Do they really scream when they come across a dead body?

Question

In most movies(primarily horror genre) when one of the female characters encounter a corpse, in varying stages of mutilation, they scream in horror. Now if the dead body is animated thats kind of a good reason, but if its your standard dead person whats the big deal? They can't harm you. Do people really scream when they unexpectedly come across a dead person?

Answer 1

Rather, the (usually young and pretty) woman screams because that's what the director wants the audience to do . . . think laugh track on Gilligan's Island. I think most folks who stumbled upon a dead body would think, "WTF?" Then call the pollice. That's how it goes in the news stories when this really happens.

Answer 2

I think originally screaming was a plot device used to instill fear in people watching the movie. After all, if you saw a dead body and just whistled Dixie, no one in the theater would care at all.



I think that the underlying reaction of screaming (to answer your question) is to let off stress. You see this corpse in front of you, and you are tense, not knowing what is going on. Screaming releases your tenseness by expelling air from your longs, and gets you breathing again. The faster you breathe, the more your blood flows, and your instincts increase. It gets the body ready for a ’fight or flight’ activity decision.

So in a sense, screaming makes sense, since it girds the body to be able to better deal with additional threats.



But this is only for a surprise discovery of a body, like in the woods.



If you go into a hospital, you see people dying all the time. No screaming there. Why? Because in a hospital, death comes as no surprise - it is expected. So .. no surprise, no screams...

Answer 3

Wouldn't be a very effective horror movie if the female lead would just stand there and gasp for air when she encounters the mutilated corpse...



What happens in movies is fake. The most adrenalin pumping scenario would be if she screams her head off... the silent types don't have the right effect on the audience... so they write the scene and make her scream.



That has nothing to do with real life.... most people that come across a corpse tend to get the shock of their life and want to get away as fast and far as possible.... especially if the corpse is already in an advanced stage of decomposition. (not a pretty sight or smell).

Answer 4

when someone comes across an actual dead body there is some form of reaction.... some may scream, some may turn and run and some may even stand and stare. Given the fact that I've never encountered a corpse when and where I wasn't expecting to find one I'm not sure how I would react.

Answer 5

As for me, I THOUGHT I saw a dead body in the middle of the street (bad vison lol) I was ready to throw up and get mentally scarred. Since I've never ever seen a dead body in the streets at night.



For me, life and death are very personal things... and you just see a person, lying there dead. Their life has ended, they will soon rot. I don't know how to explain it...



Maybe if they're bloodied up I would scream (got KILLED! D:) or they would look twisted... yes, I'd scream. Means someone did something to them that brought them their deaths in such a horrible way.



But if the person is not deformed then it's all good. >.<



EDIT: You have a good point, though.

Answer 6

You won't know until you experience it.

Every person reacts differently to different situations.

Answer 7

Can't you tell cheap actors from reality?