History Main / PossessingADeadBody

Not to be confused with someone who ''owns'' dead bodies; see GraveRobbing for that.

* Attempted in ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'' when ComicBook/{{Deadman}} attempts to take control of his undead corpse. Unfortunately, the black ring powering it spits Deadman out.
* ''ComicBook/ImmortalHulk'': Doc Samson and Sasquatch do this to each other when Green Door shenanigans prevent them from resurrecting in their own bodies.

* ''ComicBook/SwampThing'': In Nancy A. Collins' run, Anton Arcane at one point possesses the corpse of Carlton Sunderland and manipulates Sunderland's daughter by pretending to be Sunderland resurrected.

* ''Film/MenInBlack'': Shortly after landing on Earth, the villain -- an alien who is essentially an intelligent giant cockroach -- kills the farmer Edgar and proceeds to wear Edgar's hollowed-out skin as a disguise. The resulting impression -- a sick-looking man who moves clumsily and turns increasingly rotten as the plot advances -- very much resembles a walking corpse.

** Denji technically becomes "[[PowersViaPossession possessed]]" by Pochita after dying, though this brings ''him'' completely back to life and control while leaving Pochita dormant. [[spoiler:Pochita / Chainsaw Devil ends up taking control when Denji breaks the "deal" they made after Makima drives him to despair[[note]]Pochita let Denji retain control on the condition that Denji lives a happy life[[/note]], leaving Denji's mind effectively dead and turning him into the Chainsaw Fiend. The Chainsaw Fiend is distraught over this and desperately tries to bring Denji back.]]

* ''Film/DarkCity'': The Strangers (really OctopoidAliens with incredibly strong psychic abilities) can only occupy dead human bodies, hence their pale skin tone and sunken eyes. This is presumably because possessing a living human would cause them to experience human emotions, which are fatal to their species. They're not picky, either; one of them has taken the body of a [[UndeadChild dead child]].

[[folder: Toys]]

** Denji technically becomes "[[PowersViaPossession possessed]]" by Pochita after dying, though this brings ''him'' completely back to life and control while leaving Pochita dormant.

** [[spoiler: Belos]] continues this in the GrandFinale when [[spoiler: he latches himself onto the Titan's heart, effectively taking possession of the Titan's whole decaying body and, by extension, [[GiantCorpseWorld the entirety of the Boiling Isles]].]]

* ''Franchise/BIONICLE'': While we never see it happen, WordOfGod is that this is possible; if someone wearing a Konahi Tryna -- a Mask of Reanimation -- were to reanimate a corpse, then someone using a Kanohi Iden -- a Mask of Astral Projection -- could possess it and impersonate the corpse. This wouldn't be very effective, however, as it requires both users to maintain constant concentration on their mask powers to maintain the charade.

* ''Toy/BIONICLE'': While we never see it happen, WordOfGod is that this is possible; if someone wearing a Konahi Tryna -- a Mask of Reanimation -- were to reanimate a corpse, then someone using a Kanohi Iden -- a Mask of Astral Projection -- could possess it and impersonate the corpse. This wouldn't be very effective, however, as it requires both users to maintain constant concentration on their mask powers to maintain the charade.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In the episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E88TheLastRitesOfJeffMyrtlebank The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank]]", a man named Jeff Myrtlebank dies of the flu and is about to be buried two days later. He suddenly wakes up in his coffin and appears to be just fine. The local townsfolk think that his body was possessed by an evil spirit while he was dead. There's evidence they're right -- flowers die when he holds them and he can light a match without striking it, apparently with magic.

* ''Webcomic/ParanormalMysterySquad'': The villain of volume 2, an evil succubus spirit, possesses the body of a recently deceased woman and takes it a her own. Supplementary material reveal that said body was the servant of another villain from the companion series ''Webcomic/VampireCheerleaders''. After the villain was killed, the villain's sister killed the servant in response out of anger.

Subtrope of OurZombiesAreDifferent.

* ''Manga/TheLegendaryHeroIsDead'': As the title suggests, The legendary hero Sion, is [[UndignifiedDeath killed]] by accidentally walking into a pitfall trap with bamboo spikes that the main character set up to prevent animals that keeps eating his crops. So Anri, The hero's necromancer ally, transferred Touka's soul into Sion's decaying body via transmigration, and has no choice but to [[DeadPersonImpersonation pretend to be the legendary hero though out the whole series.]][[spoiler: But it's revealed that Sion [[DrivenToSuicide purposely walked into the trap and killed himself]] because 3 years ago, he let the seal of the hell gate a little loose to save Anri from dying because necromancers need mana and souls to live, and didn't know that this would lead the world to destruction yet again, and feels he's at fault for it.]]
* ''Manga/SoulEater'': Though not physically dead, Arachne ends up abandoning her body to become a madness-inducing HiveMind. Her sister Medusa ends up taking it over after having her original body destroyed and [[DemonicPossession possessing a child]] in the interim.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]
* ''[[Fanfic/TheDuskyverse From Dusk to Midnight]]''. Night Flurry gets possessed the spirit of an ancient warrior, Bellerophon--who turns out to be a good guy, and only takes control of Night's body if it's a life-or-death situation. The subplot is eventually resolved when Bellerophon leaves to possess the body of a slain enemy instead.

* Chapter 29 of ''Fanfic/{{Infinity}}'' reveals that [[spoiler:Enlil is actually inhabiting Alicia's corpse. It also crosses over with IHaveYourWife, since she's basically using Alicia's body as collateral to ensure Precia's loyalty.]]

[[folder:Folklore]]
* According to a legend printed in Ludwig Bechstein's ''Book of German Legends'' (1853), a student of the scholar and occultist Cornelius Agrippa (1486--1535) met his doom when he secretly read in a forbidden grimoire lying around in Agrippa's study, [[SorcerersApprenticePlot thereby accidentally summoning a demon who killed him.]] To avoid inconvenient questions about how the student died in his study, Agrippa summons another spirit and commands it to possess the dead body. The dead student walks out "like a living person" and drops dead at a random street corner, making everyone believe he died of some unknown but natural cause.

[[folder:Films — Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/HeavyMetal'': In the segment "B-17", a B-17 bomber airplane suffers heavy casualties on a raid over hostile territory, leaving only the pilot and co-pilot alive. During the return trip, a green orb called the Loc-Nar smashes its way aboard, where it reanimates the dead crewmen into shambling zombies hellbent on killing the two survivors.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
* ''Film/DarkCity'': The Strangers (really OctopoidAliens with incredibly strong psychic abilities) can only occupy dead human bodies, hence their pale skin tone and sunken eyes. Presumably this is because possessing a living human would cause them to experience human emotions, which are fatal to their species. They're not picky either; one of them has taken the body of a [[UndeadChild dead child]].
* ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'': At the climax of the film, Doctor Strange [[GrandTheftMe dreamwalks]] into a dead AlternateSelf that was buried in his universe so he can battle the BigBad from across the Multiverse. Doing this is a violation of the natural order and causes the souls of the damned to attack him, so he wrangles them and fashions them into a living cape.

* ''Film/HellraiserBloodline'': Two Cenobite cultists in eighteenth century France kill a young prostitute so they can use her dead body as a host for a demon princess who then adopts the girl's name (Angelique). Note that most Cenobites don't actually require host bodies, but are rather [[DemonOfHumanOrigin humans whose souls were corrupted in Hell]].

* ''Film/MenInBlack'': Shortly after landing on Earth, the villain--an alien which is essentially an intelligent giant cockroach--kills the farmer Edgar and proceeds to wear Edgar's hollowed-out skin as a disguise. The resulting impression--a sick-looking man who moves clumsily and turns increasingly rotten as the plot advances--very much resembles a walking corpse.

* ''Film/{{Night of the Living Dead|1968}} 30th Anniversary Edition'': At the end, the unhinged [[SinisterMinister Reverend Hicks]] declares to a reporter that the zombies are human corpses possessed by demons from hell. This is clearly supposed to be a crazed rant however, and is never proven one way or the other.

* A variant occurs in ''Film/TalesOfTerror'' where M. Valdemar's soul is trapped in his own dead body. Carmichael's mesmerism captures soul Valdemar's soul at the moment of death. Hid body is dead and slowly putrefying, but his soul still resides within it, but is unable to cause it to act in any way. Eventually, Valdemar is able to summon up enough rage to be able to control the body long enough to kill Carmichael.

* The first ''The Adept'' novel, by Creator/KatherineKurtz and Deborah Turner Harris, features a crossover between this and AnimateDead. To recover critical knowledge held by the long-dead sorcerer Sir Michael Scot, an evil necromancer digs up Scot's corpse and summons his spirit back into the long-dead body. The Adept universe includes reincarnation, and Scot's spirit has a current incarnation. The effects of the summoning on that current incarnation is... not good.
* ''Literature/AvatarTheophileGautier'': [[spoiler:The story ends with Balthazar Cherbonneau reversing the mind switch between the two men he'd conducted at the beginning of the story. The wannabe lover makes no effort to return to his body, leaving the doctor with a corpse. Suddenly he gets a brilliant idea, with the news that Balthazar died [[BodySurf but left all his belongings to a young man]]]].

* In ''Literature/CarpeDemonAdventuresOfADemonHuntingSoccerMom'' demons constantly wander Earth in spirit form, and can only take physical form by entering the body of someone who has ''just'' died; the window is pretty short. Ever heard stories about someone who survived a horrible car wreck without a scratch, or had a heart attack and then got right back up? Well, now you know how.
* ''Literature/WorldOfTheFiveGods'': Appears a couple of times.
** Discussed in ''The Curse of Chalion''. Several characters say that a body slain by death magic must be burned before nightfall to prevent ghosts from possessing it; one describes such a possession, seen many years ago.
--->I saw a case once, when I was a young divine. The degraded spirits are shambling stupid things, but it’s so very awkward to get them out again once they take possession. They must be burned...well, ''alive'' is not quite the right term. Very ugly scene, especially if the relatives don’t understand, because, of course, being your body, it screams in your voice...
** In the sequel ''Paladin of Souls'', Royina Ista's magic Sight shows her that after being killed by a knife-thrust and then held to life by a demon's magic, [[spoiler: Lord Arhys]] is essentially possessing ''his own'' dead body.

* ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles'' by Creator/CharlesStross features zombies (or [[NotUsingTheZWord Residual Human Resources]]) in a mixture of the voodoo and artificial, since sufficiently advanced science ''is'' magic.

** If the spirit animating the corpse ''isn't'' bound by spells or {{geas}}es, that's when zombie apocalypses happen. Instead of infecting others with their bite, the demon — a being of electricity — tries to take over the nervous system of its victim in order to devour their soul, and skin is conductive. The living, active soul of a living being is stated to be much "tastier" than the dead informational echoes in a long-dead body.

* ''Literature/MonsterHunterInternational''
** In ''Vendetta'', [[spoiler:[[{{Necromancer}} Marvin Hood]] talks through a recently-turned zombie to taunt the heroes after he used said zombie to [[ZombieInfectee bite Owen]], giving them his terms and setting up the final battle of the book.]]
** In ''Siege'', [[spoiler:[[BigBad Asag]] has in fact been wearing the corpse of the dead Hunter Lococo for the entire time Owen has been with him in the Nightmare Realm, the latter completely unaware of this until he talks with the other surviving Hunters who tell him Lococo pulled a HeroicSacrifice. Asag did this because wanted to speak with and get to know Owen on a more personal level.]]
* In the ''Literature/OldKingdom'', less powerful Dead such as [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Hands]] are created by a Dead spirit possessing and reanimating a corpse — any corpse will do, so long as it's mostly intact, though it's implied there's a stronger connection to the spirit's original body. More powerful Dead entities ''can'' do this too, but are just as likely to use artificially created construct bodies or even exist as raw spirit with no body at all.
* ''Literature/TheSpaceTrilogy'': In ''That Hideous Strength'', the amoral scientists of the N.I.C.E. communicate with higher-dimensional lifeforms by specially preparing severed human heads for the "macrobes" (as the scientists call them) to possess and speak with. What the N.I.C.E. is too blind to realize is that these macrobes are literally demons from Hell.

* In the ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'' episode "Dance of the Mayflies", the ''Andromeda'' crew discover a plague that reanimates the corpses of the people it kills as zombies. [[spoiler:It's able to possess Trance immediately, leading Dylan to question whether she was really alive to begin with, ({{foreshadowing}} the later development that Trance is just the avatar of a sun).]]

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E3TheUnquietDead "The Unquiet Dead"]] has recently deceased corpses being inhabited by the Gelth, gaseous aliens who have lost their corporal forms. It gives the impression of ghosts possessing corpses to rise as zombies. While the Gelth initially feign victimhood to invoke sympathy in the Doctor, they're later revealed to be malicious, as they desire all living humans to be dead so they can inhabit their bodies too.
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E16TheWatersOfMars The Waters of Mars]]": {{Downplayed}} with [[Characters/DoctorWhoAliensAndMonsters the Flood]] in that the hosts' bodies are still alive but have a decreased heartbeat and "haywire" electrical activity in the brain. It seems that when the Flood takes over a host, it effectively kills or consumes their original mind and personality entirely, leaving only the virus' HiveMind puppeteering their shell.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E8TheWitchfinders "The Witchfinders"]]: The Doctor, Yaz and Willa discover that alien mud is possessing dead bodies, including that of Willa's recently deceased grandmother. [[spoiler:The mud is from the Morax, aliens imprisoned under Pendle Hill for a long time who were recently freed. And they're not just limited to the dead, either.]]
* ''Series/KolchakTheNightStalker''. In the episode "Demon in Lace", a succubus can possess the bodies of recently dead women. It lures men into romantic situations and then changes the body to a horrifying appearance, scaring the man to death.

** The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E14WolfInTheFold Wolf in the Fold]]". A non-corporeal alien being is capable of possessing the bodies of living human beings. During the episode, Captain Kirk hits the body it's possessing and kills it. The being flees the dead body. Later on, with no other options, the being possesses the dead body again and makes it walk around.
** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E13SubRosa Sub Rosa]]", the disembodied spirit that has been altering Beverly's mental state to try and get her to sleep with him decides to jump into Bev's dead grandmother's body and use it to try and attack the crew stopping him.

* ''TabletopGame/ArsMagica''

** One "vampire" variety is actually a dark faerie spirit that animates a human corpse and takes on some elements of its identity. They run the gamut from merciless predators to {{Non Malicious Monster}}s who keep showing up at their old house to do the chores.
* ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'', ''Magazine/WhiteDwarf'' magazine #87 article "With a Pinch of Salt". One method of creating a zombie is to summon and bond a Franchise/CthulhuMythos monster to enter and possess a corpse. Normally only a monster that isn't tied to a physical body can be used, such as a gaseous Fire Vampire or a ghost.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''
** Spiritus anime are low-level incorporeal undead, who died with a grudge and now hatefully attack the living. They can animate a corpse as a zombie to "ride" in, and frequently hop from one corpse to another in combat - the catch is that they can't animate, or move too far away from, their original corpse, which acts as their SoulJar. If they want to move to better hunting grounds, or stash their original corpse in a secure position, they typically animate another corpse to haul the first around.

** Module Q1 ''Queen of the Demonweb Pits''. When a ''raise dead'' or ''resurrection'' spell is cast on a dead body, the body will be brought back to life and the dead person's soul will re-inhabit it. If this is tried on one of Lolth's realms in the Abyss, there's a chance that the soul of a dead ChaoticEvil person will possess the body instead.

** Judges Guild adventure ''Dark Tower''. If any humanoid creature is killed in either the Upper or Lower Temple of Set, there is a chance that the LawfulEvil god Set will possess the dead body and polymorph it into a 7 foot tall muscular, scaly body with a jackal's head. He will use it to attack all living things in the Temple area, including his own worshippers.
** ''Magazine/WhiteDwarf'' magazine issue #56, article "The Fiend Factory". The mind shadow is a fiendish creature that can possess and control a corpse, including having it attack other creatures. If the corpse is reduced to zero HitPoints or is turned by a cleric, the mind shadow is forced out of the body. Otherwise, the mind shadow can maintain possession indefinitely.
** In the AD&D 2E module ''Return to the TabletopGame/TombOfHorrors'', the [[UndeadAbomination demilich]] Acererak can transfer his mind into any undead creature in his lair with NoSavingThrow. The GoldenEnding requires the player characters to find and destroy them all before confronting his original body and SoulJar so he can't [[VillainExitStageLeft escape]].
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' Shedim are spirits from a distant metaplane who attach themselves to corpses, or the bodies of astrally projecting mages sometimes.

* ''VideoGame/BeyondTwoSouls'': In "The Condenser" chapter, the spiritual entities who escaped from the Infraworld reanimate an entire hallway of human corpses to menace Jodie.

* ''VideoGame/DevilSummoner'': Kyouji Kuzunoha and... [[FreakyFridayFlip "Kyouji Kuzunoha"]] are heroic examples. The [[HelloInsertNameHere unnamed hero]] and the real Kyouji Kuzunoha are almost killed early on; the hero dies and comes back in Kyouji's body, leaving Kyouji to BodySurf his way back. In the ''VideoGame/Persona2'' duology, Detective Todoroki's sudden surge in competence is implied to be because he's actually Kyouji Kuzunoha.

* ''Videogame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'': In one quest, cultists of the [[JerkassGods Deadric Prince]] Boethiah will command you to [[IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten perform a human sacrifice to their master to show you are worthy of serving them]]. If you do so, the victim's corpse will be possessed by Boethiah, who will comment on how distasteful they find using mortal flesh as a vessel, then order the cultists to murder one another [[SocialDarwinist with the last one standing becoming Boethiah's champion]].
* ''Videogame/FateGrandOrder:'' This is a massive spoiler regarding the true nature of [[spoiler:the BigBad, "Solomon" - who is [[Literature/TheBible King Solomon]]'s dead body, possessed by the ''real'' BigBad, Goetia]]. The possession grants him a good portion of [[spoiler:Solomon]]'s powers, in addition to almost all of his {{Magic Ring}}s. He also takes over his body's identity for a good part of the story, making our protagonist group fear the identity of said body.

** In the Dark Knight questline, [[spoiler:it's revealed that your mentor Fray was DeadAllAlong. The Fray the Warrior of Light first met was a fresh corpse. Fray's dark knight soul crystal drew the Warrior's inner darkness into the body which then animated it, creating the Fray who begins your training in the art of the abyss. It's not wholly clear how often this is going on and how often the Warrior of Light [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness is simply seeing Fray doing and saying things]] that in reality ''they'' are doing and saying, though.]]
* [[spoiler:Yomiel]] of ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'' is a ghost who is able to animate his own corpse. [[spoiler:This is thanks to a [[GreenRocks radioactive meteor]], a fragment of which is lodged in his body and keeps his corpse perpetually on the edge between life and death, making him virtually indestructible (much like Franchise/TheCrow). By the end of the story, the main character is like this.]]
* ''Videogame/GrimDawn:'' The lowest tier of Aetherial enemies are dead bodies that got picked up by aetherial spirits. They're not true undead, but they act very much like zombies due to the uneven control the spirit has. Living bodies can be mutated much further, so they tend to be stronger, but they still do have many uses for the dead.
* ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'': Zato-One has a LivingShadow named Eddie, who is its own entity. When Zato died, Eddie reanimates his corpse; his name in the selection screen becomes "Eddie" in some games rather than "Zato-One".
** Spinoff title ''Guilty Gear Judgment'' sees the game's main villain, Raymond, bait the player into fighting Underworld God Inus, only for Raymond to possess Inus's corpse and be reborn as the titular "Judgment". If Eddie is the one to defeat Judgment, the LivingShadow outright ''mocks'' Raymond's decision.

* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}''
** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes'': At the start of the game, a group of Ing possess dead Galactic Federation soldiers and use them to attack Samus. Unlike the powerful "Darklings" seen in most of the game (created when an Ing possesses a living creature), the soldiers' movements are stiff and zombie-like.
** ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'': The X parasites don't need to possess living organisms, and can infect corpses just as easily, as shown with the BSL scientists.

* ''VideoGame/WarcraftII'': Death knights (the orcs' mage unit) were made by forcing the spirits of Gul'dan's warlocks into the corpses of human knights. In III, the original death knights were remade into liches (ranged SquishyWizard), while the new death knights (evil version of ThePaladin) are the reanimated bodies of human nobles under the Lich King's thrall.

* In ''WebAnimation/CharlieTheUnicorn'' The true nature of [[spoiler:Blue and Pink]] are revealed.

* In ''WebAnimation/{{Glitchtale}}'' [[spoiler:[[GreaterScopeVillain HATE]] pulls this on Bete Noir as a VillainOverride.]]

'''Church:''' Oh I see, so that way I would be living inside of my own dead body.\\

* Derik in ''Webcomic/IngressAdventuringCompany'' harvested multiple villagers to create a whole new body to possess. Whose soul is possessing the body is yet to be seen.
* ''Webcomic/ParanormalMysterySquad'': In volume 2, the villain, a evil succubus spirit, possesses the body of a recently deceased woman and takes it a her own. Supplementary material reveal that said body was the servant of a another villain from companion series, ''Webcomic/VampireCheerleaders''. After the villain was killed, the villain's sister killed the servant in response out of anger.

* ''WesternAnimation/FinalSpace'' has Invictus, who [[spoiler:possesses every dead Gary from countless timelines when they end up in [[EldritchLocation Final Space]], as uses them as part of it's army. When one of these Garys is freed from Invictus' control, it's revealed that it revives the corpses and restores their minds and personailties, and ''then'' it possesses them, [[ForTheEvulz just because it can]].]]
* In season three of ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse2021'', [[spoiler:Skeletor, killed in season two, is able to come back to life through a ritual using the skeletal remains of King Grayskull himself to create a new physical body.]]
* [[spoiler:Belos]] from ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', who finds himself in a body that's rapidly falling apart after [[spoiler:possessing Hunter]] didn't work out, [[spoiler:enters his Grimwalker laboratory and possesses a dead Grimwalker that was left behind in the ground. However, considering that possessing a ''living'' Grimwalker was already almost too much for that Grimwalker's body to handle, possessing a dead one results in its body ''immediately'' liquefying and falling apart. Despite this, Belos got enough of an energy boost from consuming the Grimwalker's corpse to climb up to the Archives and possess Puppet Raine's body instead.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' has the GrandFinale Movie start off with [[GodOfEvil Unicron]] telling a deceased [[BigBad Megatron]]'s [[OurSoulsAreDifferent spark]] that --thanks to doping himself on [[MadeOfEvil his blood]] while he was alive-- he's BarredFromTheAfterlife and will live again... ''to serve him''. He takes control of Megatron's corpse, resurrects it, [[EleventhHourSuperpower upgrades it]], and inhabits it while Megatron's spark is along for the ride as little more than a prisoner, unable to control his body's own actions. [[spoiler:The movie ends with Unicron being extracted from Megatron's body and banished, leaving Megatron alive and in control of in his restored and upgraded body, whereupon he promptly disbands his faction and [[TheExile exiles]] himself, having undergone a HeelRealization while under Unicron's possession. It is unknown if Unicron's banishment has changed his BarredFromTheAfterlife status.]]