Midlands Review of Jekyll and Hyde
Jekyll & Hyde
Directed by Steve Lawson
2022
Creativ Studios
Jekyll and Hyde is the new film from Creativ Studios and a new take on the gothic story penned by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson and published in 1886.
Actor and Lawson-alumni Tom Hendryk (The Haunting of Alcatraz) stars as Gabriel Utterson, a lawyer who deals with Dr. Henry Jekyll (Michael McKell) who wants his will witnessed so he can leave his estate to a Mr. Hyde.
But then the authorities arrive to inform Gabriel that Jekyll is being sought for a series of murders and they later find the doctor has committed suicide. As the story begins, Gabriel begins starts to investigate these strange circumstances. And like his last film Ripper Untold (our review), Lawson deviates from the source which infuses it with more mystery for those well acquainted with the novel.
However, unlike Ripper Untold, Lawson adds in some lighter moments. David Lenik as Richard Enfield delivers a suitably sleazy over-the-top performance which works well given some of the slower more earnest moments.
The story continues as Inspector Newcombe (Mark Topping) sees this as an open and shut case, and he clashes with Gabriel’s investigative endeavours. Another Lawson regular Helen Crevel returns as Gabriel’s wife who our lead confides in and shares his theories.
On the technical side, the film looks good with appropriate turn-of-the-century furnishings and wardrobe. Although, if I was a guessing man I’d wager this and the director’s last gothic-infused film were shot at the same time or very close together. London bells, similar (or even the same) sets, repeated actors and the general tone are very VERY similar.
If the characters names hadn’t been changed, it may well have been Lawson was creating his own gothic cinematic universe! With this, Ripper and Van Helsing there are many overlapping elements.
But that leads to the main problem - that although the same positives apply to this film, then so do the negatives. Lawson films his features like stage plays with very limited locations and the previously mentioned static camera capturing almost entirely medium shots.
The film improves immensely when the director takes his crew out and about on location. It’s just so more visually pleasing. It essentially forces the director to move his camera from the studio set up positions.
The film (and the director’s style in general) is crying out for some flourishes such as some handheld sequences, point of view shots, long shots or tracking shots. Adding some more diverse cinematic techniques would really help a lot.
As it is, if you’ve seen Lawson’s previous films then this one follows the pattern almost exactly.
Yet with a few lighter scenes and (a bit) more variety across all aspects I’d say it’s a small step in the right direction and better than his last. It is sadly mostly a dull potion overall. However, if we could only see less of the studio work and flat shots, then even just a small amount of cinematic medication would transform the director into much more of a powerful filmmaking monster.
★★½☆☆
Michael Sales
