The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 4 letter word DEATH MASK
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
D
E
A
T
H
M
A
S
K
More clues leading to the result DEATH MASK
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Cast showing absence of life" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case cast showing absence of life = death mask.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.