History Main / AnimateDead

* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': One of the signature moves of The Necromancer, appropriately enough. He summons hundreds of zombies for the first fight against Team Kimba in Boston, and boasts to Carmilla the the real purpose of the Holocaust was [[{{Ghostapo}} to raise an undead army under Hitler's control]].

[[caption-width-right:350:[[VideoGame/AlteredBeast "RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE."]]]]

* ''Franchise/GreenLantern'':

* In ''ComicBook/NthManTheUltimateNinja'', two powerful fragments of a malevolent RealityWarper re-animate two corpses of his childhood orphanage, who proceed to recruit mutated humans into an army to take over the world.
* Persephone, the BigBad of ''ComicBook/HuntForWolverine'' and ''ComicBook/ReturnOfWolverine'' can do this. However, doing this to Wolverine's corpse after ''ComicBook/DeathOfWolverine'' [[NiceJobFixingItVillain is ultimately what led to the titular return of Wolverine]] as it also reactivated his HealingFactor, [[BackFromTheDead ending up truly resurrecting him]].
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: In the Silver Age Diana finds herself fighting the skeletal remains of the Amazon's previous champion Artemis, who it turns out ComicBook/{{Circe}} "revived" as a vengeful shadow of her former self to taunt and torment the Amazons.

* Some ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTensei'' games have the Necroma skill, which revives a dead ally as a zombie. Zombified allies are instantly killed by healing or [[LightEmUp Expel]] magic, but take no damage from anything else.

* In ''WebOriginal/{{Mortasheen}}'', the fungus creature [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/mushtomb.htm Mushtomb]] has this power, spreading its slimy spores on dead tissue to animate it to follow its every whim. Fortunately [[DarkIsNotEvil its whims are mostly to be left alone and in quiet.]]

* In ''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'' fanfiction ''Fanfic/TheSteepPathAhead'', this is an advanced spell of the Water Element and TheUndead created in this manner can fight just as well as they did when alive. They have to be killed by either the [[ReviveKillsZombie Cure Spell]] or be [[NoBodyLeftBehind vaporized]].

*** The Death Knight, a Scourge hero unit, has as his [[LimitBreak Ultimate]] move "Animate Dead" which raises up to six nearby dead units (of any allegiance) to fight for the Death Knight for forty seconds. One update made them ''invulnerable'' for the duration.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' uses this trope in a really awesome way with a ''[[KingOfTheDinosaurs Tyrannosaurus rex]]''. It also specifies that a drumbeat is part of the spell (to control the zombie). If the drumbeat stops, [[OhCrap zombie does whatever it wants]].

** The Empire is experimenting with UndeadLaborers to free up more men for the defense of the realm, and even keep a Death Knight chained beneath a dungeon in the hopes of one day submitting it to TheArchmage's will. The indifferent ease with which Ainz controls his minions (he brings ''half a thousand'' of them mounted on city-destroying monsters, as an escort) is a major factor in [[spoiler:causing said Archmage to defect to Nazarick.]]

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' uses this trope in a really awesome way with a ''[[KingOfTheDinosaurs Tyrannosaurus rex]]''. It also specifies that a drumbeat is part of the spell (to control the zombie). If the drumbeat stops, [[OhCrap zombie does whatever the hell it wants]].

* Literature/TheBible: In the Book of Ezekiel, {{God}} commands his prophet Ezekiel to resurrect [[CavalryOfTheDead a whole army of skeletons]], which were the people of Israel, to reclaim their homes. Unlike any [[DemBones typical skeletal army]], they were [[MassResurrection fully resurrected]] into living beings [[note]]and by modern day RPGMechanicsVerse, it's more closer to ''[[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons True Resurrection]]'' than to this trope[[/note]]. This was done, obviously, [[OlderThanFeudalism before video game necromancy was a thing]].

** The basic "Animate Dead" spell creates skeletons and zombies. The next spell on that list is "Create Undead", which outputs ghouls, ghasts [[note]]advanced ghouls[[/note]], mummies, and mohrgs [[note]]worms that coil in skeletons and control them by contorting around the bones, they look like animated intestines with clawed mandibles.[[/note]] Then you get Create Greater Undead, which gives you shadows, wraiths, spectres [[note]]all varied ghosts[[/note]], and devourers. Those are the core spells, [[AllThereInTheManual others]] allow you to awaken entire battlefields [[note]]"Plague of Undead"[[/note]] or designate one undead to lead others [[note]]Undead Lieutenant can effectively multiply the amount of undead you control several times over[[/note]]. There's even a spell that kills an entire army then animates them as undead, although not all of the new undead are under your control.

** ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'' has the Death Arcanum, which allows for control of ghosts and zombies. At the third level, you can pretty much create your own ZombieApocalypse.

* ''VideoGame/DragonsCrown'', being a game based off of Dungeons and Dragons(more specifically, it's arcade games), features the Warlock boss who will even say "Animate Dead" when summoning zombies. The Sorceress can also learn a skill that allows her to turn any of the random bone piles of dead characters into skeleton allies. Of course, you have to be quick around CPU Sorceresses if you want to recruit more allies, they'll only wait a few seconds to create skeletons.

* ''VideoGame/ShadowWarrior2013'': What makes Necromancers so much of a threat is that they can resurrect chunky salsa enemies. That's right: you can slice 'em, dice 'em, bake them, marinate 'em, zest 'em, and even harvest their spirit's life force, and they'll STILL COME BACK. They also summon demonic skeletons, but those are MUCH less of a threat and more of an opportunity if you have the right skills.

** A speciality of the Vampire Counts. Available to all Lords outside battle, it allows the instantaneous... um, "recruitment" of units anywhere on the map. You can raise low-level zombies and skeletons just about anywhere, but for the really special high-tier units, you'll have to track down old battle sites -- the level of the troops who fought (and died) there determines the level of the troops you can raise. Certain Lords can even use it in the middle of battle in the form of a spell to instantly raise a fresh unit, which is kept from being a game breaker by both the spell's cost and the fact that it's limited to raising cheap zombies (skeletons if overcast), which in the later game are only really useful as cannon fodder to distract the enemy from your better units or to get in the way of cavalry charges. ''The Grim and the Grave'' DLC adds two variations of this spell -- "Awaken from the Grave", unique to Helman Ghorst, which summons Grave Guard or a Wight King if overcast; and "Command of the Unliving", unique to the Strigoi Ghoul King, which summons Crypt Ghouls or Crypt Horrors.

* 'Series/{{Supernatural}}'': In "[[Recap/SupernaturalS02E18HollywoodBabylon Hollywood Babylon]]", Walter Dixon controls the vengeful spirits of those who died on a movie set to taken revenge on those who changed his script for the movie.

** Necrolytes in ''VideoGame/WarcraftOrcsAndHumans'' are orcs trained in the black arts to raise skeletons from corpses.
** Similarly, death knights from ''VideoGame/WarcraftII'', themselves undead corpses (the souls of orc warlocks stuffed into the corpses of human knights), have the Raise Dead ability, which produces a single humanoid skeleton warrior with a sword.
** In ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'', Scourge {{Necromancer}}s can raise [[DemBones Skeleton Warriors]] from corpses, and the [[ClownCarGrave Graveyard]] is a building which produces an infinite number of corpses. Thus the only limiting factor is [[ManaMeter mana]]. Inexplicably, one corpse of any unit type produces two humanoid skeletons with swords.
** ''Warcraft III'' also features the [[SummonMagic Avatar of Vengeance]], which spams a shorter-duration Animate Dead spell while ''not'' being squishy at all.
** The Death Knight, a Scourge hero unit in ''Warcraft III'', has as his [[LimitBreak Ultimate]] move "Animate Dead" which raises up to six nearby dead units (of any allegiance) to fight for the Death Knight for forty seconds. One update made them ''invulnerable'' for the duration.
** Death Knights in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' have several spells that allow them to raise undead Ghouls from corpses. The basic raise dead spell creates an NPC Ghoul that will follow the player around and attack his target (Unholy gets a permanent pet under the player's control), Raise Ally raises a dead group/raid member (though mechanically it now just acts as a combat ressurection rather than raising an ally as a ghoul). And Army of the Dead summons about 20 Ghouls at once (although they're individually weaker than the ones summoned through raise dead).
** Because the Forsaken, a faction of undead people allied to the Horde, [[ImmortalProcreationClause cannot reproduce by usual means]], their queen, Sylvanas has engaged {{Valkyries}} (sorry, Val'kyr) to, you guessed it, animate dead.

* ''Anime/InuYasha'': Kagura can use her fan to control corpses.

* Another Creator/SamRaimi example is ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'': In the climax, Doctor Strange is stranded in the Earth-838 universe, while in his native Earth-616 universe [[BigBad Wanda/Scarlet Witch]] is about to sacrifice America Chavez to steal her multiverse portal-making power. So what does Strange do to save Chavez? He uses the [[TomeOfEldritchLore Darkhold]] to [[spoiler:reanimate and inhabit the decomposing body of [[ChekhovsGunman Defender Strange]], which he buried early in the film]], and goes battling Scarlet Witch with it. It also crosses into GrandTheftMe territory.

* Another Creator/SamRaimi example is ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'': In the climax, Doctor Strange is stranded in the Earth-838 universe, while in his native Earth-616 universe [[BigBad Wanda/Scarlet Witch]] is about to sacrifice America Chavez to steal her multiverse portal-making power. So what does Strange do to save Chavez? He uses the [[TomeOfEldritchLore Darkhold]] to [[spoiler:reanimate and inhabit the decomposing body of [[ChekhovsGunman Defender Strange]], which he buried early in the film]], and goes battling Scarlet Witch with it.

* ''Film/JasonAndTheArgonauts'': The FinalBattle has King Aeetes summoning the skeletons of all the people killed by the Hydra, and setting them upon the Argonauts. Fittingly for undead mooks, the skeletons seem to be rather poor fighters, but there's [[ZergRush a lot of them]], and they just keep coming no matter how many times the Argonauts hit them or knock them down. They kill off the two RedShirt Argonauts and Jason himself has to take a plunge to escape them.