Edge of Sanity (1989)

Such a frustrating disappointment

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Absolutely brilliant

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Perverse, ugly, extremely dark variation on Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde and Jack the Ripper with Anthony Perkins once again summoning the dark side of his character to bring to life an evil psychopath deriving from a form of anesthesia, accidentally unleashed on Dr. Henry Jekyll while in his laboratory by a monkey test subject who spilled a bottle of solution into the powdery substance the scientist used to create his breakthrough in resolving pain during surgery. Smoked through an opium pipe, Jekyll loses his personality and morality as his dark half, Mr. Jack Hyde, surfaces to prowl White Chapel's lurid streets for prostitutes to slice up. "Edge of Sanity" is practically wholly an unpleasant excursion into depravity and sadism as the movie stays mostly in the seedy underbelly of the dark section of London, rarely ever do we spend time with the "better" (although I felt even Jekyll, presented here, wasn't exactly free from the darkness that plagued his soul, as we see nightmares of a lustful hooker taking the rod from a local farmer who, after the doctor, as a child voyeur looking from the loft, slips, hooking himself upside down in the barn, takes a whipping on the tush from said farmer) half of the scientist. Since the Ripper was never caught, this film has perhaps the obvious outcome, but a certain incident which closes the film, involving Jekyll's morally upright wife (Glynis Barber), helping a church outreaching to prostitutes and the downtrodden, is rather unsettling. This film spends a lot of time, unlike many other versions of the Jekyll/Hyde story, with Hyde instead of Jekyll, but we see, through Perkins, that battle within as the evil side of man's soul begins to control the personality, leaving a decent man adrift as darkness reigns. I guess the filmmakers decided that since Perkins is recognized as the kind of actor known for primarily showing the darker side of man's character, we should spend a great length with a really disturbing individual largely guided by a carnal incident from his childhood. The horror on Jekyll's face as that childhood memory emerges and Hyde is seeping into life, Perkins shows us a man run amok by dark forces he cannot control. To be honest, I can't imagine that many people finding this an experience worth taking, but I did think Perkins does an incredible job conveying pure evil, a true madman in search of a fresh victim worthy of destruction. The evocation of Period London (both the Victorian and especially the red light district of White Chapel where Madam Flora(Jill Melford) has a colorful house of ill repute) is affectively brought to life and director Gérard Kikoïne incorporates a visual style that allows madness to hit us right in the chops. Is this movie fun? Umm, not really. Is it good at what it does? If you mean, bringing to us a maniac on the loose in London slashing the throats of prostitutes after a few minutes of warped carnal activity (like Hyde masturbating a slut, on the roof top of a boardinghouse, with his cane as an apartment dweller looks on from his room, or slapping the ass of a tramp, putting her up against a wall on his knees, his face pressed up to his crotch, praying to God), then, yea, I think that is done with skill and ability. Included as a primary plot device is a prostitute in Madam Flora's den of hedonism, named Suzanna (Sarah Mahr Thorp), who looks exactly like the barn whore that haunts his nightmares, laughing and teasing. There's lots of that sort of thing: mocking and laughing, a tormented Jekyll unable to be separate from the woman that has continued to torture him, often in the guise of other women, remaining ever-present in the good doctor's fractured psyche.

I've been obsessed with the story of Jack the Ripper since I was a little-kid. Every-other-year, some idiot THINKS they've discovered who it was, and why-it-happened--they never will (cold-case, duh), but we can gain-insight into some areas of it simply by exploring the darkness-within. This film does that, and sometimes even goes-too-far, but it's all-fun here. The real--and only--reason to watch this movie is for the excellent-performance by Anthony Perkins, period. Everything is a setup for him to come-on screen, it's his baby, and I'm sure producer-Towers knew this was only going to be memorable because Perkins was in it. He was right."Edge of Sanity" is a melding of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and some elements of the Jack the Ripper story, with an added-dash of exploitation-fare (boobs, drugs, stylized-violence, and psychosexual-excess). As entertainment, it cannot-be-beat, it's a very-satisfying-romp, with lots of decadence to it. The main-problem with the film comes in the production-design, as it really looks like the late-1980s to-the-hilt, but this is not meant to be a solid period-piece, anyway, and more a fantastical film-reality, just a pure-genre affair.But Edge of Sanity really has a passion to it--you see, the Perkins protagonist/antagonist is an unwitting-inventor of crack-cocaine, thus explaining the metamorphosis from his daily-life as a Doctor who bases his life on reason, to the base Mr. Hyde. It sounds nuts, but you knew this coming-in from the title, right? It's a bold-stroke, and a risk in the writing, but I think it paid-off in a way that resonates with our current "drug-problem". The Victorian era was also rife-with drug-abuse, though it was basically-invisible. People took-tinctures of Opium and Hashish as daily-tonics, and even gave Opium to crying-babies so-as-to-quiet-them. Everyone was "hooked", and that is sorely-missing in this tale, unfortunately, but Mr. Hyde DOES go generally-unnoticed until he gets-violent! The MGM DVD is pretty-good, and is widescreen with a solid-transfer and audio--it's never looked-better. People forget that just getting a good-copy of a film like-this was very-very-difficult until-recently, especially in the original aspect-ratio. The film shines, and it has some wonderful-moments of visual-beauty to it, as well as some incredible-makeup on the late Mr. Perkins, probably one of the best American movie-actors ever, and one of the horror's greats. This can only be a film about addiction.

*CONTAINS SPOILERS*Those who have been dogging Edge Of Sanity should have known what they were getting into before they watched this film -- the film summaries on the video packaging alone gave enough warning that this was going to be a twisted story full of perverse material. I for one am not afraid to say I really LIKE this film! I first saw it in an "unrated" edition on VHS back when it was first released on home video in the late 1980s, and I was enthralled. Now, MGM has released it on DVD in what I think is the closest to that unrated version there is, if in fact it is "re-edited" like the notice on IMDb. I wouldn't be surprised if this DVD edition was actually that original unrated version, as many titles have been showing up on MGM DVD in uncut editions with the original MPAA rating on the cover. While experimenting with anesthetics, Dr. Henry Jekyll accidentally inhales fumes from an altered drug. This unleashes not only ability to act out his inhibitions, it unleashes repressed sexual feelings he had experienced as humiliation during his childhood. He then goes on a killing spree, murdering prostitutes in the area (possibly to get back at the woman who laughed and taunted him in his childhood?). He also obsesses over a prostitute named Susannah that looks just like that woman from his past, and rather than kill her he relishes in her similarly shared dark nature when he gets her to inhale the drug. Note that near the ending, Johnny is hanging upside down while Susannah laughs maniacally, mirroring the opening scene. This brings the film full circle. It's a fascinating idea that Henry Jekyll/Jack Hyde is also Jack The Ripper.Yes, Edge Of Sanity is sinister, twisted, perverse, and trashy. It's also lavish, elegant, and beautifully done, and downright intriguing. The cinematography is excellent (the DVD is a vast improvement over the old VHS of Unrated and R versions), the costumes are a wow, and the music score is superb as well as appropriate to the scenes it enhances. A lot of imagination went into this production, and it's unfair to say it's an inappropriate film. I found it to be more disturbing and wickedly fun than the more recent FROM HELL (which was more a CGI visual feast) and more sexually appropriate than the grandiose arthouse T&A of EYES WIDE SHUT. There's a fair amount of sex, nudity (more full frontal male nudity in a bathhouse scene than the topless prostitutes combined), and even a hint of male bisexuality during Hyde's tryst with Susannah and Johnny. It also says a lot about how things haven't changed so much in society's decadence in issues of drugs and sex. The only thing that I found distracting was that during the rooftop scene, the actress playing the prostitute seemed to have breast implants, something I'm sure that is quite wrong in the context of the time the film is taking place!Anthony Perkins chews the scenery well, playing his part of Jack Hyde to the hilt. It would be hard to think of any other actor that could have carried this part so well. Those who adored him in Psycho, Pretty Poison, and Crimes Of Passion will find a lot to love about his role in Edge Of Sanity. For film collectors of the dark and sinister, this is a nice addition and I am happy that MGM has rescued this film from obscurity for a whole new audience to discover as well as make established fans like myself very, very happy.Call it trash if you want to, but it's quality, wicked, ELEGANT trash!

Anthony Perkins finally stars in remake of the Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde story about a timid sexually repressed doctor who is transformed into a vicious, sleazy killer from time to time slashing the throats of hookers. This film is only of interest for yet another one of Perkins truly demented performances, some fine costumes & sets, and a few nice directorial touches. Be forewarned though, this remake is very graphic both sexually and violence wise.