Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde: Roy Ward Baker

Now here's a film to make the mouths of film academics everywhere water: Roy Ward Baker's Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde is a gruesome, disturbing look into the nature of gender politics within horror. The film takes three of the most twisted pieces of British folklore and mashes them together with a sinister twist. At its core, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde is a standard Hammer Horror retelling of the classic Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde story. Except in this version, the mysterious potion that Dr. Jekyll ingests to unleash his dark side is a mix of "female hormones." He drinks it as part of an experiment to discover a method to restore life to dead and withering tissue. Only, much to his amazement, the serum turns him into a woman! So, we have this delicious dichotomy between the Male Superego (chaste, good) and the Female Id (hypersexual, evil). But more on that in a bit. As I said, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde combines three famous British crime stories. The good Dr. Jekyll, in order to get the "female hormones" he needs for experiments, he must dissect fresh cadavers of young women. At first, he gets his "specimens" from Burke and Hare, the two famous murderers who sold their victims' bodies to scientists and doctors. After they are discovered, Dr. Jekyll takes it upon himself to gather new corpses. In doing so, he inadvertently becomes none other than Jack the Ripper. Of course, this entire story is completely preposterous seeing as how these three stories took place decades apart. But seeing them combined is oddly compelling. There is much to be said for the male/female switch that takes place when Dr. Jekyll transforms. It is characteristic of a trend in horror films wherein women are seen as the evil "other," such as Simone Simon in Cat People (1942) and Linda Blair in The Exorcist (1973). The list goes on, but to examine it more carefully would distract this article from its main purpose: to review Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde. All you need to know is that it is a great film for both casual viewing and serious academic discourse.

8/10