20 Most Perfect Scenes In Cinema History

John Landis’ odd little follow-up to The Blues Brothers famously can’t seem to make up its mind whether it’s a supernatural comedy or a grisly horror. However, the most celebrated scene is the transformation scene that occurs around two thirds of the way through… and it’s all horror.

A combination of prosthetics, make-up and animatronic parts, the moment was one of several in the film originally conceived by Landis and Rick Baker to showcase a kind of state-of-the-art special effect that had never been seen in cinema before.

David Naughton endured six ten-day sessions in the make-up chair, and Landis and editor Malcolm Campbell seamlessly compiled the footage into two minutes of flawless lunacy. Baker’s elaborate practical work was a revelation, and would win him the first ever Academy Award for Best Make-Up. But it’s the effect the scene has on the viewer that’s truly remarkable.

Landis was determined to portray how agonising such a transformation would be, as the human body was stretched, twisted and snapped into a completely different shape, the face and cranium left till last. Naughton’s screaming, horrified torment stay with the audience long after the credits have rolled. It’s a scene that few filmmakers have come close to matching in the four decades since.