10 Movies That Shockingly Switch Protagonist

While Brian De Palma has all but faded into obscurity these last few decades (most recently helming Domino, a straight-to-video thriller that was annihilated by critics), the 1970s and '80s saw him churn out megahits like Scarface and The Untouchables, alongside smaller but still acclaimed erotic thrillers like Body Double and - the subject of this entry - Dressed to Kill.

The film follows Angie Dickinson's Kate Miller, who is bored with her home life and ready for some excitement that doesn't involve her husband rolling off her after a rigid three-minute missionary. But following a steamy encounter with a stranger, she is hacked to death in his apartment's elevator with a straight razor. The prostitute who witnesses the murder - Liz Blake (Nancy Allen) - becomes the film's focus, as she tries to find out precisely whodunnit before they get her too.

Changing the tone and genre of the film sharply, from erotic psychodrama to psychological thriller, Dressed to Kill is indubitably De Palma's homage to Psycho - one of the very first films to pull such a trick. The bait-and-switch of the female protagonists is far from where the similarities end, too.