cinema history class (the strange case of dr. jekyll and miss osbourne)

Session: Wild, Wild Films From a Wild, Wild World, Week 1
Movie: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne (1981)
Directed by Walerian Borowczyk

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
Dr. Henry Jekyll and Miss Fanny Osbourne are having a dinner to celebrate their upcoming nuptials. Everyone is merry, but the mood changes as guests start dying via sadistic (and sometimes sexual) attacks. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:

The biggest problem with this film is that it can be hard to follow the plot and understand what's happening. There's a dreamlike quality that permeates from start to finish. This is accentuated by a constant blue tint and eerie camera angles. As things progress, the plot becomes more clear, though the ending is kind of muddled and open to interpretation. I was kind of expecting a Carrie-like ending, with the house caving in on the lovers as they embraced.

But the dreamlike quality that I noted above is relevant, because it persists for most of the movie. There are some places where this seems like a soft-core porn movie. Notably, near the end when Fanny soaks herself in the bathtub, the camera lingers lovingly in soft-focus on her soaking butt. And earlier, the porn is considerably more sado-masochistic. There's imagery that's erotic in a horrid way.

There's something that I find personally interesting that I didn't catch initially. Stylistically, this reminded me a lot of the 2012 movie, I Am a Ghost. And, clearly, if one influenced the other, it was Jekyll/Osbourne that influenced Ghost. The main similarities are at the beginnging and the end. Both movies start with a series of still images, and jarring bursts of sound. At the end, the fast cuts and frenetic violent action feel similar. Under ordinary circumstances I might not make a point of noting this. But there is the fact that I brought Ghost to class for "Bring Your Own Movie Month" three years ago (I wrote about it here), and I used to be friends with the guy who directed Ghost. I assume he saw Jekyll/Osbourne.

Ratings:

Me: 8.5
Christina: 8
Ethan: 8
Sean: 2 out of 4