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{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}
{{quote|''"6. If you're running from something, you get to a car, and a corpse falls out of it, the car probably still works. Shove the body aside and start driving."''|''[http://monsterlibrarian.com/horrorsurvive.htm Horror Survival Guide]''}}
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Cue [[Scare Chord]]. Cue also a [[Screaming Woman|huge scream from the heroine]] and from [[Nightmare Fuel|any traumatized 8-year olds]] who may have the misfortune to be watching this show.
Yes. Once again, the
If you're a naive moviewatcher (e.g., a child), there ''is'' no defense from the
You can expect the identity of the
* An anonymous [[Monster Misogyny|female victim]] of the villain, if he's a [[Serial Killer]]
* A non-main character who, [[Acquitted Too Late|up until the discovery of his body, was considered the prime suspect in the Murder of the Week]] ("''Hunh. Guess he didn't do it after all''...")
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* Just some random, hapless ghoul
In order for a body to qualify as a
Compare [[Cat Scare]].
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== [[Advertising]] ==
* Go and check out the [http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/promnight/ promotional website] for the remake of ''Prom Night''. There's a pretty underwhelming version of the trope if you click for long enough.
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[One Piece]]'', [[The So
== [[Film]] ==
* [[Steven Spielberg]] is probably the Grand [[Puppet Master]] of the
** In the movie ''[[Jaws (
** In ''[[Jurassic Park]]'', [[Laura Dern]] has just escaped the raptors when she feels an arm on her
** The movie ''[[
*** Not to mention the earlier case in which the corpse of a "competitor" scares Alfred half-witted.
*** What should also be pointed out is that the mummies may or may not have been alive. Their appearance is still...something...either way.
** The only scenes which could rival the
*** What makes this particular instance of Peek-A-Boo-Corpse so bad however, is that whenever the mother was in the unfinished pool, the corpse in there with her... [[Fridge Horror|WAS REAL]]!
* Subverted in ''[[The Machinist]]''. At the start of the movie the main character is shown in an attempt to dump a body, {{spoiler|and later his fridge starts leaking blood after he fails to pay his electric bill. When opened, however, it only contains a large fish he caught.}}
* The ''[[Friday the
** You gotta give the killer credit for going through the extra effort of throwing a corpse through a window just scare their next victim.
* Need we even mention ''[[The Ring]]''? If the one in the closet doesn't get you, the one in the chair will...
** If you want to see something even worse, pause the movie during the final moments of the opening "slumber party" scene. Then do some frame advances... (Keep the nitroglycerin on standby.)
* ''[[Accepted]]'', when the lead characters begin cleaning up the mental hospital, a corpse falls from the ceiling with a [[Hilarity Ensues|hilarious result.]]
* Subverted in ''[[
* {{spoiler|Norman Bates's, ah, mummy}} in ''[[Alfred Hitchcock|Psycho]]''.
* ''[[The Orphanage]]'' gives us plenty of warning that {{spoiler|Benigna}} is going to look pretty messed-up after being hit by a bus, so why is this revelation so disturbing?
* ''[[Evil Dead|Evil Dead 2]]''. Ever get ''attacked'' by the
** ''[[Blade (
* One of these very briefly (ahem) pops up in ''[[The Wicker Man]]'' when Sgt. Howie is searching the mortuary. Then again, what do you expect to find in a coffin? Of far more interest is [[Chekhov's Gun|the fact that it's only got one hand]].
* That [[Body Horror|hideously mutated]] corpse from ''[[The Thing (
* ''[[Grindhouse]]'': The trailer ''Thanksgiving'' parodies this trope, with two kills in a row resulting from a sudden beheading that's suddenly revealed when a character looks up.
* ''[[Halloween (
* In the [[Jean
* In ''[[The Dark Knight]]'', Batman impostor, Brian, is killed by the Joker, and his corpse is mercilessly hung outside the mayor of Gotham's office. What with the sudden appearance of his body slamming into the window, accompanied by creepy, startling music, it tends to make people jump.
* There's a great scene in ''[[American Psycho]]'' when a young woman is attempting to escape the lethally insane Patrick Bateman and she runs into several corpses all over his apartment.
* {{spoiler|Max Shreck}}'s final appearance ({{spoiler|as a black-charred skeleton after taking a direct tazer shot to the lips}}) in ''[[
* In ''[[The Goonies]]'', Chunk finds a freezer full of ice cream in the basement of the Fratellis' hideout. Gradually the others notice something behind him, or rather someone who happens to be dead and promptly falls on the heroes. "It's a stiff!"
* This happens with a plague victim in ''[[The Seventh Seal]]''.
* In ''[[Ghost Ship]]'', the heroine opens a closet door to find {{spoiler|the hanged, desiccated corpse of Katie, the young ghost girl. Mind, Katie was revealing what had happened on the ship (mass murder in a variety of gruesome and cruel ways)}}.
* Gazerbeam in ''[[The Incredibles]]''.
* Played with in the first of ''[[The Mummy Trilogy]]''. When the three protagonists finally open up the [[Sealed Evil in
* Invoked in-universe in ''National Lampoon's Class Reunion'', where the killer sets a
* In the "Black Hair" segment of the Japanese horror film ''Kaidan'', the samurai makes an unfortunate discovery after a passionate night with the wife he had abandoned.
* Done a couple of times in ''[[Disturbia]]'' first when Kale's friend Ronnie plays back a video he shot of the inside of his creepy neighbor's house and discovers a dead woman inside the vent, later when said neighbor pushes Kale into an underground pool he discovers several dead women inside.
* The bug-eyed corpse with the music box in hand, which topples out of the semi in the beginning of the second ''[[Mad Max]]'' movie.
* ''[[Star Trek II:
== [[Literature]] ==
* Used in [[Glen Cook]]'s ''Sweet Silver Blues'', when a dried-up corpse falls out of a catacomb niche and spooks the heroes. Subverted in that {{spoiler|it fell out because a vampire-spawn was hiding behind the corpse, and had pushed it aside in order to attack!}}
* Uniquely employed in ''[[Dirk
* Ann Radcliffe's Gothic romance ''[[
* This mostly seems to happen to the Bursar in [[Discworld]], who has found unexpected corpses in his wardrobe (in ''Hogfather'') and lying in his bed wearing a nightcap (implied in ''The Discworld Companion''). Granted, the latter incident was a student prank rather than a crime scene.
** Subverted in ''Maskerade'', when a suspicious-looking cello case is anxiously opened by the opera house's manager, and found to contain the mutilated, broken-necked remains of ... a cello.
* In ''[[Fairy Tales]]'', this happens memorably to [[
== [[Live
* An episode of the detective series ''[[Simon and Simon]]'' featured a scene where the [[Girl of the Week]] opened a closet in a nice, clean, unassuming house to find herself staring at a decaying, socket-eyed female corpse. Since the stench of decomposition would probably have been fairly noticeable, one might wonder why the woman wasn't more cautious about opening the door. (Yes... one ''might'' wonder... if one hadn't been so traumatized by the scene that they ducked under their bed and started to cry like this then-9-year-old editor did... Damn you, ''Simon & Simon''...)
* Parodied in ''[[
** Mind you, ''[[
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', twice in the second episode. First, the frozen corpse of Molly's partially decapitated father is sitting at the dinner table. Then again, Hiro finds the partially decapitated corpse of {{spoiler|Isaac Mendez. This is the first hint that Hiro isn't in the present, since we just saw Isaac Mendez, and he was perfectly fine}}.
* I'm amazed we don't have a [[Buffy]] example yet: in the episode ''Ted'', Xander opens a closet to find...[[Visual Pun|skeletons]]. The audience doesn't see the bodies, though.
** There was also the extreme dead guy in Aura's locker from the first episode.
** Played with in "Dead Things", where Buffy (thanks to a spell) doesn't realize that Katrina is a
* Often how the dead body is found on ''[[Castle]]''. You're just going about your day, minding your own business, opening your safe or dumping your old pizza boxes down the garbage chute and ''bang''.
** It happens to the leads during the Halloween episode in a closet in an attic. It's [[Played for Laughs]].
* This happens a few times on ''[[Misfits]]'', firstly when the group find {{spoiler|Gary's}} hacked-up corpse in a locker. It also happens when Sally finds {{spoiler|her fiance's body}} in her car boot, although Curtis ultimately manages to avert this with his [[Time Master|time-turning]] ability. Plus, in episode 6, even though the audience already knows that {{spoiler|Sally}} is dead, it still comes as a bit of a shock to see that {{spoiler|Simon has propped her up in a giant freezer and is nonchalantly eating his lunch while gazing at her mangled corpse.}}
** This happens again in season 2, but the scene quickly [[Mood Whiplash|takes a comedic turn]] when [[The Ditz|Nathan]] starts frantically screaming at the corpse: ''"Help! What should I do?"''
* Happens all the time in [[Psych]]. Then Gus vanishes if not stopped first.
* A fairly common way to open an episode in [[NCIS]].
** One prime example is the opening scene of episode 10 of season 4, "Smoked." Workmen at the Quantico Marine Military Base are replacing a furnace when the well-preserved (smoked) body of a dead man falls out of the chimney, which scares the bejeebus out of them.
* An episode of ''[[The Greatest American Hero]]'' pulls a PG-rated version of this on the ''viewer'', having a murder victim literally spring back to "life" as a white-faced zombie.
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
* Real life example (reported on the BBC website July 5, 2007): A Belgian man has been arrested after a dinner guest helping to clear up after the meal opened a freezer and found the bodies of the host's wife and stepson. The 42-year-old host had invited guests for dinner at his home in the city of Verviers, 125km (78 miles) east of Brussels, prosecutors said. Ms Wilwerth said: "It was a lady who at the end of the meal at a friend's house, and after washing the dishes... decided to take the leftovers of the meal down to the basement to store in the deep freeze. "Once she opened the deep freeze, she discovered the bodies." Guests then alerted police but refrained from telling the host.▼
** A [[Real Life]] [[Stuffed Into the Fridge]], huh?▼
== [[Theatre]] ==
* The [[Ur Example]] is probably the corpse of lawyer Robert Crosby found in a secret passage in ''[[The Cat and
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Eternal Darkness]]'': Examining the bathtub while you're Alex is a prime example.
* ''[[Halo]]'': One example occurs on the level 343 Guilty Spark during the cutscene before you first encounter the Flood, complete with a [[Scare Chord]] in the music.
* The game ''[[
** ''[[Doom]] 3'' regularly does this too. In addition to falling out of closets and vent shafts, they are occasionally seen being levitated or otherwise manipulated by the demonic forces.
* ''[[Half Life]] 2'' occasionally pulls this trope, but in one particularly harsh instance {{spoiler|while indulging in some [[Rewarding Vandalism|equipment-seeking vandalism]], smashing a particular wooden beam to get at the health behind it will cause FOUR dead poison headcrabs to drop on you from above, totally unexpectedly}}.
** The very first thing you see in the Ravenholm segment is a faraway corpse hanging from what looks like a gallows. As you get closer to the body, you gradually realize that it's ''only the lower half of the corpse''
** [[Half Life: Full Life Consequences
* The game ''[[Police Quest]]: Open Season'' has one of these right at the start. While you're checking out the crime scene, you open a not-too-special looking dumpster and bam, you get a [[Scare Chord]] and a corpse closeup thrown in your face.
** Near the end of the game, there's a severed head in the [[Big Bad]]'s refrigerator.
* ''[[Indiana Jones and
* ''[[Silent Hill 1]]'' has a corpse fall out of a locker moments after a subverted [[Cat Scare]].
** ''[[Silent Hill 3]]'', meanwhile, has a peek-a-boo corpse as part of a haunted house attraction that Heather finds herself getting stuck in. (And despite the fact that you are bracing for some kind of scare, when "Danny" makes his appearance it's still [[Nightmare Fuel]].)
** ''[[Silent Hill Homecoming]]'' springs one on you early in the game moments after you've passed through what you thought was a perfectly safe hallway.
* In ''[[Clock Tower (
* ''[[Kuon]]'' loves this trope. Bits of half-eaten corpses (or whole zombies if you're lucky) seem to appear everywhere, round corners, in boxes and closets, or sometimes falling out of the air to land right on top of you.
* The disturbing suffocation-based end sequence of ''Nancy Drew: Secret of the Scarlet Hand'' employs this trope to frightening effect. {{spoiler|It's not the discovery of the corpse, which is somewhat expected, so much as the fact that Nancy is quite unexpectedly immediately shoved into it.}}
* Happens twice in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'', though the first is optional. During the beginning Tanker chapter, opening one of the lockers later on reveals the corpse of a dead crew member which promptly falls in front of Snake. The second time happens during [[That One Level|the flooded Shell 2 Core section]] when Raiden opens the second-to-last door. Both of these instances serve no gameplay purpose whatsoever (though Raiden does allude to the second corpse when he finds Emma).
* ''[[
* ''Doom3'' enjoyed this heavily, having bodies fall out of vents or fly across rooms with no warning, often designed to spook the player and make them waste ammo on a non-threatening body. The most prominent is towards the beginning where after grabbing a PDA, a body on a rope swings from the ceiling in front of the player.
==
* Oddly combined with [[Gory Discretion Shot]] in [[Hanna Is Not a
* In ''[[
== [[Web Original]] ==
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** [[Tex Avery]]'s MGM short ''[[Who Killed Who]]'' has the detective open the door, only to see the bound and gagged body of a butler fall out...and then another...and then another...[[Overly Long Gag|and then another]]...the cascading domino of bodies only stops for a moment for one of the corpses to stop and remark [[Lampshade Hanging|on how many of them there are]], and the bodies just keep on falling.
*** This actually gets a shoutout in an episode of ''[[Bounty Hamster]]'', with robots in place of corpses.
* An episode of ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' revolves around Homer having a repressed memory of this happening when he was a teenager.
* In ''[[Transformers Generation
▲== [[Real Life]] ==
▲* Real life example (reported on the BBC website July 5, 2007): A Belgian man has been arrested after a dinner guest helping to clear up after the meal opened a freezer and found the bodies of the host's wife and stepson. The 42-year-old host had invited guests for dinner at his home in the city of Verviers,
▲** A [[Real Life]] [[Stuffed Into the Fridge]], huh?
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Horror Tropes]]
[[Category:Peek A Boo Corpse]]
[[Category:
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