Keith Gordon: Christine.
Jack Nicholson: The Shining.
Sissy Spacek: Carrie.
A nerd, an alcoholic husband, and a wallflower all go through dramatic changes in appearance and personality, thanks to terrific acting, (well, at least for 2 of them) and the mind of a (mostly) great writer.
Lon Chaney Jr. - The Wolf Man (1941) - Surprisingly convincing considering the available technology
Metropolis (1927) - The transformation of Maria into the robot
Young Frankenstein - “Ah, sweet mystery of life at last I found you!”
I’m surprised Kelly didn’t opt for the cyborg transformation scene in Superman III. Guess he already had another Richard Pryor movie on his list, though.
The Machine Girl: ordinary arm --> tempura arm --> gatling gun arm --> chainsaw arm
Philistines. This was both awesome fighting and transformation!
I always liked how the Thing would go out of its way to just keep endlessly transforming instead of simply attacking the guys spraying it with flamethrowers. That’s how little it thought of them.
“Oh, you guys still here? Wait, what? Blood test? Lolz. Yeah, I’m ready…”
TETSUO!!!
The transformation of the maschinenmensch into Maria or the burning of Maria and her reversion to the maschinenmensch?
“Robot” is sure a helluva lot easier to type…
I didn’t think of the reversion, but, yeah, take your pick. Actually, instead of "robot, " I was going to say “C3PO’s Mommy.”
Annie Ross’ (Vera) transformation after being sucked into the Computer’s core in Superman 3. This completely freaked me out as a kid.
There’s an Israeli movie that I saw with Russian subtitles in which a girl transforms into an elderly woman. It’s a love story in which there are two ships that people go to when they die, to be transported to the afterlife. One ship is for the young, and the other is for the old. There’s a car accident; the guy dies but the girl survives. He waits for her on the ship. She dies of old age. They meet and fall in love again. The plot has her change between behing young and being old – played by two different actresses.
Does anybody know what movie this is?*
One that totally scared the hell outta me as a 5-year-old: when the boys turned into donkeys in Pinocchio. Good lord.
Fright Night (original). Evil Ed changing from wolf to human, and totally grossing out Peter Vincent in the process.
The Thing (Carpenter): The head grows insect legs and stands up. The one guy looks at it, and with perfect delivery, says “You have got to be fucking kidding me.”
Vamp: Grace Jones just ruins that frat boy’s evening. See also Fright Night Original where Amy grows the giant mouth full of fangs and pounces at Charlie.
Hmm, that reminds me. Thulsa Doom changing into a snake was very, very well done for the time. The anaconda wearing the headdress was perfect. For that matter, the snake-to-arrow wasn’t bad, either.
How about Stallone flipping the switch between harmless vagrant and iconic harbinger of destruction in First Blood? That shit was awesome.