History Main / InterrogatingTheDead

When it is inspired by or refers to an old legend that a murder victim's eyes will hold a reflection of the last thing he saw, it is EyeRemember.

* ''Film/{{Hellboy}}'': Hellboy dugs up the corpse Ivan and reanimates him to have a guide in the Russian cemetary.

** Arc "A Game of You": Thessaly the witch, having disposed of her MoreThanMeetsTheEye neighbour George for trying to kill her, promptly brings his spirit back in order to find out who sent him.

** The arrest of Yanni Yogi (from the [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney first game]]) is based on testimony from a spirit medium channeling the murder victim. The notoriety caused by this case ruined the reputation of Misty Fey and drove her into self-imposed exile in order to save face for the rest of her clan.

Sometimes overlaps with DeadPersonConversation and ISeeDeadPeople. Conpare FateWorseThanDeath, which the interrogation is more of about torturing the dead.

** Part of ''VisualNovel/GyakutenSaiban6''[='s=] court gameplay involves channeling the recently deceased in order to play back what they saw in the moments before they died in a large pool of water at the center of the courtroom. It is what the kingdom of Kurain does in lieu of letting defense attorneys argue on behalf of the accused (which apparently they outlawed sometime prior to the game so they could move to the theocratic court system). Phoenix's job is to look through this "footage" and figure out what doesn't jive with the facts.

** The arrest of Yanni Yogi (from the [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney first game]]) is based on testimony from a spirit medium channeling the murder victim.

** The arrest of Yanni Yogi (from the [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney first game]] is based on testimony from a spirit medium channeling the murder victim.

* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightTrilogy''

** And in the VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations, you get to cross-examine a ghost using the same method.

* A shinto priest allows the victim to speak through him by magic and give his version of the murder in ''{{Rashomon}}''.

* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney''
** The arrest of Yanni Yogi is based on testimony from a spirit medium channeling the murder victim.
** And in the third game, you get to cross-examine a ghost using the same method.

Sometimes overlaps with DeadPersonConversation and ISeeDeadPeople.

Death. The End. Once you're down for the count, you aren't getting back up. There's no way you can tell the police or other law enforcement agencies [[WhoDunnitToMe who dunnit to you]]. Fortunately, the authorities have advanced technology, or in fantasy settings, [[{{Necromancer}} necromancers]] at their disposal that can either [[BackFromTheDead revive you]] or scan your post-mortem mind in order to gather information. So just lie back on that slab and start talking.

Death. The End. Once you're down for the count, you aren't getting back up. There's no way you can tell the police or other law enforcement agencies [[WhoDunnitToMe who dunnit to you]]. Fortunately, the authorities have advanced technology at their disposal that can either revive you or scan your post-mortem mind in order to gather information. So just lie back on that slab and start talking.

* In Jonah Hex, this is pretty much the protagonists super power

* SelfDemonstrating/{{Sinestro}} does this in ''WesternAnimation/GreenLanternFirstFlight'', reanimating a crook he executed to question him on the location of the Yellow Element.

** Arc "A Game of You": Thessaly the witch, having disposed of her MoreThanMeetsTheEye neighbour George for trying to kill her, promptly brings his spirit back in order to find out who sent him. How she does so is [[BodyHorror another trope]] entirely.

* ''{{Necroscope}}'': Harry Keogh can converse with murder victims due to his clairvoyance. There are also various vampire necromancers that bind souls to corpses so they can torture the truth out of them.

-->-- ''Series/{{Fringe}}'', Pilot

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* {{Sinestro}} does this in ''WesternAnimation/GreenLanternFirstFlight'', reanimating a crook he executed to question him on the location of the Yellow Element.

* ''Film/{{Hellboy}}'': Hellboy dugs up corpse Ivan and reanimate him to have a guide in the Russian cemetary.
* ''Film/HellboyIITheGoldenArmy'', Dr. Krauss uses his magic gas stuff to briefly reanimate one of the Tooth Fairies for interrogation.

* Played for laughs in a ''{{Literature/Discworld}}'' story, "Theatre of Cruelty", in which it's mentioned that the existence of [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]] mean that the victims are sometimes the key witnesses in their own murder.
** Also played straight-ish(as straight as any trope on the Disc can be played, anyways) in ''Discworld/MakingMoney'', where a dead professor from the Unseen University is brought back to consult on an ancient civilization.

* The so-called "mechanical educators" in Creator/EEDocSmith's Literature/SkylarkSeries can be used to read dead minds, as long as they're relatively intact and haven't been dead for more than a few hours.

* Odysseus Grant demonstrated that this was part of his [[MagiciansAreWizards bag of tricks]] during ''[[KittyNorville Kitty's House of Horrors]]''. It is not something he does lightly.

* Strange does this with some enemy soldiers in the Napoleonic War chapters of ''JonathanStrangeAndMrNorrell''.

* ''Film/{{Hellboy}}''
** In the first movie, Hellboy dugs up corpse Ivan and reanimate him to have a guide in the Russian cemetary.
** In ''Hellboy II: The Golden Army'', Dr. Krauss uses his magic gas stuff to briefly reanimate one of the Tooth Fairies for interrogation.

* In the ''{{Nightside}}'' series, Walker [[RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun gets pretty sick and tired]] of people reminiscing about the time he invoked this trope, using his Voice to question a dead body.

* There's a scene in ''ZorkNemesis'' where you have to cut the head off a corpse, then mount it on a machine so you can ask it questions.

* The Nameless One from ''PlanescapeTorment'' can do this once he learns the Stories-Bones-Tell ability.

* Done with magic crystals in ''PathwaysIntoDarkness''.

-->'''Zealot:''' [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Bite... my... ass...]]

* ''PushingDaisies'': Ned can revive the dead by touching them once. Touching them a second time kills them again. He uses this to glean information from murder victims to help the team start their investigation.

** One episode features an evil spirit that possesses one of the sisters after killing its previous host. The demon who was pursuing the spirit finds the previous host's body later in the episode and uses his powers to momentarily ressurect said host in order to learn the identity of the spirit's new host. Once he has the desired information, the dead previous host is unceremoniously re-killed.