Weekend at Bernie's



A 1989 comedy film in which two corporate lackeys (Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman) get duplicitously invited by their scheming boss Bernie (Terry Kiser) to his fancy New York beach home for the weekend. Hilarity Ensues when Bernie is murdered (by someone else), and circumstances force the hapless duo to lug his corpse around, pretending he is still alive. Better Than It Sounds.

Unsurprisingly, the film's title was originally used as the name for the trope Of Corpse He's Alive.

A sequel was made in 1993, which is even more ridiculous than the first thanks to the addition of voodoo and dancing corpses.

"YOU KICKED ME YOU... [shoots corpse]"
 * Asshole Victim: Bernie himself. He was a Corrupt Corporate Executive who was planning on killing the protagonists for unknowingly discovering his scheme, but the mob he hired double-crossed him.
 * Beach Bury: Mister, can I bury you?
 * Black Comedy
 * Blatant Lies: "I didn't see anything! I was looking at my watch!" "I'm blind!"
 * The Cat Came Back
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: The protagonists were unaware of it, but Bernie was the one behind the insurance fraud that was going on in their company.
 * Death as Comedy
 * Dogged Nice Guy: Silverman's character.
 * Dude, She's Like, in a Coma: Guess. Squick!
 * Footsie Under the Table
 * Groin Attack: Bernie gets his revenge in the end.

"Larry: How do you like that? The guy gets laid more times dead than I do alive."
 * Ho Yay: Between Larry and Richard; it's noticed by Bernie. Also, a woman at Bernie's party acknowledges the ho yay in Sherlock Holmes, writing a book about him and Watson being 'secretly married'.
 * It's also invoked in the original "suicide note" written by Bernie's assassin. He was originally going to claim that Larry stole the money so he could have a sex change operation. And live with Richard as his lover.
 * I Love the Dead: Things turned really strange when Bernie's ex-wife came to argue with him, and ended up having sex with him. And she claimed it was the best they'd ever had. And he was dead.


 * The Mafia
 * Narm Charm: Both movies have a fanbase simply because they're so ridiculous.
 * Naughty Under the Table
 * Of Corpse He's Alive: The plot formerly known as Weekend at Bernie's.
 * Refuge in Audacity
 * Rule of Funny: Certain facts about corpses are cheerfully ignored.
 * Xanatos Backfire/You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: This is exactly why Bernie winds up in the state he's in for most of the film; he tries to get the protagonists killed by the mob, but the mob winds up murdering him and making it look like a suicide.

The sequel contains:
"Larry: Just take the blood."
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Catherine Mary Stewart's character
 * The Dead Can Dance: But only when there's music playing. You see, they used the pigeon when they should have used the chicken...
 * Hollywood Voodoo: Cock-a-doodle-do.
 * A Man Is Not a Virgin: The subversion of this is Chekhov's Gun. A voodoo priest says he needs the blood of a virgin to cure Richard after a poisoning. Well, remember the quote in I Love the Dead for the first film?


 * Narm Charm: Turned Up to Eleven. Perhaps surprised that the first even got made, the director made the sequel a Vacation In Audacity, adding Hollywood Voodoo and a treasure hunt, pretty much gleefully Jumping The Voodoo Shark. Get the popcorn and enjoy.