Jekyll and Hyde (2015)

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Jekyll and Hyde (2015)

I’ve seen the billboards for this 10-part series on the UK’s ITV channel my way to work more than once, but never really gave it much consideration, despite the obvious horror connections. Why? Because Robert Louis Stevenson’s story of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde has been done to death almost as much as Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood and Dracula. Jekyll and Hyde has been in movies, TV miniseries, comic books, cartoons, on stage as both straight drama and musical (my own favourite was a drug-fuelled comedy in 1982 called JEKYLL AND HYDE… TOGETHER AGAIN, which I thought was hilarious when I was 16 but which I haven’t dared revisit because I know I would find it a piece of shit now, though the movie did end with a scene of  Stevenson literally spinning in his grave).

(Oh, and I’ve got to give a special nod to what was probably the worst adaptation, DO NO HARM, which I reviewed here, an NBC series which was so bad they cancelled it after the second episode, after I reviewed it. I HAVE THE POWER!)

Someone was paid to come up with this…

To the best of my knowledge an entirely faithful adaptation of Stevenson’s original novel has never been done (few realise that the original story was told from the perspective of an outside character, and he (and the reader) never realised until the end that Jekyll and Hyde were the same person – that was a twist has long since been eroded, and really could never been done now and be able to surprise anyone. And there have been liberties taken with the details to the story, where Hyde, initially described as a weedy, verminous creature, and we’ve gotten some huge, bestial creatures, especially in looser adaptations like LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, and of course, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, where the metaphorical inner beast of the civilised man is made more explicit.

Yeah, yeah, we get the connection…

And the strange thing is that when someone tries for a more faithful adaptation of a classic tale, people’s perceptions have already been influence by other examples. When Francis ford Coppolla brought out his version of Dracula, some critics complained that he had changed the story by having his vampires appear in the daytime unharmed, when in fact the original Stoker novel never said that vampires would die or crumble to dust in daylight, that was just something started by NOSFERATU, and was adopted and accepted as a feature of vampires ever since. reviewers praised how Guy Ritchie made the partnership of Holmes and Watson as equals in his SHERLOCK HOLMES movies instead of making Watson the bumbling idiot everyone thought him to be, simply because that was how he was portrayed in the classic Holmes movies starring Basil Rathbone. And of course, Frankenstein’s Monster was never originally an unintelligent creature as Boris Karloff made him to be.

But I digress. I gave the first episode of JEKYLL AND HYDE a watch last night, just to see how bad it would be, because without knowing anything about it, I fully expected an adaptation leaning towards some young romance bullshit.

Thankfully, I was wrong.

Someone’s been eating their Wheaties…

We get a brief opening shot of Victorian London, and a familiar-looking figure in a cloak and top hat causing some general mayhem, and for once, it’s not Charlie Sheen’s great-great grandfather but the original Two Face himself, ;s Edward Hyde… and then, we cut to the 1930s, and the balmy backcountry of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where we meet Doctor Robert Jekyll (Tom Bateman, DA VINCI’S DEMONS), who is working in a clinic with his adoptive father Dr Najaran (Ace Bhatti). A runaway truck crashes into the clinic and pins a young girl underneath it, and Jekyll rushes over and tries to lift the vehicle up to free her. And to everyone;s astonishment, he succeeds – but then a manic glee eclipses his face, and he begins pressing his foot down on the poor girl’s face, though he quickly regains his composure as the girl is rescued and Dr Najaran takes him away to give him his medicine for his “special condition”.

Bet you can’t guess what his special condition is, could you?

These are your grandfather’s Men in Black – so naturally Will Smith wouldn’t have been allowed to join…

Meanwhile somewhere else, three men in gas masks and sporting wicked-looking weapons track down this fucked-up looking creature called a Harbinger and kill it, though not before it warns them that something powerful is coming. The men’s boss, Bulstrode (Richard E Grant, HUDSON HAWK – yeah, I’ll reference his worst movie!), runs a secret organisation called MI-0 (MI-5 deal with domestic threats to the Crown, MI-6 with overseas threats, and if you guessed that MI-0 deal with the supernatural, give yourself a cigar or cocaine or something). These proto-Men in Black are aware of young Jekyll’s existence, and obviously know more than Jekyll himself will know.

Dinner didn’t end well.

News of Jekyll’s heroic save of the girl reaches London, and a lawyer named Max Utterson (Christian McKay, ME AND ORSON WELLES) contacts Jekyll in order to finally dispose of the outstanding estate of the original Jekyll. Young Jekyll makes his way to London, runs into damsels in distress and rescues them (and steals kisses as well, which is definitely bad sport, old boy). He probably should have stayed in Ceylon, however, as his adoptive family are attacked by ghouls led by the undead Captain Dance (Enzo Cilenti, THE FOURTH KIND), Bulstrode’s rival with his organisation called Tenebrae, who are also interested in Jekyll.

Needless to say, Dance’s encounter with the family doesn’t end well for them. And when news of their deaths reaches Jekyll, he, um, hulks out, and goes on a bender that would kill Nick Nolte, along his way meeting some underworld types who remember the original Hyde and his taste for sex and violence…

Somebody put him on the Naughty Step!

When the first episode was broadcast, ITV and the TV watchdog Ofcom received hundreds of complaints that the show was too gruesome and violent for the time when it was broadcast (Sunday night at 6:30pm), though the channel has refused to reschedule it and the show’s creator and writer Charlie Higson advised people to “grow up”. I’d have to agree. Based on what I’ve seen and learned, the show will lean more towards a MEN IN BLACK theme of monsters among us, as well as making Jekyll/Hyde more like the aforementioned Incredible Hulk than an allegory about drug addiction and repressed sexual psychology. We’ll also be seeing more monsters in future episodes, and who doesn’t want to see more monsters?

Son of Eraserhead Strikes!

The look of the show is very stylised and both modern (the fight scenes are the now-ubiquitous fast/slow motion sequences) and old-fashioned (where we’ll zoom in on a faded poster of a steamship and then cut away to actual steamship), and hopefully we’ll get a bit of dieselpunk going, which at least makes a refreshing change from the brass steampunk look. The cast is fine, particularly Bateman as Jekyll/Hyde (am I the only one who looks at him and sees mark Ruffalo, yet another nod to the Hulk connection?)
There’s no news as yet as to when it will be broadcast outside of the UK, but I expect we’ll hear soon. Below there’s a clip from the opening episode that’ll give you a taste of what’s to come.

Deggsy’s Summary: 

Director: Various

Plot: 4 out of 5 stars

Gore: 2 out of 10 skulls

Zombie Mayhem: 0 out of 5 brains (so far, though; we may see zombies later)

Reviewed by Deggsy. Don’t make him hungry. You wouldn’t like him when he’s hungry. Especially when you see him eat a McRib Sandwich…

Jekyll and Hyde ITV

Filed under: Deggsy's Corner, New Horror Releases, New Posting, TV Horror

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TV Recap: AMERICAN HORROR STORY: HOTEL Episode 504, ‘Devil’s Night’

Shock Till You Drop

TV Recap: AMERICAN HORROR STORY: HOTEL Episode 504, ‘Devil’s Night’

Alyse Wax recaps last night’s episode of AMERICAN HORROR STORY.

John wakes to a phone call from Scarlett, asking if she can stay with her grandmother longer. John agrees; he is distracted by blood dripping down the walls. Heading upstairs to investigate, he finds Ms. Evers. She is out of sorts, a little mad, remembering her son, who was killed in 1925. They commiserate over their missing children. 

Evers took her son, Albert, trick-or-treating. She didn’t have time to make him a real costume, so he went as a ghost, a costume he hated. While Evers chats with another mother, Albert is kidnapped and falls victim to the Wineville Chicken Coop Murderer. Evers doesn’t really know exactly what happened to her son. When the cops raided the place, there was only one living boy there. All they found of Albert was a bloody ghost costume. She suddenly remembers she has much to do to prepare for the master’s “autumnal banquet” and scampers off. Later, at the police department, John discovers the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders took place in 1925 – and Miss Evers looks exactly as she did 90 years ago.

The “autumnal banquet” Miss Evers speaks of is an annual gathering of Mr. March’s murder students. Aileen Wuornos, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Ramirez, and the Zodiac Killer are all in attendance. When Aileen picks him up at the hotel bar, he is too drunk to figure out she isn’t wearing a costume, and doesn’t care about the consequences. She tries to kill him and he fights back, handcuffing her before going down to complain to Liz Taylor. Liz fills him in  on Devil’s Night and gives him his invite to the party. Back in his room, Aileen is gone, but a tuxedo has been left for him.

John attends the banquet with trepidation. He promises he is just there to arrest Aileen; no one seems too concerned. The group shares in some absinthe, and March introduces himself and his diners. John thinks this is a trick, but the killers all reminisce about how they came to find March as their mentor. Most stumbled upon him while passing through town. March was the first man to treat Aileen with respect; Gacy could have had a higher body count if he had really listened to him; he taught Ramirez to kill indiscriminately. 

Ms. Evers serves dinner. Dahmer is offended that he is given a salad, so she brings him an amuse bouche: a scared young man. Dahmer proceeds to drill into his brain and pour in some acid, so he has a mindless zombie who will never leave him. Despite being handcuffed to the chair, and being drugged, John fires his gun at the madmen. He clips Dahmer, who doesn’t even flinch. “Don’t you get that we’re already dead?” March sees his collection of deviants as the definition of American success. They have made their marks on history; their stories will live on forever. 

Now it is time for dessert. Sally brings in an obnoxious businessman she picked up on the street. After dosing him with a high ball, he was easily led into the murderer’s ball. This will, apparently, buy Sally a year of “being left alone.” Ms. Evers presents a tray of knives; everyone chooses one, then they go into a frenzy stabbing the drugged businessman.

John starts screaming in a panic. But everyone is gone. He is left in the room, dark and empty, with Sally trying to calm him down. She swears he is hallucinating, and promises she is real, she is his protector, and she isn’t going anywhere.

Meanwhile, Alex has brought Holden home. Jasper, the dog, barks at him like crazy. Alex thinks it is because he doesn’t know Holden. He is distant, awkward. He wants the drapes drawn and his temperature is only 75.5. She hugs him; he is thirsty. Alex goes to get him some juice. By the time she returns, she finds Holden bloody, crouching over Jasper’s corpse. “I don’t feel good. I need my mommy,” he says pitifully. Alex points out that she is his mommy. “My other mommy.”

With few choices, Alex returns to the Hotel Cortez with Holden. He rushes ahead and climbs straight into his coffin. Elizabeth is waiting for Alex. “You must have a lot of questions. I have a lot of answers.” She takes Alex back to her room and promises that she saved Holden; she saved all her children from what she saw as neglect. Elizabeth describes what Holden has as an “ancient virus, a blood disorder.” Alex pulls a gun, demanding she change him back. Elizabeth isn’t scared of the gun and informs her there is no cure. She offers to turn Alex, reuniting her with her true love. All she asks is for her undying loyalty. Alex promises to go to the police and tries to leave. As she does, Tristan appears and punches her. Elizabeth tells him to let her go.

As the episode comes to a close, Alex returns to Elizabeth. She cannot lose her boy again and is ready to be transformed. Elizabeth promises the transition will not be easy, and that she must surrender completely, allow herself to be ripped apart, ravaged. “You will feel like you are dying.” She feeds Alex, and the transformation begins.

The post TV Recap: AMERICAN HORROR STORY: HOTEL Episode 504, ‘Devil’s Night’ appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

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Deaditorial: Streaming Services are Killing Horror (And What They Can Do To Save It)

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Deaditorial: Streaming Services are Killing Horror (And What They Can Do To Save It)

It’s a bit hard to imagine, but I’ve been a paying Netflix subscriber for over ten years now. At first, what appealed to me wasn’t the convenience of never going to the local video store, which was a ritual I cherished then and miss dearly now, but rather the impossibly huge selection. As much as […]

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In Defense of Joel Schumacher’s 8MM

Shock Till You Drop

In Defense of Joel Schumacher’s 8MM

SHOCK goes to bat for Joel Schumacher’s devastating neo-noir horror film 8MM.

It’s as good a time as any to scribble about a motion picture that I cite as one of the most underrated genre films of the past quarter century and certainly, the most undervalued in the Nicolas Cage cannon. It’s a movie that positions itself as a noir-steeped murder mystery but goes so deeply into phantasmagoria that it becomes, almost imperceptibly, a full blown horror film. And while there isn’t anything explicitly supernatural in the film, there is a leather-clad Frankenstein monster-esque porn stud-cum-gimp named “Machine” who acts as the angel of sexual death for an egomaniacal snuff film pimp named Dino Velvet. Isn’t that element alone reason enough to make it SHOCK friendly? I think so…

Perhaps some of you have gleaned that the movie I’m raving about is the Andrew Kevin Walker (SEVEN) scripted psychodrama 8MM. The film was released in 1999 and is directed by the Hollywood gun-for-hire hack Joel Schumacher, he of slick and empty entertainments like THE LOST BOYS, FLATLINERS, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and the despicable BATMAN FOREVER and the even more dire BATMAN AND ROBIN. Outside of the latter two pictures, however, I actually rather like Schumacher. He’s a sleazier Tony Scott in some ways, making glossy, easily packaged product that nonetheless has covert personal kinks splooging around on the peripheral and often, palpable heart at their cores. I believe 8MM to be his his masterpiece and certainly, it’s further evidence that Cage is one of the great dramatic screen presences when used properly and when dialing down his patented eccentricities (though I am indeed a huge devotee of said eccentricities).

The film sees Cage playing Tom Welles, an affluent and easy going Private Investigator living a life of domestic bliss with his supportive wife (an unfortunately wasted Catherine Keener) and beloved infant daughter. Welles’ beat is cheating wives and insurance fraud and rarely does he take on any sort of case that would put him – or his family – in harm’s way. He thinks he knows the dark side that lines the hearts of most men. He thinks he’s better than it. He think that he’s mastered it. But unbeknownst to him, that protected world view is about to get stained with all manner of fluids and truths.

One night Welles is summoned to the looming mansion of his latest client, a rich widow (Myra Carter) who, while sifting through her late husband’s estate, is disturbed to discover an unmarked 8mm film loop. The mourning woman had been devoted to her late husband, a man who was, by all accounts, a wonderful, loving husband and cherished father. Except the film in question seems to indicate otherwise. Welles obliges to watch the picture in the drawing room, the projector sputters to life in the dark and unveils the most sickening sights imaginable: a young girl, glassy eyed and starring into the lens, is beaten, raped and viciously murdered by a zipper and leather-decorated monster.

Shaken and drained, Welles confirms the widows suspicions that this indeed appears to be a legitimate snuff film however, as many of these legendary loops have historically been proven to be fakes, he takes the case on, promising to not only uncover the identity of the girl in the film but determine whether or not she is indeed alive or dead.

Kissing his family goodbye, Welles begins his investigation, a serpentine quest that first leads him to the lonely home of the girl’s emotionally ruined mother (Amy Morton in a haunting turn) and then, eventually into the seediest depths of LA’s porno underworld (with a quick stop off to meet the girl’s shithead ex-boyfriend, played by a young Norman Reedus). He picks up a partner, a seemingly world weary, but ultimately sweet and gentle, adult video store employee (deftly played by Joaquin Phoenix) who ushers him deeper into the belly of the beast and straight into the lair of cult fetish porn filmmaker Dino Velvet (a reptilian Peter Stormare) and his arguably more despicable partner in exploitation, Eddie Poole (a pre-Sopranos James Gandolfini, who has never, ever been better than he is here). For better or for worse, Welles becomes bound to his targets, his world view changed, his life inexorably altered as he sinks deeper and deeper into a world of privilege, pain, perversion, pornography and the lowest, most insidious distortions of humanity to ever slime their ways through city streets.

To give away more about 8MM’s downward spiraling narrative would be to rob you of the picture’s mesmerizing power. Suffice it to say, this is a grim, unpleasant movie (as would be expected with Walker’s name on it) and with subject matter this lurid and horrific, it needs to be. The tone is decidedly bleak from the get go due in no small part to cinematographer Robert Elswit’s shadowy, lurid color pallet, Gary Wissner’s austere production design and especially, Canadian composer Mychael Danna’s nightmarish, Middle Eastern tinged and smothering score. The violence and sex is sleazy and suitably exploitative but never graphic to the point of being gratuitous. Schumacher’s direction is measured, cool and assured when it needs to be and stylized to the point that, in my original review of the film, I claimed that “this is the best horror movie Dario Argento never made”. When I told Cage this he responded favorably, being an Argento fan (and horror fan in general) and he also told me that, although the film flopped and was a North American critical disaster, Europeans, especially the French loved it and embraced it. Take from that what you will…

As Welles, Cage is in almost every scene and he’s nothing short of magnetic. This is Cage at his best: haunted, hurt (his hangdog face and wounded eyes are the films’ greatest special effect) and driven by an ever increasing moral outrage that sparks an equal teeth gritting anxiety in the audience. The scene where, while mulling over a decision to commit murder, Cage calls the little girl’s mother and asks her for permission to “hurt the people who hurt her daughter” is emotionally leveling.

But as shattering and frightening a film as 8MM is, there are enough kinky and colorful quirks in it to push it into cult film territory, which over the past decade and a half it has slowly been recognized as. Stormare’s preening Velvet is as campy as he is vile and the world he inhabits is, again, a very stylized vision of the mythical snuff underworld. Phoenix’s cheeky presence adds much levity as well, but it’s a real performance with a very real and tragic heart beating within his characters’ glib exterior.

There’s so much more to say about this strange movie’s sick spell but really, my hyperbole can’t properly do it justice. If you’ve seen this movie and dismissed it, I strongly advise you to re-evaluate it. If you haven’t seen it at all, you as a horror film fan are doing yourself a grave disservice and are wasting time reading this essay when you should be watching it. And if you still resist, because you’re one of the select cineastes who can’t stand Cage, again, this picture might just make you understand and appreciate the man a bit more.

The post In Defense of Joel Schumacher’s 8MM appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

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FANGORIA Podcast Network: “THE HORROR SHOW” Dissects “HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH”

FANGORIA®

FANGORIA Podcast Network: “THE HORROR SHOW” Dissects “HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH”

With Halloween only 72 hours away, THE HORROR SHOW hosts Sean and Joe prepare to celebrate the festive and frightening season by closing the book on a timely fright flick that is as loved as it is hated. That’s right: THE HORROR SHOW podcast has decided to revisit the red-headed stepchild of the HALLOWEEN franchise, […]

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Horror-Comedy Garden Party Massacre Wraps Principal Photography

AnythingHorror Central

Horror-Comedy Garden Party Massacre Wraps Principal Photography

The horror-comedy GARDEN PARTY MASSACRE recently completed principal photography and is currently in post-production. The film is written and directed by Gregory Blair and stars Andy Gates, Nichole Bagby, David Leeper, Lise Hart, Dawna Lee Heising, Matt Weinglass, and Marv Blauvelt. Check out the press release, which also contains the plot crunch:

Comedy/Horror Film GARDEN PARTY MASSACRE Wraps Principal Photography!

Gregory Blair’s hilarious new film has wrapped and heads into post production.

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – Oct. 26, 2015 – PRLog — Just in time for the Halloween season, Gregory Blair’s hilarious new film GARDEN PARTY MASSACRE has wrapped principal photography and heads into post production for a 2016 release.  With his award-winning psychological thriller DEADLY REVISIONS making its marketplace debut via SGL Entertainment, fans are eagerly awaiting Blair’s next film.  With editing about to go under way, the wait is now just a little shorter.

GARDEN PARTY MASSACRE is a fast-paced, hilarious romp in the vein of Shaun of the Dead and Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, telling the tale of a backyard gathering of friends that goes horribly awry when an unexpected guest arrives.  With a pickaxe.  And an attitude.

A longtime fan of horror comedy, Blair was eager to make his own contribution. “I think horror easily lends itself to comedy because the emotions are so high and the situations are often outrageous.  I love films that successfully walk that line between horror and comedy, whether it’s witty and referential like the Scream or giddy low camp like Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness.”

The film stars actors from film and television, both horror and comedy.  Andy Gates (“The Young and the Restless”) and Nichole Bagby (“Stupid Bitch”) are the harried hosts and the guests include Lise Hart (“Deadly Revisions”), Dawna Lee Heising (“Legend of the Red Reaper”), David Leeper (“Fifth Helena Drive”), Matt Weinglass (“Hitchcock”) and Blair (“Ooga Booga”).

Until the release, fans can get involved and get updates at http://www.GardenPartyMassacreFilm.com.  There’s also a fun Playbuzz.com quiz “Which GARDEN PARTY MASSACRE Character Are You?” where fans can choose between personality traits, weapons and more to reveal the character from the film they are most like.  The quiz can be found at https://www.playbuzz.com/gregoryblair10/which-garden-part…

GARDEN PARTY MASSACRE is coming your way via PIX/SEE Productions and writer/director Gregory Blair promises it will be–pun intended–a scream.

— End —

Stay Bloody!!!

Filed under: Breaking News, Independent Horror Scene, New Posting, Upcoming Releases

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Stephen King Previews His Latest Book THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS

Shock Till You Drop

Stephen King Previews His Latest Book THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS

Retail giant Walmart offers preview and audio sample from horror legend Stephen King’s new book.

Stephen King has partnered up with Walmart (we don’t make this stuff up!) to give his fans a sneak peek at his latest literary shocker, THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS, by rolling out the foreword exclusively via the retail giant’s website.

You can read that foreword by going HERE.

Additionally, you can hear reading portions of the tome via his audio-book below:

THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS is King’s 6th collection of short stories (arguably, King is at his most potent in the short story format) and it releases everywhere on November 3rd. To celebrate, Walmart is discounting all King titles (including BAZAAR) by 40%.

To learn more about the book and for all things Stephen King go to King’s  Official Site.

The post Stephen King Previews His Latest Book THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

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