Doctor Jekyll

Thanks to director Joe Stephenson and Hammer Studios, we have DOCTOR JEKYLL, a modern "re-imagining" of the famous 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. There have been a number of these over the years, but Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide are such classic characters from the horror and weird fiction canon that my genre-loving ass was more than happy to experience another outing.

The consensus? Mixed. I found plenty to love here but your enjoyment will ultimately come from your disposition and patience towards the horror genre itself and, specifically, the low-budget-veering on camp-gothic horror that Hammer is best known for.

Positives? The leads. They shine individually, but it's really their scenes together that are the true stars. Eddie Izzard was an absolute delight on screen and I'd love to see her in more stuff. Scott Chambers was quite good too, the charm and innocence of Anthony Perkins' Norman Bates (early Psycho) highly present throughout this particular performance; whether this was intentional or not I do not know but I very much enjoyed it.

Negatives? This has a very low-budget feel and a MESSY plot. Nothing felt very thoroughly thought out and I believe a few head-scratches and eye-rolls could have been avoided with just a few more passes on the script.

RANDOM PRAISE +

-In this universe, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide can't have cereal and I find that very, very funny.

RANDOM CRITIQUE -

• A character chooses to dismiss the danger and implications of a bloody phone. What a silly goose.

TAKEAWAY ?

-Green cigarettes (just cigarettes in general tbh) should be avoided.

A well-crafted picture from director Joe Stephenson and writer Dan Kelly-Mulhern with Eddie Izzard, Scott Chambers and Lindsay Duncan selling the intriguing premise at the top of the card.

Certain aspects fall flat far from where they could reach and the ending comes around in too much haste, but when it comes to selling itself, Doctor Jekyll does exactly what it says on the tin.

I's an elegantly-shot picture with a terrific central location, solid performances, a strong score, plenty of keen enthusiasm and ideas to distinguish it from the pack of dime-a-dozen adaptations.

If you go in expecting jump-scares and screaming histrionics you may be disappointed, but if you're looking for a spooky, mysterious and atmospheric genre feature then this'll certainly tick your boxes.

Having just been released from prison, a former inmate takes a job looking after the estate of a disgraced cosmetics mogul while they're out of town, but when he begins to suspect something is wrong with her realizes the deadly truth about her condition and must try to save himself from the threat.

This was a generally fun and enjoyable effort. Among its greater facets is the endearing psychological building that attempts to take a rather unusual approach to the formulaic material. Instead of offering more of a look at the creation of the fabled potion, the onus here is more on the use of the differing personalities coming to the forefront without much knowledge or warning of who they're dealing with. The constant mood swings, the various instructions that are given out only to be ignored or contradicted moments later, and enough quips make for a generally uneasy time the longer he's there. Since there's a massive amount of doubt established as the root cause of the whole switching back and forth about her various personalities and he's given an extremely motivated reasoning to stay, this becomes worthwhile enough to give this a great starting point. That lets the second half come into more overt physical threats, which is a nice change of pace as it leads nicely into the finale. With the exploits firmly established as being more in line with a dangerous procedure from the past that comes into pass more than a rather comically underexplained attempt at saying the chemical imbalance she has is responsible, there's a fine touch here to present a more overt physical explanation for everything that comes alongside the secondary storyline about the ex-girlfriend trying to score money from him to screw his life over. As none of this is explained but still goes about trying to accomplish that with a daring robbery attempt that goes south when the true nature of what's going on is revealed, there's a nice bit of action here that's immensely fun and provides the film with a fun finale full of action and several twists to have a lot to like about it. There are some minor issues here that hold this back. The main aspect of this one bringing it down is the rather underwhelming pacing that takes quite a lot of time to get going as the emphasis on more cerebral and psychological factors means very little happens. With his duties at the house and the mood swings or other bizarre outbursts taking up the majority of the time, there's a rather sluggish tempo on display here waiting around for the inevitable. What makes it even worse is the fact that this could've been used to do something beyond repeatedly going back to the same well of mood swings blamed on a chemical imbalance rather than trying to bring up the idea of the different characters inhabiting her personality since all the figures here are based on this explanation rather than go for the more logical one that would add a terrifying outcome. With a lame coda on the finale that gives this a wholly unnecessary finale with a silly tone that ends on a sour note, these features are the ones that hold this one down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.

I went into this today with a blank mind, thinking okay I will give Eddie a chance and boy was I disappointed.

Firstly the movie plays like a teen drama more than a hammer horror movie.

There's no horror in this movie to even count on one hand.

Now there was nothing wrong with the acting or the story but it played more on the side of a teen drama than a horror film, which was a huge mistake.

This movie could have been so good with the same cast if the movie was done better.

So all in all this film is not worth seeing and if this happens to be hammer's movie come back, we'll they have played a bad hand.

Give this a miss and go and seek the older hammer movies if you want a good horror film.

I can't be the only one who thinks that Scott Chambers bears an uncanny resemblance to Barry Keoghan? Anyway, after a career in petty theft and drugs - and with a seriously ill daughter - "Rob" (Chambers) finds himself in front of the rather imperious "Sandra" (Lindsay Duncan) and her boss "Nina" (Eddie Izzard). The latter is looking for some help around her huge stately home and for some reason she takes a bit of a shine to the young man. After a shaky start, the two start to become friends and he is promised the funds to see his daughter "Ari" gets the treatment she needs. Snag? Well "Rob" has to help her out with a rather monstrous request. Has he got what it takes? The first twenty minutes of this are actually quite good - Duncan is fine as the over-bearing assistant and there's a bit of chemistry between Izzard and her new-found friend. Quickly though, there emerge a few silly sub-plots and, indeed, plot holes before an ending that I felt really quite disappointing. To be fair, Dan Kelly-Mulhern has tried to do something a bit different with this Stevenson story - never an easy thing when it's already been pretty much done to death - but this just runs out of steam by the half way mark and thereafter is all a bit daft. It's an OK watch for ninety minutes, but you won't recall it a week afterwards and there's really nothing remotely scary to worry about either.