14. Reanimate A Dead Body
One of the more seemingly outlandish entries on this list, the convention of reanimating the recently (or not-so-recently) deceased retains a curiously strong thread throughout both horror cinema and fantasy literature and television. While the horror strand tends to focus on reanimation via scientific methods (usually with a vague aim to expanding scientific knowledge or developing new medical treatments), the fantasy strand focusses on reanimation through supernatural methods usually sorcery or religious occult practices. What the reanimated beings of both horror and fantasy narratives share is an essential and horrific deviance from normal human emotions and a warping (or complete loss of) their original personality. In the Buffy The Vampire Slayer storyline where Buffy is magically brought back to life, this results in a crisis of identity and purpose; more often, though, it simply leads to murderous violence (Frankenstein, Re-Animator).