10 Bad Horror Movies With AWESOME Effects
2. Michael Becomes The Beast - The Beast Within
Bladder effects were all the rage throughout '80s horror, whereby latex bladders were inserted underneath prosthetics and inflated or deflated to give the impression of pulsating flesh.
While the gold standard of bladder effects is probably An American Werewolf in London, the technique was put to impressively disgusting use in the otherwise-terrible 1982 horror The Beast Within.
The film follows a young man, Michael (Paul Clemens), who after his 17th birthday begins to transform into a horrifying creature. This culminates in a nauseatingly prolonged late-film sequence where Michael's transformation is shown in full, gnarly detail.
His skin bubbles and pulsates, his human flesh tears apart to reveal the monster underneath, and his face ends up expanding like a balloon, distorting his features in a way best only described as "pure uncut nightmare fuel."
And rather than show mere fleeting glimpses of the transformation, director Philippe Mora lingers on this horror-show for all of several minutes.
The Beast Within may be impossible to take seriously otherwise, but this magnificently conceived sequence makes it all worthwhile.