Edge of Sanity (1989)

Director: Gérard Kikoïne

Starring: Anthony Perkins, Glynis Barber, Sarah Maur Ward

When Henry Jekyll’s experiments with cocaine have gotten out of control, he transforms into the hideous Jack Hyde. As Hyde he searches the London streets at night for his prey in whorehouses and opium dens. The police can’t catch him, he has nothing to lose but his mind…

‘Edge of Sanity’ is a retelling of the classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde mixed with Jack the Ripper. Anthony Perkins stars as Dr Henry Jekyll, who transforms into the murderous Mr Hyde when an accident occurs in his lab at home.

Scarred by a memory of his childhood when he witnessed his father having sex with a prostitute, he starts killing prostitutes when in Hyde state. Hyde thus becomes Henry’s vengeful alter ego. As Dr Jekyll, he is a brilliant doctor married to Elizabeth. When Henry starts going out every night, Elizabeth gets suspicious about his nightly activities. Henry justifies his actions, saying he is attending to a patient who can only see him at night.

It felt as if the film relied too heavily on Anthony Perkins and make-up to make the story work, when in fact it didn’t. The film is weird, and many of the scenes played like the director’s (threesome) sexual fantasies visualized on screen. Interestingly, most of these scenes involved Henry, a prostitute and another man. Although not a gay movie, Henry often came across as a man with homosexual tendencies. (Not sure whether this was the intent or not, to allow for a different kind of Jekyll and Hyde…).

‘Edge of Sanity’ is a horror-thriller slasher with erotic elements thrown in the mix. It is one of the lesser interesting versions of Jekyll and Hyde I’ve seen. Had it not been for Anthony Perkins, this could easily have been just another B-horror.

Would I watch it again? No.