Edge of Sanity

Although allegedly based on Stevenson's classic horror tale, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, this tawdry slasher pic seems more like an attempt to cash in on 1988's Jack the Ripper centenary. After inhaling the fumes from a substance he has been using on a laboratory monkey, Dr Jekyll is transformed into his baser alter ego, though he looks more a seasick Dr Caligari than a bestial Mr Hyde. Perkins doesn't so much chew up the cardboard scenery as swallow it whole, as his debauched Hyde stalks the dark streets and lurid brothels in search of sensual pleasures and potential victims. The tarts all wear fetishistic underwear, and there is some blasphemous stuff involving a crucified client and a writhing nun, but Stevenson's underlying allegory is itself tortured to death by the atrocious dialogue, wooden acting, and inept direction.