Edge of Sanity (1989)

Well, here’s a real hybrid for you. What has both the time tested Jekyll/Hyde story with a Jack the Ripper twist, large doses of sleaze and gore, plenty of artsy fartsy lighting, and last but not least, a schizoid Anthony Perkins stalking London prostitutes? Why, it’s “Edge of Sanity” of course! Perkins portrays Henry Jekyll, brilliant doctor and devoted husband by day, coked up and impotent slasher of whores by night. Henry’s split personality begins when a lab monkey accidentally knocks some type of chemical into old Henry’s nose candy, resulting in a rather potent vapor released into the air. A couple whiffs of this stuff, and old Henry goes from mild mannered doc to nutty fruitcake in a nanosecond. Out of this transformation comes Jack Hyde, which is basically Perkins with a lot of pancake make-up on his ever-twitching face, while dressed all in black. Mr. Hyde soon becomes quite the regular at the local bordello and with the prostitutes on the street, who seem all too eager to get a “date” with a dude that looks like a complete nut. Since old Henry/Jack is about as virile as a rock, i.e. the dude’s impotent, and all these little dates end in murder when Henry/Jack can’t ah, “perform” for the little ladies. Soon the police are on the case, Henry’s wife is getting suspicious, Henry’s getting nuttier and the whores are still a dying.

“Edge of Sanity” is watchable (barely) for one simple reason: Anthony Perkins. The guy just plays psychos to a “T” and here his performance is no exception. The rest of the film, though loaded with lots of nudity and is fairly bloody in the uncut version, is really a bore. No other characters step up to help Perkins carry the load, and you really can’t feel sorry for the prostitutes, for they almost ask for a razor to the throat. The overall look of the film was ok, lots of weird camera angles and lighting effects worked well, but it’s just not enough. This film is rather sleazy, which of course I usually enjoy, but some of the stuff just turned me off, most notably several scenes involving Perkins’s character. This one has to be a rough watch for any member of Perkins family, because some of the scenes he’s in are simply embarrassing, not because they are “bad” as in quality, but just a little to “much” on the sexual side. I don’t think I’ll ever get the image of Norman Bates jerking off a prostitute with a cane out of my mind. And just what would Mother say about that, Norman? This one can basically be wrapped up in the following: Anthony Perkins as Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde good, “Edge of Sanity” bad, bad, bad.