10 Tales of Terrible Transformation You Might Have Missed
Ted Hentschke
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We’ve all had our fair share of monster fantasies. Whether it’s a vampire sex thing or a Hulk smash cathartic rampage, being a monster would be awesome. As long as there aren’t any of those consequences associated with becoming a creature of nightmares. Being a werewolf is great when you have some exes who need convenient animal attack murders, but actually having to lock yourself in your basement every full moon would be a chore.
There are a ton of famous transformation horror flicks, including classics like The Fly, The Thing, and An American Werewolf in London. But I like giving some love to the little guy. So in light of the recent DVD release of The Fiancé, I wanted to take a look at some of the lesser known flicks where average joes and janes become bloodthirsty monsters.
Directed by Mark Allen Michaels and starring Carrie Keagan, Dallas Valdez, and Douglas Tait (check out his Brainwaves interview here), The Fiancé tells the story of a couple whose idyllic cabin retreat is interrupted by a Bigfoot problem. Soon the bride-to-be starts becoming less than an ideal match.
Some rules right off the bat: First, there are no big names on this list! Cult classics are fine, but I want these to be films you actually might have missed. Everyone knows that The Thing is awesome. Second, there is only ONE film of each monster type. That means one vampire, one zombie, etc. So a few neat flicks got left on the cutting room floor, but rules are rules.
Now, with that out of the way, here are my 10 Tales of Terrible Transformation You Might Have Missed:
10) Bite (2015):
You can pretty confidently describe Bite as “The Fly but way grosser.” Which is great because that’s what it’s going for. I’m not really a fan of body horror, but even I took some delightful glee in all the puss and slime that Bite threw into my eyeballs. If you’re the kind of person who likes to see just how much gross you can take, then check it out.
9) Starry Eyes (2014):
Speaking of movies about young women becoming smelly grotesque monsters in their apartments! Starry Eyes would have edged Bite out if their transformations yielded similar results. Instead of turning into a bug monster, Starry Eyes’ Sarah turns into… something else entirely. This is one of those quality indie horror films rooted deep in metaphor but without a reliance on it. It’s shocking enough to satisfy but also cerebral enough to make you keep thinking about it after the credits roll.
8) Spring (2014):
This is going to be the film that hits the limits of my whole “that you might have missed” thing. Receiving near universal praise, it’s almost impossible to think that a horror nut hasn’t heard of Spring. I ended up deciding to include it for two reasons: First, as a love story, some fans looking for true horror might be turned away. Second, it’s just so damn good that I couldn’t well leave it off. Spring is an entirely different kind of transformation story. I don’t want to spoil it, but this isn’t about a person turning into a nightmare monster. It’s almost the other way around.
