 October 13th (2)
Edge of Sanity (1989)
Anthony Perkins plays Henry Jekyll, a doctor whose experiments get out of control and transform him into his alter ego Jack Hyde. Hyde prowls the streets of Victorian London, visiting opium dens and brothels. The madness taking over his body turning Hyde into a ruthless cold blooded killer.
A must see film for Anthony Perkins performance alone. Taking his Psycho turn and cranking up the crazy exuberance to give an overwrought performance that is indeed on the edge of sanity. Director Gerard Kikoine, best known for erotica rather than horror, gives Robert Louis Stevenson's classic story Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde a more offbeat decadent tone than in previous adaptations. The film has plenty of perverted Victorian sex and bloody violence and gaudy colours galore, to the effect that it seems like an evolving mutation formed from previous Perkins films Psycho and Crimes of Passion.
The screenplay incorporates the Jack the Ripper murders into the film with the obvious suggestion that Hyde is the ripper. This adds to the sleazyness which the director throws around with an almost reckless abandon whilst in no way trying to hide his erotic film past.
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