hammer horror – Horror Ghouls

Dr. Henry Jekyll is a man who has decided to dedicate his life to curing all illnesses, but he’s about to lose a bit of his determination after his a-hole friend, Professor Robertson, remarks that his experiments are taking such a long time that he will end up dead before he manages to achieve anything of importance. Ouch. Thanks for the encouragement, buddy. Jekyll lets this remark get to his head, and he starts to obsess over the thought of some kind of elixir of life. He ends up using female hormones which he takes from fresh cadavers supplied to him by the duo Burke and Hare (obviously not caring too much about how they got their hands on these corpses in the first place). He reasons that since women, at least traditionally, lives longer than men, this will help him prolong his own life.

Above his apartment, there lives a family consisting of an elderly mother, her son Howard and daughter Susan. And Susan is head over heels attracted to Jekyll, who returns her affections in somewhat awkward ways. Too bad he’s so obsessed with work that there’s no time for romance…he’s too busy making his life-extending serum, and once he’s ready to take a sip and test it, he finds that it’s got a peculiar side effect: it changes him into a woman. And he seems to become quite fond of his female alter ego, which he calls Mrs. Edwina Hyde and claims she is his sister. While Jekyll is getting more and more in touch with his feminine side (literally), Susan becomes jealous of the mysterious woman in Jekyll’s apartment (at least until learning that she’s his “sister“), and Howard starts lusting after her. And there’s a big problem for Jekyll: in order to keep making more of the serum, he needs a steady supply of female hormones…and when his suppliers Burke and Hare are lynched by a mob once people find out what they’ve been doing, Jekyll must take matters in his own hands…with the help of Sister Hyde, who is taking over both his body and mind gradually.

Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde is a British Hammer horror film from 1971, directed by Roy Ward Baker and based on the 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. It’s notable for having a female version of Hyde, and also for implementing several historical incidents like Jack the Ripper and the Burke and Hare cases. There have been numerous adaptions of the well-known novella, including the 1931 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. And while both the original novella and many of its adaptation are often allegories for alcoholism/drug dependency, this is the only one I’ve seen thus far that gives it a gender-bending theme.

Through modern eyes I guess it’s easy to see it as an allegory for being trans. In the first transformation scene, where Jekyll (Ralph Bates) transforms into Hyde (Martine Beswick), the reaction is one of near euphoria where the initial moment of surprise quickly transcends into one of pure joy and relief, where she touches herself and examines her new body. The Hyde persona easily becomes the most dominant, where they both try to fight for control. Just like in the original story, where Dr. Jekyll could have just stopped taking the serum and be rid of Hyde, he becomes dependent on it and just can’t stop. Martine Beswick, who earlier played a role in two James Bond movies (From Russia With Love from 1963 and Thunderball from 1965) first laughed at the premise of the film when being offered the role, but after thinking it over a bit she found the idea of a male/female inside the same person as an interesting theme to explore.

Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde is a stylish Hammer horror film, where the scenery and sets create a convincing Victorian London era, with a misty, gloomy and gothic atmosphere. Totally Hammer-style, for sure, with it’s blood and boobs formula which where their forte at the time.

In 1995, a remake of the film was released under the title Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde, which received a Razzie Award for Worst Remake/Rip-Off. And the trailer for that one pretty much speaks for itself.

Director: Roy Ward Baker
Writer: Brian Clemens
Country & year: UK, 1971
Actors: Ralph Bates, Martine Beswick, Gerald Sim, Lewis Fiander, Dorothy Alison, Neil Wilson, Ivor Dean, Paul Whitsun-Jones, Philip Madoc, Tony Calvin
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068502/

The year is 1889, and we’re in the village of Cryhin Gifford. Three little girls are playing in their nursery at the top floor of the house, when they suddenly notice a sinister presence in the room. Instead of running out in fear while screaming for their parents (as would be a normal reaction), the girls seem to come under the presence’s influence. They get up, walk towards the window, and jump to their deaths. Several years later, in 1906, we’re in London where the lawyer Arthur Kipps is waiting anxiously while his wife is giving labor. His son, Joseph, is born, but his wife Stella dies during childbirth. From one tragedy to another, just to make us aware pretty early on that this is a bleak and depressing story. Four years later, Arthur is still grieving and struggling, where his boss one day instructs him to visit Crythin Gifford in order to retrieve documents from the late Alice Drablow, who owned the infamous Eel Marsh House. Somewhat reluctantly, he travels there to find himself in a village where everyone is unwelcoming and suspicious of him, with the exception of the wealthy landowner Samuel Daily. The Eel Marsh House is located in a desolate marshland, where the pathway up to the place is sometimes inaccessible due to the high tides. Arthur also starts seeing glimpses of a mysterious woman in black, and each time he sees her, something terrible happens to one of the few remaining children in town. The townspeople blame Arthur, while Samuel tries to convince him not to fall into the superstitions of the villagers. But there are secrets at the Eel Marsh House that will reveal what really happened there, long ago…and it’s up to Arthur to make those secrets become unveiled.

The Woman in Black is a supernatural horror film from 2012, directed by James Watkins with screenplay by Jane Goldman. It is the second adaption of the 1983 Susan Hill novel of the same name, where the first adaption was made in 1989. This 2012 version stars the well known Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe in the leading role as Arthur Kipps (which makes for a very special fun fact: in the first adaptation Arthur Kipps is played by Adrian Rawlings, the actor who played Harry Potter’s dad). The movie was produced by Hammer Film Productions, Alliance Films, Cross Creek Pictures and the UK Film Council. It did pretty well at the box office, grossing $129 million worldwide against a budget of $15-$17 million.

While there are tons of movies about haunted houses and vengeful spooks out there, there’s not all too many that really carries that dark, brooding, classic ghost story vibe. You know the type: the ones with large Victorian mansions, dark hallways, sinister secrets, and so on. This, however, is one of those movies. Danielle Radcliffe, most known for his role as Harry Potter of course, is doing a great job playing a tormented and grieving lawyer who gets tangled up in a dark and dangerous mystery. With the perfect brooding locations, using Cotterstock Hall near Oundle in central England for exterior shots of the “Eel Marsh House“, Osea Island in Essex for the fictional “Nine Lives Causeway“ which leads up to the house, and the village scenes filmed in Halton Gill. It’s a beautiful looking film, drenched in gothic, gloomy atmosphere.

While this one and the first movie adaption from 1989 are very similar, they both have a few changes from each other and also compared to the book. And while this 2012 version has a lot more of the moody, dark and gothic atmosphere lingering throughout the entire movie, there were actually some scenes in the first movie that I honestly found creepier, especially the scene during the fog, which I found to be a lot more effective in its subtleness. Still, this one is focusing a lot more on the goth doom ‘n gloom vibe, which suits the film well being a Hammer production. After all, Hammer were pioneers in the gothic horror department.

The Woman in Black is a creepy, atmospheric and delightful ghost horror movie with a sinister vengeful spirit, an old village with unfriendly inhabitants carrying a secret, an old decrepit Victorian house as isolated as can possibly be, and so many other great ingredients for the perfect spooky haunting.

A sequel called The Woman in Black: Angel of Death was released in 2015.

Director: James Watkins
Writer: Jane Goldman
Country & year: UK, 2012
Actors: Daniel Radcliffe, Ciarán Hinds, Sophie Stuckey, Misha Handley, Jessica Raine, Roger Allam, Lucy May Barker, Alisa Khazanova, Ashley Foster
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596365/

Original: The Woman in Black (1989)

Tag: hammer horror

Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971)

The Woman in Black (2012)