MCBASTARD'S MAUSOLEUM: EDGE OF SANITY (1989) (Arrow Video Blu-ray Review)

EDGE OF SANITY (1989)

Label: Arrow Video
Region: A
Rating: R
Duration: 91 Minutes
Audio: Uncompressed English PCM 2.0 Stereo with Optional English SDH
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Gérard Kikoïne
Cast: Ben Cole, David Lodge. Sarah Maur-Thorp, Anthony Perkins, Glynis Barber

Edge of Sanity (1988) stars Anthony Perkins who was not too far off Ken Russell's similarly demented Crimes of Passion (1984), it's a kinky riff on the old Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde trip, with Perkins starring as Dr. Jekyll, a moral man of science with good intentions who's murderous alter ego is unleashed after a lab accident. At the top of the movie we are treated to a nightmare sequence which reveals how Jekyll was traumatized as a young boy after catching his loving up a local whore in the barn, the experience has had long lasting psychological affects on the boy which have haunted him through to adulthood and is unleashed by the transformation.

Jekyll's most recent experiments are based around the medicinal use of cocaine as an anesthetic, and one night in the lab a monkey knocks over the cocaine into another chemical and the ensuing vaporous cloud has a severely transformative psychological affect on the doc. From that lab accident emerges an alter ego, a freebasing, lecherous murderer named Mr. Hyde who at night roams opium dens and whorehouses of Victorian London in search of sexual kicks before embarking on an erotic murder-spree decked out in some gothy anachronistic 80's threads.

Perkins was already infected with HIV at the time of the movie and his transformation into Hyde shows a bit of the emaciated facial features I associate with the disease, the transformation is rather upsetting in a way on that level. However, it was great to see Perkins in a meatier role after his appearance the year before in the sub-par slasher movie Destroyer (1988). Here he showcases his duplicitous talents as he transforms from a well-mannered man of science to an immoral sexual predator/murderer. Some of the psycho sexual scenes are quite uncomfortable to watch, be aware, and while it may not be as potent as some of the rape-revenge stuff the sexualized violence is certainly uncomfortable to watch. During his nighttime prowls Mr. Hyde tours the seedy underside of the city in search of victims, seducing them, and then torturing and murdering his victims, usually slashing their throats in the end with a scalpel.

The story of Jekyll and Hyde is one of the most told stories on the silver screen, but this version offers something unique I think. I found Perkins depraved and creepy as the sinister alter-ego unleashed, and I liked the way they weave in elements of the true-crime Jack the Ripper is also a treat. The movie is set in Victorian era London but I have to say this is the most '80s looking Victorian movies I have ever seen, but it still worked for me, the stylish cinematography is rich with lush visuals and good atmospherics, including the fog-drenched streets of London you would expect of a Ripper story, but also lit up like a Mario Bava film at times.

Audio/Video: Edge of Sanity arrives on Blu-ray from Arrow in 1.85:1 widescreen, sourced from a new 2K scan of the original camera negative. Scream Factory originally released the flick on a double-feature Blu-ray with Destroyer (1988), also featuring Perkins, with only a trailer as an extras. This new 2K scan look phenomenal, grain structures are more pronounced and fine detail is greatly improved. It's also brighter and features more vibrant colors and greatly improved contrast, with warmer skin tones and truer whites; gone is the golden hue that was present previously. It's a night and day difference with wonderful depth and clarity that makes the previous Scream Factory Blu-ray look quite poor by comparison. Audio comes by way of English PCM 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles, it does not have a ton of depth but the bottom end is decent and the Frédéric Talgorn (Robot Jox, Fortress) sounds good. For a direct screenshot comparison of the Scream Factory and Arrow Video Blu-ray please checkout the YouTube video above, and be sure to subscribe!

Arrow also comes through with some fantastic extras, beginning with a new Audio Commentary by writer David Flint and author and filmmaker Sean Hogan. We also get over an 100-minutes of new interview, an essay and the theatrical trailer. First up, the 21-min French Love, is a career-spanning interview with director Gérard Kikoïne who talks about his early love of film, starting out dubbing Hammer Films for his father owned a dubbing studio, including Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde appropriately enough. He also gets into how he came to make films with producer Harry Alan Towers, and how amazed he was when his softcore films aired on Canal+ TV, his "love films". He gets into struggling getting porn actors to act, budget constraints, shooting films for Playboy Channel, how Tower was always working on 2 or 3 films at once.

Kikoïne shows up again in the 24-min Staying Sane, this time specifically discussing Edge of Sanity, talking of how excited he was to have the opportunity to work with Anthony Perkins, his initial meeting the actor, their rapport, the look, design and lighting of the film, set design and the influence of Jack the Ripper on the film, and plenty more. Up next the 12-min Edward's Edge - An Interview with Edward Simons starts off discussing being approached by Towers to do a new spin on a Jekyll & Hyde movie, a few odd behaviors of Perkins, one including a demand for the producer to shave his eyebrows the same way Perkins had too, and a strange request before he had before agreeing to a meet and greet with the British ambassador.

Over the Edge - a brand new interview with Stephen Thrower, author of Nightmare USA runs 26-minutes, the author discusses filming locations, producer Harry Alan Towers and his Jess Franco connection, the directors erotic works, the interesting spin on the Jekyll & Hyde story, Perkins over-the-top performance fresh off Ken Russell's delirious Crimes of Passion, that films potential influence on this one, the set and costume design, and certain anachronistic touches. The 29-min Jack, Jekyll and Other Screen Psychos, a brand new interview with Dr Clare Smith, author of Jack the Ripper in Film and Culturegives, who gives a detailed and historical accounts of the Whitechapel/Jack the Ripper murders with lots of accurate and detailed information. She also offers various Ripper theories through the years, the influence of certain theories on pop-culture, and noting the interesting mix of true crime of the Ripper murders nearly coinciding with the fictional works of Dr. Jecklr & Mr. Hyde and Sherlock Holmes, both of which have been intrinsically linked to the true crimes through years hybrid storytelling in various forms. She also noted several of the Ripper themed films, such as Pandora's Box (1929), Jack the Ripper (1959), Hammer's Hands of the Ripper (1971), Time After Time (1979) and From Hell; also noting the victims in the films, as in life, were given short shrift and no film dives much into their stories. She closes with her assessment of Anthony Perkins in Edge of Sanity, and the 80s influenced fashions seen in the film, calling it a top 5 Ripper film by her account.

Blu-ray Screenshot Comparison:

Top: Scream Factory (2015)

Bottom: Arrow Video (2022)