That’s the first (and best) example I thought of.
“Click” started out with a comedic theme, but ends on a more somber note as the lead character comes to realize how much ruin he has brought upon his life.
Match Point:
What starts off as a romantic drama about a tennis pro dating a girl from a rich family and having an affair on the side with the hot Scarlett Johansson turns suddenly into a edge of your seat suspense thriller for the last 30 minutes. I did not see it coming when I watched it. I don’t want to hint at anything that happens. Just watch it, it’ll be worth it.
Barton Fink:
Great Coen brothers film featuring probably the best character John Goodman has ever portrayed on film. A movie about a newly famous playwright struggling to write a wrestling picture in LA. Just when you think you know where the movie is going, suddenly A dead body and a serial killerbecome part of the plot.
I knew someone was going to steal my suggestion!
Seriously…I remember when this movie came out, for some reason I had been privy to, I guess, the ONE commercial ever shown that hyped this as a monster movie, so the vampires did not take me by surprise whatsoever. However, I had many, many fun experiences seeing this with other folk who thought they were in for a good gangster movie, and literally jumped out of their seats when Salma Hayek suddenly threw back her head and sprouted fangs, shouting “JESUS CHRIST!”
Heheh. Good times.
The Prestige gets my vote.
It starts out as a dramatic depiction of rivalry between 19th century stage magicians, then suddenly
Tesla shows up and the movie becomes science fiction
which didn’t necessarily ruin the movie for me, but it was a far cry from anything I expected when I started it.
Smilla’s Sense of Snow
Murder mystery into :eek:
I didn’t see the movie, but that’s pretty much the way the book goes, too.
The Crying Game. The first part, where Fergus is guarding Forrest Whittaker seems like a whole different movie than the second part where Fergus is mooning around Forrest’s old haunts.
From what’s been discussed here, it seems like in nearly every case, a movie will transform from light to dark.
I’d love to see a movie that did the opposite. One that started out as a dark, disturbing horror movie or thriller, and then turns into a hilarious absurd comedy. Are there any like that?
Clerks 2 started out as a typical Kevin Smith movie where the characters discuss fanboy topics in humorous ways. Then halfway through it turns into a rom-com type thing.
You mean when the donkey shows up? 
The opening scene in Harold and Maude qualifies, I guess, although it only lasts a few minutes. Likewise the ending.
Then Miranda Richardson pops up and it changes again.
When I watched The Scout I thought it was going to turn dark. Early on there’s a scene where Brendon Fraser’s character is watching King Kong on television, and Albert Brook’s character refers to him as “King Kong” at least once during the film. There’s also a lot of business with a psychiatrist where Fraser has a definite disconnect.
When Fraser has his meltdown at the end of the movie and climbs up onto the top of the upper deck in Yankee Stadium I was sure that, like Kong, Fraser was falling off the roof to his death. Boy, was I surprised. He comes down on his own and pitches the game. What the hell? They set me up for the switcheroo, and then didn’t pull it.
The joy of going from a comedy to horror is that surprise “gotcha” moment where you realise that what you thought was your comfortable couch is now actually a rollercoaster. I think a committed transition from straight-faced horror to comedy would just disappoint most people. The closest example I could come up with for that would be April Fool’s Day .
I’m surprised no one’s mentioned Fight Club. The ads for it made it look like a masculine empowering movie, but in the middle it undergoes a major shift that made the movie a lot more interesting.
Also, not quite the same thing, but I was amused by the big switch in…setting?..that Blazing Saddles undergoes at the end, where the big brawl between the townsfolk and crooks literally breaks the fourth wall and spreads out through the movie lot. The final duel between the hero and villain occurs outside the movie theater showing the very film we are watching!
Check out Mute Witness.
For about the first hour or so, it’s an incredibly intense suspense thriller and then it abruptly shifts gear into a campy, black-comedic chase thriller. The shift in tone is unexpected enough that a lot of horror fans felt cheated that the carefully built atmosphere of impending doom was dispelled in favour of light(er) comedy. However, I really got a kick out of the change up and I appreciate that it really takes balls to risk alienating your audience like that.
It’s not a masterpiece by any means but it is fascinating and well worth seeking out.
Vanilla Sky. Started out as a drama with Tom Cruise playing an obnoxious rich prick who gets disfigured in an accident, but it morphed into… something unexpected. I loved it for having the balls to do that, even though it pissed off most of the people in my theater audience (and I suspect didn’t do well at the box office as a result). I realize it was a remake of a Spanish film, Abre Tus Ojos (Open Your Eyes), but I haven’t seen that one.
I was going to mention this. The most disturbing movie I’ve ever seen.
Well its on DVD at Amazon for 9.98