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ACTOR
Anthony PerkinsGlynis BarberSarah Maur ThorpDavid Lodge
DIRECTOR
Gérard Kikoïne
SYNOPSICS
Edge of Sanity (1989) is a English movie. Gérard Kikoïne has directed this movie. Anthony Perkins,Glynis Barber,Sarah Maur Thorp,David Lodge are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1989. Edge of Sanity (1989) is considered one of the best Horror,Thriller movie in India and around the world.
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 (1989) Reviews
Very interesting...to say the least
In Victorian London Anthony Perkins plays shy but brilliant Dr. Henry Jekyll. He has a loving wife (Glynis Barber), a beautiful home and is a respected man. One night he accidentally ingests some vapors from alcohol mixed with cocaine and becomes evil, vicious, sex-obsessed Mr. Hyde. Also around this time Jack the Ripper is killing prostitutes. Is it Perkins...or someone else? This came and went VERY quickly in 1988. It was cut to ribbons by the MPAA and the critics called it a sick, unpleasant piece of trash with Perkins at his worst. While I agree it's no classic it's not the disaster I heard it was. It's a very sleazy movie and makes no apologies for it (which is sort of refreshing). It's full of female nudity and even full frontal male (which was cut out of the R rated version). It is unpleasant with graphic stabbings but it's shot on elaborate, beautiful, expressionistic (check out Perkins' lab) sets. It's obvious a lot of money went into this. The script is also quite interesting getting into Jekyll's mind about what's going on. Good acting all around helps. Ben Cole (looking like he came from "A Clockwork Orange") plays a male prostitute and is good. Barber is excellent as Jekyll's wife. All the ladies playing prostitutes are actually pretty good actresses--they're beautiful and have no trouble taking off their clothes. However Perkins holds this movie together. He does overact as Hyde but in a good way. When he's on screen you can't take your eyes off him. The MGM DVD released a few years ago is the unrated version, not the R one as is advertised---not that I'm complaining. So it is graphic and unpleasant but also very interesting and well-made. Worth seeing if you're not easily offended. A 7.
Lavish take on the Dr. Jekyll - Mr. Hyde and Jack The Ripper tales
*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 at his lunatic best!
Anthony Perkins gives a bizarre and unhinged performance in this gothic style adaption of the Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde story complete with elements from Jack the Ripper. This time it's a cocaine-like substance which causes the good doctor to metamorph into the uncontrollable Jack Hyde. When Perkins is transformed into the savage beast he decides to make slashing the throats of prostitutes a hobby. Intriguing take on the over-played Jekyll and Hyde story with some twists and turns thrown in to keep the viewer interested. Also an excellent performance from Glynis Barber as Mrs.Jekyll. Atmospheric settings, weird situations, and over the top performances make this one an eye opener for anyone looking for something a little different. And when it comes to the role of Perkins, Edge of Sanity is a more than appropriate title.
Jack-on-Crack: A Tony Perkins High-Point
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.
Perkins in near porn masterpiece
I've had the unrated version for this, since about the time I started buying tapes. Gerard Kikoine (once a Jess Franco disciple!) really cuts loose with this one, and he brings Anthony Perkins along for the ride! Despite ubiquitous art direction that sacrifices much for the "look" ( the lab has numerous beakers, all filled to the same level, with blue liquid. What it is, I don't know). Perkins really goes off as the respected scientist, who unleashes his inner self through experiments with the new drug, cocaine. He even somehow, apparently creates some sort of Crack, that can be lit with a wooden fireplace match!?! Production values are surprisingly high! Like a friend of mine said, I could almost buy into the idea, that Jack The Ripper was a sexually frustrated scientist experimenting with new drugs. Lush, often restrained, but also often quite gory. Probably more in tune with 70's arty euro-porn, than the history of horror films, this is often quite disturbing, and Perkins is at his best. Almost assured of a better reputation as time goes on. Don't miss, at least once. Pax --Judexdot1--