While the be-perfect (BEP) is found in a number of (particularly European) languages, in English it has almost exclusively been considered from a diachronic perspective, and is commonly seen as a dying structure in present-day varieties. In contrast, previous acceptability and corpus studies have indicated that the BEP persists as a formal variant. Against the backdrop of this apparently conflicting evidence, in this paper I take a closer look at this “zombie” structure. With the help of data from the International Corpus of English (ICE) and the Corpus of Global Web-based English (GloWbE), I aim at updating and sharpening the synchronic perspective on the BEP. In particular, I (re-)address whether the BEP has really “died” or rather still represents a productive pattern in present-day varieties of English. In this connection, lexical restrictions are considered as important indicators, and the role of different factors favoring the BEP as well as its potential status as a vernacular universal are discussed.