Spring-Loaded Corpse

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"Oh but this totally happens all the time, you wouldn't believe the amount of times I've seen dead bodies flop on the floor like that at work. They just fly out, they got like, rocket fuel stuffed up their ass. They go: "Whee! I'm dead! Kaboom!"

—Helloween 4545 on morgue corpses.

Almost a staple of the horror genre, this is when a character picks up an item next to or walk near a corpse, which then decides to suddenly come back to life and attack. The effectiveness of this scare technique tends to be inversely related to how many times it is used. Too many times, and players tend to fire a few rounds into every so-called 'corpse' they see, or the audience becomes jaded to the overused scare.

Commonly found in the Zombie Apocalypse, because what else is going to raise a corpse from the dead? Contrast with Zombie Infectee, where there's a chance of this happening but with a living person.

Related to Playing Possum, which is typically used outside of a horror context.

Examples of Spring-Loaded Corpse include:

Anime and Manga

• Subverted, and also played somewhat literally in Uzumaki. In one of the more odd chapters, not entirely focused around spirals, a young man has a habit for leaping out of nowhere to scare people. In the end, his habits get him run over by a car. After he's dead and buried, he surprises the main character by leaping out of his grave, but he is, in fact, actually dead, and his leaping is a product of a spring from the car that got lodged into his body as he died.

Fan Works

• A literal variation is found in Nobody Dies, after Rei defeats a remnant of the angel Sachiel:

"Well, then I had him stuffed. And mounted. And I installed hydraulics in his arms so he'd sort of jump anyone who looked in my closet. And stuff."

Film

• Used in many horror movies, more prevalent in the B-movies of the genre.
  • Happens at the start of Zombieland to illustrate the main character's point during his lecture about the importance of making sure a zombie is dead.
• Happens a lot in the climax of Poltergeist, particularly when the Freelings' backyard starts disgorging en masse the corpses that had been left behind when the cemeteries were moved. They're not zombies, though - just anger props for the spirits.

Live Action Television

• An episode of The Greatest American Hero had a murder victim literally pop back to motion, reanimated by the same aliens that gave Ralph his suit. He didn't attack anyone, though, just delivered a message to Ralph and Bill.
• Done by the cannibal corpse in episode 7x09 of Supernatural.

Video Games

• Dead Space tends to do this ad nauseum. It gets predictable after a while. Players tend to dismember every corpse they come across.
  • There's even a particular monster that has this as a power it can give to corpses.
  • To avoid wasting ammo, you can use kinesis on each corpse instead of a weapon. If you can't move the body, then it is spring loaded.
  • Of course, the necromorphs get Genre Savvy on harder difficulties, they'll attack you, then fake dying when shot, only to attack when you go to loot them.
• Many, many, many Survival Horror games.
  • The First-Person Shooter ones still tend to trip the IFF gun reticle.
• Resident Evil tends to do this throughout with generic zombies, but there are specific examples below.
  • Used in the fifth installment, most notably in stage 6-2, where a hallway of dead enemies suddenly come back to life.
    • Experienced players can however spot the thread, as the "dead" enemies' stun rods are still active. A similar case occurs with the Chainsaw Majini, who will sometimes play possum when you damage them enough. If they aren't actually dead, their chainsaw will still be running.
  • In the original game, the corpse of Forrest, who comes back from the dead when you pick up a nearby grenade launcher, and the Crimsom Heads from REmake, which are normal zombies coming back after you kill them and leave them for a while (unless you destroy the corpses with fire or a headshot).
  • The first Regenerator you find in 4 (you see a corpse covered by a blanket on a table, walk into a nearby room, which even contains a report on the creatures and pick up a key...)
• Used with the headcrab zombies in both Half Life 1 and 2.
• Penumbra: Black Plague has this near the end of the game. A mutated corpse is lying on a table while you mix up an antidote to the virus infecting you. Once you take the antidote, the virus infects the body on the table and attacks
• Clive Barker's Jericho does this once, when Lichthammer, a female undead Nazi officer possesses a dead body and grabs your character. Combines it with Press X to Not Die.
• This happens sometimes with enemies in Kuon, who will spontaneously come back to life and start attacking if you're not careful. Hint: the most effective way to make sure they're truly dead is to step on them.
• A version of this occurs in BioShock (series) with Sander Cohen. His 'art' is actually corpses cast in plaster, which is creepy enough in itself in that they bleed when you strike them. However at some point "statues" you've seen throughout disappear and the splicers inside attack you.
  • Later in the game, Splicers start playing dead and attacking when you get too close.
  • The Minerva's Den DLC has Splicers encased in ice, some of which will break free and attack when you get too close.
• In The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, enemy zombies and harmless corpses in the scenery use basically the same models and textures, but you'll always find zombies in their animate state. That is, until the Expansion Pack came along, and the developers started using the similarity to their advantage in some dungeons with zombies that don't get up and attack you until you get close.. It's almost certain to scare the shit out of you the first time it happens.
• In Manhunt a body-bag is in the asylum next to some painkillers, if approached the body-bag shoots upright before sinking back down, it turns out it really was spring loaded.
• Metroid Prime 2: Echoes has Samus exploring a GFMC base that is filled with Marines corpses. Once Samus activates a device at one end of the base, Ing start possessing the bodies, which Samus must destroy.
• Avernum has a number of scripted events where getting near to or examining bodies will spawn undead creatures to attack you.