Some characters have the ability to take different forms at will; in a similar vein, some villains take dramatic forms in the climax, especially reptilian forms.
This is not about those characters.
This is about characters who aren't shapeshifters and may not have any supernatural powers at all; they may even be characters in a story with little or no supernatural elements whatsoever. However, the character is most commonly a villain, or at the very least an unpleasant person in general. At some point, they are briefly shown turning into something scary to illustrate how unpleasant they are. It may simply be a scarier-looking version of themselves, it may be an animal that represents their predatory personality, or it may even be an outright monster.
These transformations typically happen during a fantasy sequence, such as an Imagine Spot, Nightmare Sequence, Disney Acid Sequence, Villain Song, or "The Villain Sucks" Song.
The transformation usually only lasts for a few seconds, and it typically serves no purpose other than showing the audience how rotten the character is, so don't expect it to be used for fighting or other practical uses.
A subtrope of Metaphoric Metamorphosis.
Compare Evil Makes You Monstrous, when an evildoer's villainy causes them to literally transform, and Background Body Part, when background objects make a character look like something different. (A common variation is using horns to make them look like a devil.)
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Assassination Classroom:
- Karma is known for being a terrifying Sociopathic Hero and Bully Hunter with a liking for violence. He's occasionally portrayed as having Hellish Pupils when he's angry and characters frequently imagine him having demon horns or a tail.
- Played with. Nagisa is actually a pretty decent guy but can be quite terrifying due to his talent for assassination and bloodlust. Often when characters sense his Killing Intent or become afraid of him, he's seen as a snake or reptilian monster.
- The Elusive Samurai: Many "Nanboku-chō Tag" scenes depict Tokiyuki's opponent as a grotesque, inhuman demon representing their specialty for a single page. This ranges anywhere from Tokiyuki's uncle drawn as a gambling oni to the Kokushi of Shinano becoming a giant, flaming skeleton grafted to a war machine.
- Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro: Several culprits who are caught and exposed are drawn with monstrous, exaggerated human features as they explain their motives. Only a few of them turn out to be actual monsters while the rest of them are just normal humans who have gone off the deep end.
- In My Little Goat, Natsuki's father turns into a wolf from the goat kids' POV as he molests him, symbolizing how he's a predator like the wolf that ate the kids before their mother rescued them (except for Toroku, who was fully digested when she cut open its stomach).
- The Violence Jack manga features a very disturbing variation of this, when the evil men of sector B attack and rape the women of sector C, they metaphorically become wolves and hyenas.
Films — Animation
- All Dogs Go to Heaven: As Carface plots to kill Charlie a second time, his ears curl up into horns and he grows a curly moustache, the scene's lighting suddenly turning red to make him resemble a Big Red Devil.
- Animal Farm ends with a conference of pig delegates from other farms across the country, which a work-fatigued Benjamin decides to spy on; halfway through, Benjamin is so exhausted that he briefly hallucinates that Napoleon and his cronies are transforming into doubles of the tyrannical Farmer Jones — as with the original novel, a sign that the pigs have become indistinguishable from their former oppressors.
- Asterix and Cleopatra: During the "Arsenic Cake Song", while singing the line "to watch a sacred crocodile," Artifis and Krukhut turn into crocodiles for a few frames. This is not only a reference to the crocodile they're singing about, but also a reference to their wicked and murderous intentions.
- Cats Don't Dance: During the Dark Reprise of "Big and Loud," at one point Darla imagines herself as a giant monster bursting out of the ground and towering over Danny and Sawyer.
- Gay Purr-ee: During Meowrice's Villain Song "The Money Cat", his ears curl upwards to resemble a devil's horns. To top the allusion off, he sings on some rooftops as smoke rises while sitting on a damaged chimney resembling a throne.
- Heidi's Song: The Villain Song "She's a Nothing" is a Disney Acid Sequence where Rottenheimer, Sebastian, and Schnoodle take on various monstrous forms to show how cruel they are as they mock Heidi. Rottenheimer's monster form resembles a Wicked Witch, Sebastian's resembles a Big Red Devil, and Schnoodle becomes a snake/dragonlike thing, and later a giant green version of himself.
- The Little Mermaid: When King Triton is destroying Ariel's grotto in a fit of blind rage, the lighting of the scene makes him look like a shadowy, black devil, with his crown serving as the "horns" and his trident as the "pitchfork".
- The Loud House Movie: At one point in her Villain Song, Morag suddenly gains sharp teeth. The camera zooms out to show that she is giant compared to the Louds, and as she scares them away, she fades to black so that her whole body is in shadow except for her eyes and teeth.
- Pinocchio: In one infamous scene, as the Coachman says that boys who go to Pleasure Island never come back "...as BOYS", he pulls off a Slasher Smile while his face turns red and his hair curls up at the corners to resemble devil horns.
- Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory: During Slugworth's song "I Want it Now," there is an Art Shift that makes the characters look like wall paintings. Slugworth is shown transforming into various scary things, such as a factory building with his head on top of it, a snake, rat, and a cockroach. This is meant to hammer in the idea that he's scary and sinister, even though he turns out to be Good All Along.
Films — Live-Action
- Friend of the World: Diane hallucinates as a side effect to an antidote. She confronts Gore, whose face becomes monstrous. It is later revealed the kind of monster he actually is.
- Downplayed in From Hell: late in the film, Jack the Ripper is unmasked as Sir William Gull during a confrontation with Abberline; in the middle of this conversation, Jack closes his eyes in frustration, and when he opens them again, his eyes have turned pitch-black — despite Jack being an ordinary human being and the film having no overt supernatural elements apart from Abberline's "divinations".
- Played with in The Lighthouse: as tensions between the two lighthouse keepers continue to rise, Ephraim Winslow begins to occasionally perceive his enigmatic Mean Boss Thomas Wake as a monster. Among other things, Wake appears to sport tentacles during one of his private rituals before the lantern; in a nightmare, he is seen with Glowing Eyes of Doom; lastly, during the final argument, Wake seemingly shapeshifts into one of Winslow's old friends, then the mermaid, before becoming a Proteus-like godly version of himself and trying to throttle Winslow with his tentacles. It's left deliberately ambiguous as to whether any of this is actually happening, or if Winslow is just hallucinating.
- In The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo Baggins is normally a genial old hobbit, and even his many decades of subtle corruption by the One Ring seems to be little more than a blip on the radar by the time he turns up at Rivendell. However, while the Fellowship is preparing to leave Rivendell, he happens to catch sight of the Ring on Frodo — and suddenly lunges wildly at him, sporting sharp teeth and enormous, frenzied-looking eyes. Bilbo demonstrates no shapeshifting at any other point in the story, so this is just an indication that the Ring still has its hooks in him and could one day drag him down to the same level as Gollum.
- In Nixon, during a discussion between the eponymous president and CIA director Helms concerning evil, Helms' eyes appear to turn pitch-black. Given that the rest of the film is largely a grounded story of Richard Nixon's presidency, the transformation is distinctly out of place — and actually resulted in the scene being deleted following a complaint from Helms' estate.
- During the animated Tales of the Black Freighter chapters of Watchmen, the shipwrecked captain appears to physically degenerate as the horror of his efforts to save his homeland weigh upon him, at one point even manifesting Black Eyes of Evil and a grin full of shark teeth. However, though there is a supernatural element of the Black Freighter comic, it's clear that this is intended to be a strictly symbolic transformation given that he appears fully human when he arrives home.
Live-Action TV
- In the Farscape episode "Die Me Dichotomy," Crichton finds himself losing control of his body as Harvey progressively hijacks his brain. In the process, Crichton appears to shapeshift into Harvey, though Cutting Back to Reality demonstrates that the transformation takes place entirely in his mind; from then on, it becomes common for Crichton to assume the coolant suit and half-Scarran appearance whenever Harvey takes control.
- Hannibal:
- The episode "Coquilles" features a Serial-Killer Killer known as the Angelmaker suffering from a brain tumour that causes him to hallucinate his future victims Wreathed in Flames; given that most of his victims are murderers and psychopaths, this results in some concern for the audience when he appears to see Will Graham the same way in the climax...
- In the first-season finale, Will Graham finally realizes that Hannibal Lecter is the Serial Killer he's been hunting, and briefly perceives him as a Wendigo — a Humanoid Abomination with tarry black skin, Black Eyes of Evil, and a gigantic set of antlers. In the season that follows, it's not uncommon for Will to perceive Hannibal this way when under stress, most notably when Hannibal testifies against Will in court.
- In the season two episode "Mukozuke", Will takes a dark turn when he exploits Matthew Brown's infatuation with him by sending him after Hannibal as a hitman. Soon after, Will briefly appears to begin sprouting antlers from his body in a nightmarish mimicry of the Wendigo, a sign of his moral decline.
- Throughout season 3, Francis Dolarhyde frequently manifests draconic traits in his fantasy sequences as he grows more devoted to his career as the Great Red Dragon — to the point that, during the final battle, he sports a gigantic set of dragon wings (purely ornamental).
Web Comics
- During the showdown
between Dellyn Goblinslayer and Thaco in Goblins, Dellyn begins hammering on his opponent's Trauma Button by reminding him of the time he was tortured; in the next panel, Thaco perceives the already unearthly-looking Dellyn with surreally distorted features, bloodshot eyes, and gigantic teeth.
- Unsounded: In a Flashback, the State Sec squad who tortured and killed Matty's mother are drawn as grotesque humanoid monsters with no heads, extra mouths, and rotting, toothy skin.
Western Animation
- Classic Disney Shorts:
- On some occasions, Donald Duck will briefly gain sharp teeth if he's especially angry or malicious.
- In "How to Play Football", the narrator says that a coach can become a "saint" or a "devil" at any given moment, and the coach Goofy morphs into such figures as he does.
- In "No Hunting", when Donald gets the urge to go out hunting, he lets out a Mighty Roar while his beak becomes a tiger's jowls.
- In "The Story Of Anyburg USA", as the persecuting lawyer declares that the automobile must be found guilty, he morphs into the Devil.
- House of Mouse: In the short "Donald's Rocket Ruckus", when Donald's nephews finally get past their uncle and go on the Rocket Ruckus ride, Donald gets back at them by turning up the speed as they ride. As he laughs at their misery, be becomes a red, ducky devil.
- The Simpsons:
- In "Black Widower", when Selma and Sideshow Bob get married, Bart imagines Bob as The Grim Reaper just as he says "I do".
- In "Brother from the Same Planet", Homer remembers to pick up Bart from soccer practice after forgetting to for several hours, and Bart is so mad that he briefly imagines him burning in Hell as a melting zombie.
- In "Bart Sells His Soul", Bart comes onto Ralph to demand his "soul". When Chief Wiggum shines a flashlight on him, Bart hisses and his pupils briefly become slitted.
- Tex Avery MGM Cartoons: In Wags to Riches, when Spike gets the idea to kill Droopy to gain his inheritance, he briefly turns into a skunk.
