Stiff Competition

It’s hard to keep a good man down these days, if a slew of upcoming films means anything--films with corpses as featured characters.

Consider:

Hemdale’s “Out Cold,” released last Friday, has John Lithgow as a butcher who believes he accidentally killed his partner by locking him in the meat freezer. The partner’s wife (Teri Garr) actually did it on purpose, but exploits the misperception to her own advantage. The gag: They both try to maintain the illusion that he’s alive.

Fox/Gladden’s “Heat Wave” is the story of two accountants (Andrew McCarthy, Jonathan Silverman) invited to their boss’ weekend shindig. Arriving early to confront him about some questionable bookkeeping, they find he’s already been iced by the mob. Why let a dead body spoil the fun? They find some inventive ways to make him appear the life of the party.

“National Lampoon’s Family Dies,” filming in April, features a lonely young man who literally digs up his ideal family. Surprise! They seem to come to life, providing him the kind of close-knit bliss he previously only imagined.

“Wired,” with a fantasy sequence in which the body of John Belushi (actor Michael Chiklis) rises from its drawer in the morgue, walks outside and hails a taxi on the way to several stops in his past turbulent life.

“Stiff,” now at Spectrafilm, in which a female newscaster is left in a compromising position when her U.S. senator lover has a heart attack during a tryst. Somehow she has to sneak the body back to D.C. from North Carolina. Sam Irwin is to direct, possibly this summer.

“Enid Is Sleeping,” another comedy, in which a man accidentally kills his wife and has to pretend she is not available for comment . . . at the moment. Vestron begins production in March with Maurice Phillips writing and directing.

“Cold Dog Soup,” written by Tom Pope, in which a date is interrupted by the death of a dog. Given the task of internment, the film’s hero has plenty of trouble getting the mutt’s body in the ground. Newcomers Frank Whaley and Christine Harnos star for director Alan Metter.

Then there’s the sub-genre in which dead folk’s spirits return: “She’s Back,” “Heart Condition,” “In the Spirit” and “Ghosts Don’t Do It,” all to be released in 1989.