DOCTOR JEKYLL movie poster | ©2024 Hammer

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Eddie Izzard, Scott Chambers, Robyn Cara, Morgan Watkins, Jonathan Hyde, Simon Callow, Lindsay Duncan
Writer: Dan Kelly-Mulhern, based on the novella THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE by Robert Louis Stevenson
Director: Joe Stephenson
Distributor: Hammer Films
Release Date: August 2, 2024 (theatrical and VOD)

Since “Jekyll and Hyde” has long been an expression, there’s a plot twist we anticipate from the start in DOCTOR JEKYLL, the latest of many films (and TV shows and stage plays and musicals) based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE.

This DOCTOR JEKYLL, directed by Joe Stephenson from a screenplay by Dan Kelly-Mulhern, takes place in the present and dispenses with Jekyll’s upstanding medical practice and Hyde’s homicidal prowls around late-night London. Indeed, there isn’t much prowling at all, as much of the film takes place on Jekyll’s enormous English estate.

The scene is set by news headlines that run under the opening credits. Dr. Nina Jekyll (Eddie Izzard, who now sometimes goes by Suzy Izzard, but not in this film’s credits) is a billionaire pharmaceutical entrepreneur who has disappeared from the public eye under a cloud. (It is noted in the news reports that Nina, like performer Izzard, is trans, but this is otherwise not a plot point – this is not a gender-switched version of 1971’s DR. JEKYLL & SISTER HYDE.)

Then we meet Rob Stevenson (Scott Chambers) and his older brother Ewan (Morgan Watkins). Unlike his namesake, Rob is distinctly unliterary; indeed, he doesn’t seem exceptionally bright. However, he is sweet and good-hearted. He has also recently been released from prison, and has been staying with Ewan.

Ewan has arranged a job interview for Rob in the broadly-defined profession of “care.” Rob is delighted, and amazed when the interview turns out to be at Nina’s enormous isolated country mansion.

Nina’s estate manager Sandra (Lindsay Duncan) is scandalized by Rob’s lack of credentials and general demeanor, and doesn’t understand how his application got through. Nina, on the other hand, is much taken with the young man’s openness and cheerfulness.

So, Rob gets a trial run at the live-in position of looking after Nina. Nina walks with a cane and sometimes forgets to take her meds. Rob is to make sure that Nina does this, and also to provide her with anything else she may need or want.

Nina is personable, erudite, and takes what seems to be a motherly interest in Rob. Rob is desperate for money – he’s got a baby daughter, Ari, who he has never met, as she was born while he was locked up.

Ari has severe health problems that will require substantial cash if she is to have any hope of a cure. Ari’s mom Maeve (Robyn Cara) is trying to use the child as a bargaining chip to blackmail Rob, but he’s not having it.

But something peculiar is going on in Jekyll’s home, and Rob is trying to figure out what it is …

Most viewers will come into all this with foreknowledge, but that doesn’t stop Kelly-Mulhern’s script from becoming a decent thriller, with a number of solid switchbacks.

Director Stephenson goes for a kind of timeless Gothic look, easily fitting modern tech like cameras and laptops into preserved quasi-Victorian surroundings.

Izzard has fun keeping us guessing for much of the proceedings. She starts off as guarded but warm, radiating intelligence, then becomes more reflective, occasionally going for Grand Dame moments. All of this works very well to maintain our intrigue with both the character(s) and the plot.

Chambers conveys bedrock decency and a becoming sense of wonder as Rob. Duncan adeptly gives us Sandra’s tightly coiled anger and worry. Cara makes Maeve so clearly scared and miserable that we feel for her despite her actions. Watkins is suitably big-brotherly, and Simon Callow is on target as an unctuous TV reporter.

In its third act, DOCTOR JEKYLL turns out to have things in common with another horror subgenre we wouldn’t expect. It’s set up fairly, and the actors involved play this aspect skillfully.

Apart from a thundering sound effect that is repeatedly startling, there aren’t too many jump scares in JEKYLL. Still, there is a healthy state of tension throughout. The filmmakers and cast strike the right balance of humor, emotion and mystery to maintain actual suspense.

For Hammer horror fans in general, DOCTOR JEKYLL opens with what looks like the distributor’s montage of their historical hits.

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