I don't agree.
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Fair enough.
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I really like the original novel the Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and frankly wouldn't want the fantasy aspect of it (the serum that turned him into a different person) to be replaced with Jekyll simply having multiple personality disorder and the reveal to be that Jekyll dressed like Hyde all the time.
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Well that's a very good explanation of how Psycho is NOT like Dr J and Mr. H. Or The Wolf Man for that matter, but let's stick (for your case) to Jekyll and Hyde. I get it now -- Psycho had SOME relevance to Jekyll and Hyde, but where the themes really COUNT...no.
In some ways, its a "surface thing," yes. Anthony Perkins is this nice, pleasant, handsome fellow -- harmless looking. Mrs. Bates has a vicious, animalistic cruelty to her murders by knife blade -- she comes off as too big and strong for an old lady. So there's a bit of Jekyll/Hyde there. Surface.
But I certainly get "the difference within" and the fantasy element of the potion itself.
That also would get rid of the great conflict Jekyll had at the end of the novel.
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Very true!
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Not sure if you have read the original novel but Jekyll and Hyde are supporting characters and the main character is Gabriel John Utterson. It's about him slowly discovering the connection between his friend Dr. Henry Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It's totally different from any movie you have seen.
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I read this years and years ago...I remember it more as a long short story(novella?) than a novel but I DO remember a main character describing Jekyll and Hyde from a distance. I recall this man's tale of watching Hyde(without knowing he WAS Hyde) beating some man with his cane, and stomping on him. "A murder I remember."
I don't dismiss the OP's reference to Jekyll and Hyde and I might have elsewhere said that myself. But your posts change my mind, significantly.
CONT
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ecarle (14979)
2 years ago
Now the Wolf Man. Not a potion. A wolf bite, yes? With certain "legendary gimmicks" to stop him (silver bullet, silver cane.) There's the "Psycho" aspect of how animalistic (literally) and vicious the killer is AS a wolf man. But Lon Chaney Jr. eventually KNOWS he turns into a wolf and kills. He knows the killer is within him.
In Psycho III -- my favorite of the Psycho sequels even as I don't much like any of them -- Norman has some self knowledge of his capacity to kill if aroused or threatened. As it turns out, he FIGHTS that urge -- grabbing his own knife blade to "short circuit" his madness -- so as to avoid killing a woman he loves (Diana Scarwid's wayward nun.) But other times, he doesn't fight it at all, and lets "Mother" slash some less noble women flat out to death...
I can't recall...eventually Jekyll KNEW he could turn into Hyde and harm people?
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GreenGoblinsOck8 (7451)
2 years ago
The whole thing was that Jekyll had a theory that every person was really 2 people in one. The good side that wanted to do what was right was one person and the evil side that wanted to do wrong things was another person. He created a serum that would separate his evil self from his good self. Thus his evil side was Edward Hyde. He didn't have all that much control over his evil self but his evil self would turn back into Jekyll willingly so he could hide after he'd done something bad.
He tries giving up turning into Hyde but then one morning when he wakes up in bed without taking the serum, he suddenly has transformed into Hyde. He ends up having to take stronger doses of the serum to turn back into Jekyll. Unfortunately he ends up stuck in the form of Hyde permanently and can't find the right chemicals to turn himself back. But has complete control of himself. So he writes a new will to Utterson along with a confession that tells everything. But then he has a heart attack and dies when Utterson and his Butler Poole find him in the form of Hyde. Everything I just said though isn't revealed til the last chapter of the book.
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ecarle (14979)
2 years ago
I appreciate the detailed review of Jekyll and Hyde; I'd simply forgot all that.
(I wish I knew how to use that spoiler blackout, I don't.)
One thing that CAN be "publically referenced" is the concept that "there is good and evil in any man." Probably so. Most of us keep the evil at bay -- we are ethical, or compassionate..or we just don't want to go to jail and get raped or something in claustrophobic quarters.
Psycho certainly posits "good Norman" and "evil Mother," except as the movie goes on, we come to suspect Norman: is he REALLY a nice guy when he's not Mother? Some folks around here have said YES -- "Poor Norman, he's nice guy, as long as Mother doesn't pop out." I say: I'm not so sure -- Norman may be PLENTY evil and just acting out the nice guy to lure female victims and keep investigators at bay.
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