Dr. Jekyll’s Dungeon of Death (1979) Rochelle Films/Horror RT: 92 minutes Rated R (violence) Director: James Wood Screenplay: James Mathers Music: Marty Allen Cinematography: James Wood Release date: 1979 (US) Cast: James Mathers, John Kearney, Nadine Kalmes, Dawn Carver Kelly, Jake Pearson, Tom Nicholson, Peter R. Maloney. Box Office: N/A
Rating: *
Have you ever come across a movie so incompetent it makes you smack your forehead like a guy who could’ve had a V8 but didn’t? Anybody who dares watch Dr Jekyll’s Dungeon of Death will likely react in this manner saying “Wow, I could’ve watched ANYTHING ELSE.” It is an astonishingly bad horror movie that will have you screaming not in terror but with laughter. How did I not know about this movie until now?
Actually, I did know about it. As a movie-obsessed preteen, I loved looking at the movie section in the newspaper. I especially liked seeing what was playing at local drive-ins. One of the titles I recall seeing is Dr Jekyll’s Dungeon of Death. It sounded cool, but I knew better than to ask the parentals. I knew what the answer would be. I forgot all about it until I saw that it was released on Blu-Ray this past spring. It’s funny what things we store in the back of our minds, isn’t it? After four decades, I finally got to feast my eyes on this forgotten fright flick only to discover there’s good reason it’s forgotten. It’s bad on virtually every level, but its worst offense is NOT offering up any splatter. That’s the least it could do after failing on all other fronts.
Unlike other incarnations of Jekyll & Hyde, Dr Jekyll’s Dungeon of Death is Hyde-less. It focuses solely on Dr. Henry Jekyll (Mathers in his only significant role), the great-grandson of the original mad doctor who’s been experimenting on humans with an amped-up version of Great Granddad’s serum. Incorporating the work of Nazi scientists, it instantly drives the subjects to violence. It still isn’t perfect which is why he sends for his former medical school professor, Atkinson (Kearney). He needs his help. He gets him to come on the pretense that his daughter and Jekyll’s fiancee Julia (Kelly) died in an accident. The truth is he’s holding her prisoner in case he needs leverage to make Atkinson help him.
That’s pretty much it as far as plot is concerned. A lot of Dr Jekyll’s Dungeon of Death is taken up by Jekyll’s testing his serum on human subjects. Some are condemned prisoners provided by the authorities; others are innocent people kidnapped by his assistant Boris (Pearson), a hulking mute who bears a striking resemblance to Blackenstein. Jekyll tests them in pairs. When injected, they become extremely aggressive and try to kill each other with kung fu. Yes, you read that right, kung fu. With all the fight scenes, you almost expect to hear the fighters speak in badly dubbed English. In fact, the actors playing the subjects were all recruited from a local martial arts school. Did working on this movie advance them towards the next degree of black belt or something?
Boris isn’t Jekyll’s only helper. His sister Hilda (Kalmes), described as “hopelessly insane since birth”, lives there too. She had a lobotomy at some point so she doesn’t talk; she mainly stands around with a goofy look on her face watching her brother commit atrocities in the name of scientific research. I’m not sure what her exact job title is, but apparently her duties include being molested by her brother. Their kiss is 100 times ickier than the one between Luke and Leia in the first Star Wars.
Although Dr Jekyll’s Dungeon of Death is set in ’59, you’d never know it looking at the movie. Aside from one or two brief shots, there are no exterior scenes. It primarily takes place in Jekyll’s “dungeon of death”, actually a basement laboratory that’s more like a fight arena. Citing an allergy to sunlight, he keeps his house dark. I guess the makers didn’t want to spend a lot on lighting. The cinematography by director James Wood is flat and unimaginative. The redundant fight scenes are filmed in a static, too low-key manner. The pacing is best described as glacial especially since nothing all that interesting happens at any point in the movie.
That last statement isn’t exactly true. The “excitement” in Dr Jekyll’s Dungeon of Death comes from lead actor Mathers’ zany overacting. He’s so OTT even William Shatner would call him a ham. It should be noted that he gets most of the dialogue which is only fitting since he wrote the screenplay. It consists mainly of monologues, one-sided conversations and yelling at his servants. When Hilda prepares his brandy incorrectly, he goes berserk with an ice pick stabbing away at the ice while shouting “ICE! ICE! ICE! ICE!” at her. With such brilliant wordage and top-level acting, it’s a mystery why he didn’t become a major Hollywood player. Kearney, the only other major player using words rather than grunts, isn’t much better. I lost count of how many times he calls Jekyll a fiend- e.g. “You fiend!”
I’m not surprised that Wood, whose only other credits are a couple of porno flicks (A Game of Love and The $50,000 Climax Show), quit the filmmaking industry after Dr Jekyll’s Dungeon of Death. I assume he did so out of embarrassment. Everything that possibly could’ve gone wrong went horribly wrong. Not only is there no graphic violence, there’s also no nudity or sex. There’s nothing to justify the R rating. The only consolation is the unintentional hilarity. Dr Jekyll’s Dungeon of Death is the very definition of ludicrous. It’s only thing that saves it from a NO STARS rating which it richly deserves. This is ineptitude of the highest degree. I guess I wasn’t missing much after all.
