when his "corpse" is picked up by two troopers after Vader force-chokes him.
The Living Dead / int_1e015a5d	featureApplicability	1.0
The Living Dead / int_1e015a5d	featureConfidence	1.0
The Empire Strikes Back	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_1e015a5d
The Living Dead / int_2212773a	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_2212773a	comment	Angel. In "Harm's Way", the eyelids of a corpse on Fred's autopsy table give a noticeable twitch. Then again, he had been bitten by a vampire...
The Living Dead / int_2212773a	featureApplicability	1.0
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Angel	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_2212773a
The Living Dead / int_3435fb80	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_3435fb80	comment	Mech-X4: In "Let's Get Some Air", the reveal that the team makes it out alive thanks to the oxygen coming back online in time is spoiled by paying close attention to Mark before the reveal. His actor is noticeably breathing.
The Living Dead / int_3435fb80	featureApplicability	1.0
The Living Dead / int_3435fb80	featureConfidence	1.0
Mech-X4	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_3435fb80
The Living Dead / int_43576f5	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_43576f5	comment	In Supernatural, the actors who play Sam and Dean also act as their corpses. This is especially noticeable in the season 2 finale, "All Hell Breaks Loose pt. II". If you pay attention to Sam's body, you can see his chest rising and falling slightly. According to their actors, Jared had to struggle to not cry while Dean was delivering his monologue.
The Living Dead / int_43576f5	featureApplicability	1.0
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Supernatural	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_43576f5
The Living Dead / int_43a6bda1	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_43a6bda1	comment	In Too Many Cooks, Micky is scripted to get up at the end of the first act before the lights go down, which seems like a case of this trope. However, this happens because he isn't actually dead.
The Living Dead / int_43a6bda1	featureApplicability	1.0
The Living Dead / int_43a6bda1	featureConfidence	1.0
Too Many Cooks (Theatre)	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_43a6bda1
The Living Dead / int_4d308d5c	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_4d308d5c	comment	In Mommie Dearest, Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) can be seen breathing while lying in her casket. Her eyelid also twitches when her daughter Christina touches her face.
The Living Dead / int_4d308d5c	featureApplicability	1.0
The Living Dead / int_4d308d5c	featureConfidence	1.0
MommieDearest	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_4d308d5c
The Living Dead / int_4dccc4bc	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_4dccc4bc	comment	In Thor: The Dark World, as Thor cradles Frigga's body after she was slain by Algrim, you can see her breathing (accentuated by her belt pouches moving up and down).
The Living Dead / int_4dccc4bc	featureApplicability	1.0
The Living Dead / int_4dccc4bc	featureConfidence	1.0
Thor: The Dark World	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_4dccc4bc
The Living Dead / int_50dc43b6	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_50dc43b6	comment	Two cases in Dalziel and Pascoe — one involving a woman who had been dead for over a decade (she'd been embalmed).
The Living Dead / int_50dc43b6	featureApplicability	1.0
The Living Dead / int_50dc43b6	featureConfidence	1.0
Dalziel and Pascoe	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_50dc43b6
The Living Dead / int_564871a	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_564871a	comment	Blue Bloods: "In & Out", a shooting victim noticeably readjusts his arm position during an overhead shot of the crime scene.
The Living Dead / int_564871a	featureApplicability	1.0
The Living Dead / int_564871a	featureConfidence	1.0
Blue Bloods	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_564871a
The Living Dead / int_58226ded	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_58226ded	comment	Seen in Santa Sangre with the corpse of the Tattooed Woman, who's been stabbed absolutely full of holes but whose stomach is still very obviously moving with breath when Alma finds her.
The Living Dead / int_58226ded	featureApplicability	1.0
The Living Dead / int_58226ded	featureConfidence	1.0
Santa Sangre	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_58226ded
The Living Dead / int_59dd1baf	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_59dd1baf	comment	Center Stage: Stanley Kwan calls for a second take because Maggie Cheung, playing the corpse of Ryan Lingyu for a scene where they're filming Lingyu's memorial service, took a breath.
The Living Dead / int_59dd1baf	featureApplicability	1.0
The Living Dead / int_59dd1baf	featureConfidence	1.0
Center Stage (1991)	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_59dd1baf
The Living Dead / int_61f1473	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_61f1473	comment	Parodied in the Smosh video If Scary Movies were Real.
The Living Dead / int_61f1473	featureApplicability	1.0
The Living Dead / int_61f1473	featureConfidence	1.0
Smosh (Web Video)	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_61f1473
The Living Dead / int_691be369	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_691be369	comment	One outtake of The X-Files had Scully declaring that a man was dead... just as he sneezed loudly. She continues to deadpan, "He's dead Mulder. He's dead and he's not coming back," as the rest of the production crew cracks up.
The Living Dead / int_691be369	featureApplicability	1.0
The Living Dead / int_691be369	featureConfidence	1.0
The X-Files	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_691be369
The Living Dead / int_7668653b	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_7668653b	comment	In Mass Effect 3, after Thane Krios succumbs to his wounds, he visibly keeps breathing and blinking, even after Shepard closes his eyes. Seen here.
The Living Dead / int_7668653b	featureApplicability	1.0
The Living Dead / int_7668653b	featureConfidence	1.0
Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_7668653b
The Living Dead / int_858624ba	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_858624ba	comment	Alluded to in Will & Grace when Jack tried out for a small part on Six Feet Under: Jack: The casting assistant was gorgeous, and as convincing as my performance was for "Male Corpse on Slab", there was one part of me that refused to play dead. Karen: I see. So you would have only been five and a half feet under.
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Will & Grace	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_858624ba
The Living Dead / int_89bf8ce	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_89bf8ce	comment	In 30 Rock, Jenna Maroney is cast as a corpse in a police procedural, but being a self-obsessed Large Ham goes off book and ad libs being Not Quite Dead, to the point of trying to set up a spinoff for her nameless victim character.
The Living Dead / int_89bf8ce	featureApplicability	1.0
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30 Rock	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_89bf8ce
The Living Dead / int_8a40eb2b	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_8a40eb2b	comment	Extreme example in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring where after the final battle one of the supposedly dead Uruk-Hai actually starts to get up off the ground before the camera cuts away.
The Living Dead / int_8a40eb2b	featureApplicability	1.0
The Living Dead / int_8a40eb2b	featureConfidence	1.0
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_8a40eb2b
The Living Dead / int_904f975a	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_904f975a	comment	In the HD version of Manos: The Hands of Fate, one of the Master's comatose wives can be seen smirking at Torgo's antics.
The Living Dead / int_904f975a	featureApplicability	1.0
The Living Dead / int_904f975a	featureConfidence	1.0
Manos: The Hands of Fate	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_904f975a
The Living Dead / int_911c755d	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_911c755d	comment	In It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, Miss Piggy can't be part of the Muppet Theatre's Christmas show because she has a very important guest role in Scrubs. She turns out to be a dead patient under a sheet but keeps trying to force in a miraculous recovery, to the annoyance of the Scrubs cast.
The Living Dead / int_911c755d	featureApplicability	1.0
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It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_911c755d
The Living Dead / int_947cae0e	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_947cae0e	comment	Narrowly averted in Hitchcock's Psycho, in which Janet Leigh could be seen swallowing while her character was meant to be dead. Hitchcock's wife Alma caught the error during screening and Hitchcock corrected it prior to the film's release, replacing the shot with a still image so that there was no possibility of his "dead" actress moving.
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Psycho	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_947cae0e
The Living Dead / int_960062b7	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_960062b7	comment	In the My Hero Academia Special Episode "Save the World with Love!", All Might plays a dead villain in one of the students' training exercises. Tsuyu tickles his nose with her hair and he stifles a laugh, confirming to her and her classmates that he was alive but supposed to be pretending to be dead. However, in the end it turns out that All Might was actually pretending to be a living person pretending to be dead. He runs away while the students aren't looking and their teacher, Aizawa, docks points for not noticing that the "villain" was actually alive, even pointing out that All Might gave them a hint when he laughed after Tsuyu tickled his nose. In other words, they mistook his corpsing for bad acting when it was actually meant to be a hint!
The Living Dead / int_960062b7	featureApplicability	1.0
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My Hero Academia (Manga)	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_960062b7
The Living Dead / int_97bb943d	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_97bb943d	comment	In Gladiator, after Marcus Aurelius has died and Lucilla greets Commodus as new emperor, with the dead body in the foreground, Richard Harris is visibly breathing.
The Living Dead / int_97bb943d	featureApplicability	1.0
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Gladiator	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_97bb943d
The Living Dead / int_9a3887f	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_9a3887f	comment	In one episode of De Rode Ridder, Johan sees through the ruse of a mook Playing Possum by noticing the guy is breathing.
The Living Dead / int_9a3887f	featureApplicability	1.0
The Living Dead / int_9a3887f	featureConfidence	1.0
De Rode Ridder (Comic Book)	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_9a3887f
The Living Dead / int_b407d2d7	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_b407d2d7	comment	In its comedic spin-off Corpse Party 2U, Yoshiki Kishinuma is given the role of a murder victim for a play, and has the choice between playing dead til the end or ad libbing, revealing himself to having faked his death as a ploy to catch the culprit, in order to impress his crush, Ayumi Shinozaki. The latter results in a Wrong End, as she becomes upset at him for ruining the play.
The Living Dead / int_b407d2d7	featureApplicability	1.0
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Corpse Party (Video Game)	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_b407d2d7
The Living Dead / int_b5761a41	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_b5761a41	comment	In Final Destination 3, Wendy has a premonition of the train she is on derailing and exploding, killing everyone on board, with her trying in vain to prevent the premonition from coming true, and ends up lying on the tracks bleeding out next to many "dead" passengers, whose chests are still visibly moving.
The Living Dead / int_b5761a41	featureApplicability	1.0
The Living Dead / int_b5761a41	featureConfidence	1.0
Final Destination 3	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_b5761a41
The Living Dead / int_b5a087d7	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_b5a087d7	comment	Parodied in a Robot Chicken sketch, which had a corpse under a white sheet fart loudly and visibly. This one may be a parody, but it's also Truth in Television: bodies can still exhale methane after death. And yes, that includes through farting.
The Living Dead / int_b5a087d7	featureApplicability	1.0
The Living Dead / int_b5a087d7	featureConfidence	1.0
Robot Chicken	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_b5a087d7
The Living Dead / int_c43df4d8	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_c43df4d8	comment	Doctor Who has had many examples, especially in the Classic series where a combination of No Budget preventing edits, actors who didn't care and a really high body count often metastises into this. Happens a lot less often in the revival: Averted in "The Wheel in Space" when Jamie and the Doctor find Gemma's corpse, by cutting still photographs into the frame as closeups. (This also meant the actress didn't have to return to film her role in this episode.) "Spearhead From Space": There is a corpse on display as a waxwork (while the waxwork replaces him and works for the Autons). The actor does a very good job of holding his breath, but can't resist subtly wobbling on his feet as he maintains his balance. When Liz is walking through the hall of famous dummies, a female waxwork in the background blinks. A later scene shows Autons mowing down civilians at a bus stop, many of which are visibly moving and twitching an amount that's amazing they got away with. "The Ark in Space" has people in cryogenic suspension kept in vacuum formed shells around the set. Some can be seen moving in certain scenes. This trope luckily saved the life of long-running Third and Fourth Doctor companion Benton. Due to the fact that the production team didn't know at the time that "The Android Invasion" would be his last appearance, his last scene ended up being his assault by the androids - for the rest of the story we only see his robot duplicate and Benton's fate is unknown. Fortunately, John Levene's eyeballs can be seen moving about under his lids, meaning at least we know he wasn't killed. The production subtitles on the DVD even point this out. The Sixth Doctor is supposed to appear to be dead at the midpoint cliffhanger of "Vengeance On Varos" during the recording of a government-sponsored Snuff Film, but Colin Baker is still subtly breathing. Since this ruins the cliffhanger if you notice it, it's most likely this trope rather than an intentional hint he's not really dead. Not breathing, but equally revealing; in the episode 'The Unquiet Dead', a character opens a coffin and the corpse's eyes twitch noticeably. But to be fair, "The Unquiet Dead" is about dead bodies turning into re-animated zombies when they are taken over by the Gelth.
The Living Dead / int_c43df4d8	featureApplicability	-1.0
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Doctor Who	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_c43df4d8
The Living Dead / int_cac1f772	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_cac1f772	comment	CSI used both dummies and living actors to play their corpses, and almost invariably during the scenes in which one of the investigators consulted the coroners, the "corpse" could be seen breathing if you kept an eye out for it. In one episode, the corpse even opened its eyes... then quickly closed them again.
The Living Dead / int_cac1f772	featureApplicability	1.0
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CSI	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_cac1f772
The Living Dead / int_df7f5754	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_df7f5754	comment	In the premiere episode (not the Casino Royale one, as often reported) of Climax!, an anthology of dramatic adaptations performed live, the corpse actually got up and walked away, unaware that the cameras were rolling. See this Snopes link.
The Living Dead / int_df7f5754	featureApplicability	1.0
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Casino Royale (1954)	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_df7f5754
The Living Dead / int_ea4f62db	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_ea4f62db	comment	In an episode of Family Guy, Peter reminisces about the time he played a corpse on Law & Order, "until I got that itch in my crotch."
The Living Dead / int_ea4f62db	featureApplicability	1.0
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Family Guy	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_ea4f62db
The Living Dead / int_f43b3a51	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_f43b3a51	comment	In one episode of Diagnosis: Murder, a hospital nurse is murdered during a practice drill for a major disaster. One can clearly see the victim's necklace rise and fall with her breathing.
The Living Dead / int_f43b3a51	featureApplicability	1.0
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Diagnosis: Murder	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_f43b3a51
The Living Dead / int_f6c05e8e	type	The Living Dead
The Living Dead / int_f6c05e8e	comment	In Friends, Joey has done this three times. The first time was when he was hired to play a dying man in a film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. After several ruined takes, the script was simply altered to that the guy was dead instead. The second time occurred when Joey was on Law & Order as a murder victim, but the scenes where he was shown alive were cut, so all we see is his body covered with a white sheet being carted out on a gurney. Finally, when he was rehired by Days of Our Lives where his character was still in a coma several years after falling down an elevator shaft. It's lampshaded by Susan Sarandon's character who exclaims "That was a person?!".
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Friends	hasFeature	The Living Dead / int_f6c05e8e

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

The Living Dead	processingCategory2	Death Tropes
The Living Dead	processingCategory2	This Index Is Not an Example
Alone in the Dark (2005) / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead
Center Stage (1991) / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead
Death on the Nile (1978) / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead
Detour / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead
Gladiator / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead
Santa Sangre / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead
Team America: World Police / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead
The Autopsy of Jane Doe / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead
The Empire Strikes Back / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead
The Giant Claw / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead
The Godfather / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead
The Plague of the Zombies / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead
Thor: The Dark World / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead
Drake & Josh / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead
Mech-X4 / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead
Meet the Browns / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead
MonkTropesK-R	seeAlso	The Living Dead
The Goes Wrong Show / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead
The Play That Goes Wrong (Theatre) / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead
Too Many Cooks (Theatre) / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead
Who Killed Who? / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead

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