Forgotten ’80s Sci-Fi Horror Gives Genre Icon His Best Performance Ever
Forever typecast as everyone’s favorite son Norman Bates, Anthony Perkins’ performances in other films have been sadly overlooked. Near the end of his career on screen, Perkins secured the starring role in the quirky horror film Edge of Sanity, giving him the opportunity to portray a character with a split personality: one kind, one murderous and insane. The film is a brilliant example of Perkins’ ability on camera and should be regarded as one of his greatest performances.
A Jekyll And Hyde Story With A Twist
Edge of Sanity successfully combines the chilling elements of the 19th-century Robert Louis Stevenson novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with the unsolved Jack the Ripper murders committed in the same period. The film follows Dr. Henry Jekyll as he tries to create a new form of anesthetic. Jekyll goes a bit too far with one experiment and exposes himself to a wicked combination of drugs that causes a schism in his personality.
Years before, Dr. Jekyll was viciously beaten by his father after he walked in on the man with a prostitute. Edge of Sanity portrays Dr. Jekyll as a boy who repressed his hatred for women of the night as a result of his whipping, but also one who was aroused by the idea of it. His sadomasochistic side is deeply buried as he studies, marries, and works to create new medicine, but unfortunately manifests itself as a powerful force.
A Psychoactive Shift In Personality
Edge of Sanity sees Dr. Jekyll’s hidden desires cause a shift in his personality once he is exposed to the drug cocktail. His physical features become horrifically twisted, his demeanor becoming altered as much as his looks. The repressed side of his psyche, Mr. Hyde, brings about the murderous rage that Jekyll has successfully hidden for so long and results in the slayings of prostitutes who work in Whitechapel.
A Rage Hidden Just Beneath The Surface
As Hyde, he gives the chemicals out to the dregs of London society. The formula has a way of making its users more susceptible to their own hidden rages and causing them to kill one another. As Edge of Sanity nears its climax, Jekyll’s wife suspects that her husband is behind the recent slayings and begins to tail him as he goes on a sadistic spree of debauchery and violence.
Perkins At His Best
The film shows Perkins being capable of transforming himself from the bookish and kind Jekyll into the violent sadist Mr. Hyde. Edge of Sanity is Perkins at his best, the actor elevating the film as a terror-filled entry into annals of horror history.
A Unique Blend Of Fact And Fiction
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Perkins’ performance aside, Edge of Sanity deserves praise not only for its creative adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson tale but also for its incorporation of one of the most notorious unsolved crimes in English history. Taking a madman from fiction and making him responsible for the deaths in Whitechapel is a brilliant move that makes sense with the time frame of both the story and the real-life murders and makes for incredible storytelling.
Edge of Sanity is a total scare-fest and is a great choice for fans of 80s horror.
You won’t find Edge of Sanity streaming for free, but curious horror fans can catch this overlooked Anthony Perkins performance on AppleTV.
