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Peek-a-Boo Corpse: Difference between revisions
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Yes. Once again, the '''Peek-a-Boo Corpse'''—the bane of squeamish horror movie watchers ''everywhere''—has made an appearance, rearing its ugly, eyeless, wormy head and worming its way into the nightmares of kids and adults alike.
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]].
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* 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]] ==▼
▲== [[Anime and Manga]] ==
* In ''[[One Piece]]'', [[The So-Called Coward|Usopp]] receives a face full of it when the Going Merry is rained on (and quite nearly destroyed) by the remains of a ship {{spoiler|that fell from Skypiea}}. Needless to say, the Straw Hat Crew is totally shook up by the [[Beyond the Impossible|abuse of both logic and gravity]] Usopp attempts to calm himself by closing his eyes and meditating himself into believing the whole ordeal is a dream. He slowly opens his eyes and the first thing he sees is... The skeletal remains of one of the ships crew. [[Screams Like a Little Girl|Poor]] [[Freak-Out|Bastard]].
== [[Film]] ==
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* ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan]]'' McCoy's making his way through the Regula I station when he bumps into a [[Cat Scare|Rat Scare]]. Relieved after the initial shock, he turns around - slap-bang into a corpse, hung upside down.
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== 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 Gently's Holistic Detective Agency]]'', in which a ghost is shocked to discover its OWN corpse in a cupboard. {{spoiler|At the sight, the ghost faints.}}
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* 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 [[Bluebeard]]'s wife. Well, he ''did'' [[Schmuck Bait|tell her not to look]]....
== [[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 ''[[Doctor Who]]'', when the Doctor and his friends split up to search a school for evidence of the villains' evil plot. One character opens a door, we hear a high, terrified scream...and (eventually) see that he has discovered a closet full of vacuum-packed rats. Quoth the Doctor: "You decided to scream? Like a little girl? Nine, maybe ten years old. Pigtails, frilly skirt..."
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** 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, 125 km (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 the Canary]]'' (play, later film).
== [[Video Games]] ==
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* ''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.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Oddly combined with [[Gory Discretion Shot]] in [[Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name]] when Veser [http://hanna.aftertorque.com/?p=426 discovers the body in the theater].
* In ''[[Silent Hill: Promise]]'' Vanessa turns the lights on and finds a body waiting for her.
== [[Web Original]] ==
* 4chan board /x/ plays this for laughs. A common way to criticize the predictability or otherwise show contempt for a story is to simply post "and then a skeleton popped out."
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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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 1|Transformers]]'', Daniel Witwicky experiences this in the Autobot crypt when he's running away from an undead Optimus Prime.
▲== [[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, 125
▲** A [[Real Life]] [[Stuffed Into the Fridge]], huh?
{{reflist}}
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