In 2024, David Cronenberg’s sci-fi horror film The Shrouds was released. It centers around GraveTech, a company developing a machine to communicate with the dead. While wanting to speak to the deceased is common horror fodder, The Shrouds brings that idea into the 21st century.
You see, GraveTech’s devices wrap the departed in an enveloping cloak that is basically one big camera/MRI/CT scan. Each headstone in the company’s proprietary, nondenominational, cemetery has a screen that their loved ones can activate from an app. To see a live feed of their body as it decays. Kooky idea, right?
What if we told you that a shock website, SeeMeRot, beat Cronenberg to the idea by over 20 years? Or that writer and performance artist Bob Flanagan pitched the idea in 1997? Or that all of these are gussied-up versions of 18th-century safety coffins? Albeit far more low-tech than Cronenberg’s work.
SeeMeRot
In 2003, a bizarre website called SeeMeRot was launched, and didn’t live up to its name. The website claims that 2 months prior, the company had attached the world’s first live webcam…to the inside of a coffin. And the right side of the page provides 2 “live” camera feeds of the corpse’s head and feet, supposedly updated monthly. These black and white feeds are blurry and grainy, even for the webcams on the market at the time.
It goes on to claim that the deceased’s family knew about and consented to the webcam and live feed. The coffin was allegedly lowered at an undisclosed location on April 15th, 2003. However, the first screen capture on The Wayback Machine is dated August 11th, 2003, complete with the images from the live feeds…
“We anticipate a final transmission on or around July 2004, due to decomposition of the casket and ultimate ‘cave-in’ of the staging area. Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to check out the archive photos in ‘flip movie’ format every month,” SeeMeRot reads.
But the text under that is where it started to get really twisted. “Should you wish to discuss plans for your own ‘Coffin Cam’ for family and friends, please contact us for pricing details.”
Not only were visitors invited to watch a corpse rot, but they were also being sold a system for them to do it too. There is even a link at the bottom for “Pricing Information,” which is attached to a now-defunct email.
Upgrades
By the next archive in November 2003, the “Live Coffin Cams” had installed a new device. This replaces the 2 feeds with one color feed of the person’s head. Despite it looking like it’s constantly refocusing, this new “live feed” is just a looped GIF that mimics coming in and out of focus (seen above).
Probably why the text about the project ending in 2004 is altered to read, “We will be able to view the new cam for many years, several modifications have been made to this latest cam and the casket itself – Whilst it is still buried ‘six feet under’, the staging area of this unit suits our technical requirements far better.”
Even early internet users called shenanigans on SeeMeRot almost immediately. Those who didn’t notice the inconsistencies couldn’t help but notice that the corpse never seemed to rot. Even by the last screen capture in February 2013, the body still looks the same as it did in August 2003. Mainly because GIFs, unlike people, don’t rot.
There is no telling if anyone tried to purchase one of these SeeMeRot camera systems. But the text at the top of the site for much of its life spanned vaguely cited legal issues that it never elaborated on. That eventually changed to their equipment being stuck in Cebu Province, despite claiming the website is based in Seattle, Washington. Our best guess is that this is to stave off potential buyers.
Why?
Then why was SeeMeRot launched, if not to scam people on fake corpse cams?
Well, SeeMeRot has a lot of ads, even for the early 2000s; all of them are related to adult content. (Warning to anyone wanting to check it out, most of these ads are NSFW.) It’s believed that this company mainly hosted adult websites and was using this controversial gimmick to draw more traffic.
Bob Flanagan
The 1997 documentary Sick: The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist, tells the story of a writer and performance artist. He also made it to the age of 43 with cystic fibrosis, a feat that was thought to be almost impossible at the time. As the title suggests, he uses sadomasochism to manage the pain from his illness with his wife, Sheree Rose.
Since he passed away in 1996, the documentary was released posthumously. It comprises footage shot over the last 2 years of his life by director Kirby Dick. Mixed in with archival footage shot by him, Rose, and his family. Towards the end of the documentary (another VERY NSFW warning for anyone curious), Flanagan pitches the idea for a piece called “The Viewing.”
He would be buried with a camera and would sell a monitor that would cast that footage via satellite. Even joking, it’s a great way to make money while you’re still alive. This final performance never came to fruition, but his death was documented in images taken by Rose.
Safety Coffins
And all of these concepts are modernized versions of a much, much older idea, safety coffins. Ever since humanity decided to start burning its dead, there has been this pesky fear of getting it wrong. The result is Taphophobia, a fear of being buried alive due to being incorrectly pronounced dead. Queue horror writers and directors drawing from that well for centuries.
Before more modern embalming practices ensured that the dead were, in fact, dead, this was a terrifyingly real possibility. So in the 18th century, there was a craze for coffins that had failsafes in case this were to happen. There were countless patents filed, most revolving around 2 ideas. The 1st is some kind of tube that would run from inside the coffin to out of the ground. This would allow for some fresh air and for the trapped to call for help.
The 2nd is some kind of bell or flag above ground that is attached to the body in some way. Any movement would cause it to ring/wave and alert people above ground. The issue is that decaying bodies move around, and this would trigger false alarms.
Did They Work?
“None of the coffin inventors who applied for patents were in the funeral business,” explains Bob Boetticher Sr., chairman of the National Museum of Funeral History and lead funeral director for the state funerals of four U.S. presidents. “There’s no proven history that any of these devices were ever used or ever saved somebody who was buried alive.” (For a much more comprehensive look at this topic, please see his article “Buried Alive”).
Once telephones started coming into the fold, those paranoid about this kind of thing began to try to implement them as a possible solution. From there, it became a fixation with cameras to broadcast the dead, as both a safety feature and…a way for loved ones to mourn.
An idea that Cronenberg fully realizes with The Shrouds by allowing people to cope by seeing their loved ones decay in stunning high definition. Allowing the wealthy to kiss the idea of Taphophobia goodbye.
