This has nothing to do with
The Undead. We hope.
There are two ways to simulate corpses on TV — get a good dummy or model, or use a live actor.
The problem with using a live actor is that they're a live actor. Live actors need to breathe. Either they hold their breath, the camera doesn't let you see their chest, or you get
The Living Dead — when you see a corpse visibly breathe on camera.
Modern special effects have introduced another option, of course; for that reason, this trope rarely appears in more recent movies (big-budget ones, anyway), which tend to have larger budgets and therefore can afford the special effects and editing to ensure that dead actors appear properly dead.
Examples
- Two cases in Dalziel and Pascoe — one involving a woman who had been dead for over a decade (she'd been embalmed).
- In the premiere episode of Climax, an anthology of dramatic adaptations performed live, the corpse actually got up and walked away, unaware that the cameras were rolling. See this Snopes link.
- On TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes, a prank involving a visit to a funeral home was foiled when the casketed corpse at the center of the joke couldn't hide his breathing.
- Not breathing, but equally revealing; in the Doctor Who episode 'The Unquiet Dead', a character opens a coffin and the corpse's eyes twitch noticably. To be fair though, that episode was about dead bodies getting up and walking around.
- One outtake of The X-Files had Scully declaring that a man was dead...just as he sneezed loudly. She continues to deadpan, "He's dead Mulder. He's dead and he's not coming back," as the rest of the production crew cracks up.
- Dutch Longrunner Baanttjer had this and actual Dutch celebs would feature as stiff of the week.
