A shorter comment then usual: Since it's release in the scandalise period of the Victorian era, Robert Louis Stevenson's novel DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE has been a chief member of the classic horror monster stories. Along with Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, Mr Hyde joins the nightmare monsters that you wouldn't want to run into alone at the witching hour. Of course, after so many remade versions and far too many endless remakes, the world is all too aware who Mr Hyde is, and has gradually become a parody of itself.
DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE (2003) here is the best version so far as it takes the book and expands it in a way that it matches and in some cases, out does the original story. Bringing horror, fear and yet complete pity for Dr Jekyll into the equation, this film is hands down the best adaptation of the book. John Hannah (Sliding Doors, The Mummy and Four Wedding and a Funeral) plays Dr Jekyll, the young, kind, thoughtful and yet distressed doctor who finds himself a victim to his own desire to separate good from evil. Hannah is Dr Jekyll as much as Dr Jekyll is Mr Hyde. The way that John Hannah was able to show the split personality of the troubled doctor is amazing and Jekyll's slow decent into madness. While his appearance doesn't change, a darker side of Dr Jekyll in the form of Mr Hyde takes control and Jekyll is unable to stop it. His useless attempts to convince himself that it was Hyde, and not him that commits the crimes makes you pity him and feel for him all the more, the fact that he doesn't realise he is Mr Hyde.
I urge everyone who had read the book or is a fan of the classical horror genre track this down on DVD and watch it. It's a treat to see an original and un-clichéd version of this classic horror thriller.
DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE (2003) here is the best version so far as it takes the book and expands it in a way that it matches and in some cases, out does the original story. Bringing horror, fear and yet complete pity for Dr Jekyll into the equation, this film is hands down the best adaptation of the book. John Hannah (Sliding Doors, The Mummy and Four Wedding and a Funeral) plays Dr Jekyll, the young, kind, thoughtful and yet distressed doctor who finds himself a victim to his own desire to separate good from evil. Hannah is Dr Jekyll as much as Dr Jekyll is Mr Hyde. The way that John Hannah was able to show the split personality of the troubled doctor is amazing and Jekyll's slow decent into madness. While his appearance doesn't change, a darker side of Dr Jekyll in the form of Mr Hyde takes control and Jekyll is unable to stop it. His useless attempts to convince himself that it was Hyde, and not him that commits the crimes makes you pity him and feel for him all the more, the fact that he doesn't realise he is Mr Hyde.
I urge everyone who had read the book or is a fan of the classical horror genre track this down on DVD and watch it. It's a treat to see an original and un-clichéd version of this classic horror thriller.