Jacqueline Hyde is a difficult movie to review because it’s almost a Jeckyll and Hyde itself — an uneven mix of black comedy, horror, drama and softcore porn. I liked certain aspects of writer/director Rolfe Kanefsky’s male fantasy flick, but when the horror aspects of the plot became flimsy excuses to showcase loud sexual escapades — you know you’re lost in Skinemax hell when grope-scenes are intercut with flaccid strippers onstage — I lost all interest (though I did stick it out to the bitter end).
The movie starts off promisingly enough when Jackie (Gabriella Hall) a shy, young telemarketer reaches her “Falling Down” point and has a meltdown over the phone. She gets fired but her luck quickly changes when her famed magician grandfather dies, leaving her his entire estate. The location and set design is detailed and atmospheric, making for a deliciously lush mad scientist’s fortress that’s a lot of fun to look at. While exploring her spacious new digs, Jackie stumbles across a hidden cache of mysterious serum stored in refrigerated test tubes. Needless to say she stumbles again, accidentally filling her wine glass with the glowing substance and drinks it down without noticing.
The noxious nectar turns plain-Jane Jackie into bodacious bombshell Jacqueline (Blythe Metz), and the real trouble begins — the dangerous alter-ego has an insatiable sexual appetite, flitting from body to body (somehow Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic villain is not only the embodiment of evil, but also a shape-shifter who can change gender at will) and using its various sexual organs to kill others.
I liked the dynamic of Jackie, Jacqueline, and the nerdy estate lawyer they’re both interested in, and I do think the actors were competent and well-cast, but the rest of the story is a complete mess. The lame ending — botched further by horrible special effects during yet another going-through-the-motions sex scene — is a real kick in the teeth after you’ve invested so much time.
The DVD offers commentary from the director and his two leading ladies (while I was dedicated enough to go to the bitter end of the movie, I drew the line at watching it again with commentary); a seemingly endless behind the scenes featurette called Nothing to Hyde, which shows every mundane detail of being on the set from the craft services area to the makeup chair; some deleted scenes, the trailer, and cast and filmmaker biographies.
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson