User reviews

Jekyll + Hyde is about a young college student that experiments with drugs and winds up creating a potion that allows him to change his personality and appearance. It also shortens his temper and prompts him to do bad things like kill and torture people. Jekyll isn't much better than Hyde in this remake. This is a pretty close take off on the original plot, but its not mediocre acting. It just didn't come across as a believable story. The plot was good and the dialog was passable, but the execution of the scenes came across as hollow and a little false. There were some entertaining parts and the cinematography was good.

This movie has great production values, good acting, a good idea behind the script, and competent crew, yet it fails at being in any way interesting or entertaining. The problem is how the story is told. Rather than go with a straightforward timeline, they mixed present and past and added a voice-over that provides some philosophical musings. The basic story is of course Jeckyl and Hyde: 2 personalities in one person, one good, one bad. The twist here is that the transformation is achieved here by a medical student looking for some breakthrough medication by experimenting with illicit drugs. The main character is established as a good guy only in a few scenes, most of the movie he spends as a bad guy, and he sure gets bad. Some of the scenes would be classified as "torture porn" by some, but in this case the victims are mostly males for some reason. Another sleazy character provides the drugs. Then there's the mandatory loving girl, who's interested in our JH for no reason and goes out of her way to care for him. Another friend gets to be the nice guy who gets bullied. There is not one character to care for. There's some gore and violence, a little bit of nudity of a corpse. Nothing that would make this movie worthwhile. Overall, for a horror movie this is rather tame and lame, slow-going and uninteresting.

Jekyll is alive and well and is studying medicine in the States. He is a nerdy character who experiments in illegal substances that might enhance his self esteem and, mayhap, "improve mankind". But before this lame nonsense is explained to us, we are at least treated to a prologue with some sense of dread and mystery. Then it all goes downhill.

This lumbering adaptation of Stevenson's classic tale of human duality lacks everything that might make it worth any viewer's while, I'm sorry to report. Insofar it's been "modernized", it has been so in such a simplistic manner that the original seems more ... modern, if you will. The elements of horror have all the stupidity of a Friday 13 movie, but virtually none of the shlocky effects that might entertain some (even me, on some days). This movie offers nothing new and the old stuff is presented in a weak and confused manner.

My guess is that somewhere along the line all those involved must have realized that their movie is a dead end, but somehow managed to shoot enough footage to reach its humble length, thus being able to say "we've made a feature film" and then hope that no one actually sees it.

This is not a real review, it should be understood more as a collection of impressions on the film.

Revisitation of one of the most classic horror stories in history, a retelling that aims to be modern, young and captivating but which only manages to be terribly sloppy due to too many plot holes and above all due to a very discontinuous rhythm that undermines attention and involvement of the spectator who then spends more time wondering about the choices of the characters rather than paying attention to the film in general and this is because everything the various characters do is generally made with very little sense.

Saw this one the other night. Honestly,I have never seen or heard of it before. But was delighted at the acting and the storyline. Some of the scenes get pretty intense,and every now and then the story kinda goes off to never never land. But all in all this was and is a great movie to see. Not sure if its "Theater" quality but definitely worth seeing. Most of the stars I have never heard of before,but the cast did a really great job. Biggest issue I have with this movie is the beginning. I won't elaborate anymore ,you will figure it out. Its a bit slow at times,but trust me,its worth the wait.

A bit of T@A in it,just enough to make it presentable. Also a lot of the "effects" are pretty good and believable..

Sat down and watched this last night with a couple of friends.Had to go back and watch a couple of scenes again - one due to being scared and one cos my friend fancied the lead!!!!

I wasn't expecting that much from it but really enjoyed it - Better than half the sh1t i've seen at the movies this summer!!

Its a cool new take on a story that we all know by now (when will they come up with new ideas?) but its less of the slasher horror and more of a thriller - Acting was really good, especially liked seeing Bree Turner from "Just My Luck" as a lead.

There are a couple of really sick scenes which I won't spoil on here (though I bet someone does) and some cool music throughout - overall I rate it a nine out of 10

First things first: this is not a modern retelling of the Stevenson story, no matter what the blurb on the case claims. It's a different story in the same line, with characters who happen to be named the same as Stevenson's. Also, it isn't truly a horror story, but a dramatized sermon disguised as such. I wouldn't be surprised to learn it was produced by a church. It contains no mention of God (except in vain) or of doctrine, but it's an elaborate illustration of a moral, which is actually stated aloud at the end: evil exists in all of us. The specific moral message delivered, if any, can only be: don't mess with drugs.

In spite of or because of this, it isn't a bad movie. The director (or someone covering for him) shows one overriding talent: an ability to hold the interest; and that, in spite of making just about every mistake in the book. Take the first scene, where a character discovers a dead body. Instead of our discovering it at the same time he does, we get a series of cutaways from different angles, none of them from anyone's point of view; these take us out of the scene entirely. In other scenes, at points where it would become necessary to build suspense, or to pay it off, the director seems to have no confidence of his being able to do that, so he just ends the scenes there. Throughout, he overlays a loud, rather arty musical score, which is appealing in its own right but usually incongruous with the dramatic action, and often drowns it out altogether.

The virtue of the director's that does the most to counterbalance faults like these is his skill in getting good performances out of actors. Apart from the movie's leading lady, a producer's-girlfriend type, the cast all come off well. The leading man is perhaps a little callow, but perhaps that was part of the point.

The one important skill the director apparently lacks is the ability to create a solid script, or the judgment to recognize one. This one has playable scenes, but doesn't move right. It jerks around in time, never makes its chronology clear, telegraphs the ending at the beginning, and constantly cuts away from scenes just as they become interesting. Moreover, it's sketchy about the characters' motivations--most notably, Hyde's--and the progressions of their relationships. It needed at least one more go-through.

But I expect that the director will soon move up to bigger productions, with tighter scripts, and once he has the legs to stand on, will show what he can really do.

OK, I bought this pack with three, or four horror films in it. This was one of them. (The Nun, another horrible movie was another)

So, this movie has an alright budget, not too bad acting, but it is just so boring. I mean, almost nothing horror related happens at all. Not that I can remember anyway. There are some kills or something, but it's just not entertaining.

I think it is an attempt at making more of a "serious" movie, not an entertaining one. It's just not good. It will bore you.

I write this review just to warn others. If you are after some entertaining horror, look elsewhere! If you are looking for some kind of bland, sci-fi- thriller-drama thing, give it a try.

Meek medical student Henry 'J' Jekyll (Bryan Fisher) is fed up with coming 'second place in life' and so develops a drug that increases his confidence and sexual attraction but which also unleashes uncontrollable violent tendencies.

I'm in two minds about this modern spin on the classic Robert Louis Stevenson tale: on one hand, it's a competently written, highly polished effort that features solid performances and succeeds in being suitably disturbing at times; on the other, it lacks genuine soul, director Nick Stillwell trying so hard to impress with his technical prowess that he has forgotten that sometimes less is more, and that one true innovation is worth a hundred tried and tested film-making techniques.

It's also good to remember that a couple of likable characters can go a long way (it's hard to empathise with any of this film's shallow, over-privileged, drug-taking douche-bags), and that an overuse of emotional pop songs on the soundtrack makes potentially powerful scenes seem like something out of Dawson's Creek.

Outside of Cindy (Robyn Palmer) riding hard on an autopsy table, there just wasn't much of interest in this film.

It would fit in nicely with Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign.

It was all about J (Bryan Fisher) using drugs to create a new personality. Well, you know what kind of personality he would get, don't you? He turns into Hyde. Surprise, surprise.

He then goes about raping and murdering. No, you don't get to see any of the raping action, just the murdering. His girlfriend (Bree Turner) is clueless as to what is going on and just jumps into the sack with him instead of trying to find out.

This had the potential to be a great horror film; instead it was something you might see in Sunday School class.

This was a film that I really didn't know much about, but I did pick up a copy of it on DVD a few years ago. That would be probably right after college when I was seeking out all of the versions of this classic tale from Robert Louis Stevenson to see how they all differed. Other than that, I knew very little. The synopsis here is Henry Jekyll (Bryan Fisher) is a young science student who along with his friend Mary (Katrina Matthews), experiments with various drugs and compounds in order to create a personality-enhancing drug.

Now that synopsis pretty much gets recapped in some opening text before we get into the movie. Henry 'J' Jekyll wakes up in his place and goes into the bathroom. It is there that he discovers a girl in his bathtub. He's not sure how she got there, but there's blood all over. To make matters worse, a fellow student Martha Utterson (Bree Turner) shows up to his apartment. He hasn't been to class all week so she's bringing him notes. He tries to rush her off, but not before she notices the blood on his clothes. She didn't see him strangle the girl in his bathtub before exiting.

The movie then informs us that we're going to go 2 weeks into the past. J is much different and quite nerdy from the looks. His group of friends includes Martha, Lanyon (Jeff Roop), Dan (Zachery Bennett) and Mary. Lanyon is kind of a douche if I'm going to be honest. He along with Mary, are really into recreational drugs. During this scene we get an odd interaction between J, Jack (Landy Cannon) and Martha. J gets bullied by Jack. This plays into the experiment that he wants to conduct in order to earn a grant.

Things take a turn though when Mary dies of an overdose. J's professor, Jane Poole (Maria del Mar) tries to sway him away from what he wants to do to something that is legal and more safe. He refuses though. He also starts to test what he has created on himself.

Before Mary passed away, she had a note in her locker for Hyde and what looked like a phone number. This is the persona that J is taking on while he uses this new drug he created. He keeps upping and upping the dose, until he's not sure who he is anymore. He is plagued by nightmares that he's starting to think are memories of what his alter ego is doing. The problem is, he likes being Hyde too much to stop.

I'm going to try my hardest here to not compare this version to some of the other ones that I've been watching recently. To start off with the positives here, I do like that this is one is taking the idea from the original novel and forming into a cautionary tale of addiction. I also think this an interesting aspect that he's documenting his experiment by doing video blogs. It is an easy way to show/tell us the information while giving us some different images on the screen. Incorporating the idea of recreational drug use, especially with college students makes sense.

The problem though that I did have with this movie is that it is too slow. It runs just under 90 minutes, but it felt like it went on for 2 hours. Something I think is the problem there is that pretty much all of the deaths are done off-screen and I have no idea why that was the route they decided to take. It almost feels like the story they're trying to tell they thought was strong enough to carry it and I hate to say is really not the case. It also keeps going back to this door. We see there's something off about the hallway to it. It goes to this shot a few times, getting closer and closer. The problem though is that the reveal there didn't amount to much either.

What also couldn't carry this was the acting. Fisher's performance was J was weak to me. He lacks the emotion to pull off what he's trying to do, but I thought he made for a solid Hyde if I'm going to be honest. Turner is probably the most famous person here and I recognize her as a supporting actress in quite a few things. She was fine in this movie, but she didn't blow me away. The rest of the cast was all right, but no one really stood out and the performances were pretty mediocre to be honest.

That will take me over to the effects which to be honest, aren't that bad. The real problem is that they didn't do more with them. I was wondering if they didn't due to budget or not making them look real. The blood, wounds and gunshots that are used look pretty real as they were done practically. There wasn't much in the way of CGI aside from a few times we see J taking the drug and it is showing it go into his blood stream. That really wasn't that bad, but also not really needed. The cinematography was also fine in my opinion.

Now with that said, this one does do a bit different take on the classic tale, but the problem is that they really don't develop enough around it to really stand apart. I like changing the idea from a monster to someone who is addicted to a drug, as that is still a core idea of the novel in a sense. The movie though ultimately was boring. I didn't really care about any of the characters. The effects in the movie were really good, but we just don't get a lot of them and not seeing more of the attacks or the deaths really hurts the product overall. The soundtrack didn't really stand out to me, but it also wasn't anything that really hurt it either. I'd say that this is below average to me unfortunately and can't really recommend it. It's a shame that a few different changes could have brought this up quite a bit in my opinion.

4.5/10

Almost everyone of us has had the thought of shifting personalities once or twice, or maybe just in some situations, that we couldn't respond to in the way we wished we could. So, if you are the kind of people, that tend to experiment with things, or sometimes trying something, that might not end well, this movie will give you the shivers; otherwise it might be a little bit uninteresting. As for the movie itself, there really is little new in the horror elements, although they are not typical slasher style, like Saw or Hostel (and i didn't give any of them more than 6), and there are some crazy shots. But if you have your own story, or maybe just a fantasy or fear, that you can refer to, you must see Jekyll+Hyde, but beware, it might mess with your head:P. The acting isn't all bad, and that especially goes to the main character, who is actually two characters, and is more than just watchable (and Martha is hot).

I guess the actual rating should be 8/9, but i gave it a 10, because it's the first movie since i was thirteen, that i had nightmares after i saw it (and i really missed that:).

I had no real expectation of Jekyll + Hyde but the cover of the DVD was very appealing and since I work in a video store I thought what the hell.

However slow the story unfolds at times, the concept is both very intriguing and most enjoyable. Although the movie lacked the scare factor perhaps down to the slow pace of the film I still thought it was thoroughly intriguing and well directed film.

The story line lacks at times but then again is a modern take on an old story. Don't watch this film if you want the crap scared out of you but watch it if you would like to see an interesting directing style for a horror and a very good message through a very old story.

• Ash

I've seen this film together with my girlfriend who is an astonished fan of horror and psycho movies. Both, her and me, had a very nice evening with cooking and beer. This movies completed our evening! On my mind the story is (like hannes mentioned) an often viewed thing in the genre, but to follow the idea and opinion of a truly engaged horror movie collector this is a film you have to have in your collection! Uknown but magnifying artists. A Great and classic concept for a nice low budget production. My girlfriend is already looking for new movies in the videostore... with the hope of getting new stuff of the smart guys behind the cameras! 10 Points for this Evening :) !!!

I've seen Jekyll+Hyde with some friends the other night and must rate it a nine out of ten. No question the story has been told several times before and the idea behind this version is not really completely different – but hey, that's what you want to see if you choose to watch a classic. Keeping in mind that this one is a low budget production, I must say the crew did an excellent job. Especially the music and the sound effects are absolutely stunning. It will blast your head off. I'd love to know whether there is a soundtrack available. Does anyone know?? Also the acting of Martha and Hyde is outstanding. I have never seen these guys in another movie before to be honest. Great cast! All in all the movie is definitely worth watching and will get a good place in my DVD-shelf. It has some really sick scenes and shots in it. I will definitely keep an eye on the guys from Urban Chillers Films. Curious what the will come up with next… greetings from Germany. Hannes

This is suspenseful, kind of scary movie. It's a young version of the story. It's about a young genius medical student and he's not happy with his life. His whole life he's been the outcast type of guy, so he comes up with this drug that makes him this other person. The problem is, of course, the drug has many side affects and he eventually loses control. It's cool because a lot of kids can relate to it, cause who didn't wish when they were younger that they could just take a pill and be someone else. Plus, I think that Bryan Fisher is gorgeous. I think that we will soon be seeing him on the big screen a lot in the future. Bryan Fisher if you read this, you have such a hot 'sex face.' I can't wait to watch you in your future movies. Jekyll plus Hyde was awesome.