I, MONSTER [1971 / 2023] [Blu-ray] [UK Release] The night you meet your other you is the first night in the age of HORROR!
Horror icons Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing team up once again for an AMICUS productions take on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novella “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” with Christopher Lee occupying the role of the scientist and his deadly alter ego. Directed by Stephen Weeks, making his first feature aged twenty-two ‘I, MONSTER’ presents an inventive take on an iconic tale.
FILM FACT: ‘I, MONSTER’ is a 1971 British horror film directed by Stephen Weeks and his feature debut for AMICUS Productions. It is an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with the main characters' names changed to Dr. Charles Marlowe and Mr. Edward Blake. The film performed poorly at the box office; however recent reviews have praised the film for its faithful direction from the source material with Drew Hunt of Chicago Reader listing it as one of Christopher Lee's five best roles.
Cast: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Mike Raven, Richard Hurndall, George Merritt, Kenneth J. Warren, Susan Jameson, Marjie Lawrence, Aimée Delamain, Michael Des Barres, Jim Brady (uncredited), Chloe Franks (uncredited), Lesley Judd (uncredited), Ian McCulloch (uncredited), Reg Thomason (uncredited) and Fred Wood (uncredited)
Director: Stephen Weeks
Producers: Max J. Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky
Screenplay: Robert Louis Stevenson (novel) and Milton Subotsky (screenplay)
Composer: Carl Davis
Make-up Department: Harry Frampton (makeup artist), Joyce James (hair stylist) and Peter Frampton (make-up artist) (uncredited)
Cinematography: Moray Grant (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Eastmancolor)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: Original Theatrical Cut: 75 minutes / Extended Version: 80 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: British Lion / AMICUS Productions / Powerhouse Films / INDICATOR / StudioCanal
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘I, MONSTER’ [1971] is a horror monster masterclass from Christopher Lee and after seeing plentiful amount of Hammer Horror films, I feel like I’m coming to terms with the charms of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Their ability to turn seemingly standard, flat lining stories of beasts and monsters into something acerbic and tense is a testament to their abilities as performers. With their combined efforts, they turn ‘I, MONSTER’ into an adaptation of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, into something far better than it has any right to be. A forgotten piece of the AMICUS era of 1970’s horror, ‘I, MONSTER’ hides away pockets of brilliance as Dr Charles Marlow [Christopher Lee] experiments with a drug that will peel away his inhibitions.
Here we get to view gothic horror and Victorian settings make themselves very clear almost immediately. Stephen Weeks’ direction is articulate and simplistic, with a nice little touch thrown in here or there to convince the audience of his talents. Stephen Weeks attention to detail, his cuts away from the nastier moments, it allows for the audience to imagine something far more grotesque than Stephen Weeks and his crew could ever hope to show. The restrictions of the period allow for accidental innovation, with the grimmest, gruesome scenes prying at the mind of the audience, rather than showing them what would, by today’s standards, look like a dated effect or shoddy prop. Stephen Weeks’ dedication to injecting fear through unconventional means makes for a thoroughly engaging narrative, a story that isn’t mired by the restrictions of its days’ technology.
Christopher Lee as expected and really steals the show from everyone around him. How he uses that despicable, wry smile, the physicality in his performance is truly phenomenal. Christopher Lee devolves from the strange and methodical science-led devotion into something far crueller and more venomous. Christopher Lee intentions go from helping the progress of science to furthering his own sickened mind. The way he lurches from room to room in twisted agony gives great depth to his character. What the film lacks in pace it makes up for entirely in the twisted horrors Christopher Lee offers up. Toying with a mouse, attempting to prod his scalpel into its innocence, until the mouse is quite literally saved by the chimes of a bell. Christopher Lee provides not only a painfully perverted mind, but a vain one at that and also croons in front of his mirror, and his gaunt figure coming to life as he descends into relying upon a drug that does away with his shyness and unease.
Indicator have done a phenomenal job here, touching up a relatively unknown piece, this re-release is incredibly polished and ‘I, MONSTER’ treatment is delightful. A perfect touch-up of a solid horror film, these are the releases that excite me, a crisp, polished release of a relatively unknown film that will, inevitably, draw in some new audience members.
‘I, MONSTER’ has some electrifying performances from our leading lads as they tap into the gothic horrors of this Amicus production. I, Monster will be a tremendous treat for British horror fans, a nice spin on the original charms of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. A very solid film, one that knows where its strengths lie, and focusing in on them almost entirely. It has its moments of weakness, most films do, but the clunky aspects shine through, especially in the rare moments that feature neither Christopher Lee nor even Peter Cushing. The film has an atmospheric delight that showcases a crazed man shedding himself of diffidence in the face of personal gain, it’s a classic narrative supported greatly by two well-regarded horror veterans.
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Blu-ray Image Quality – British Lion, AMICUS Productions, Powerhouse Films, INDICATOR and StudioCanal presents ‘I, MONSTER’ in a stunning 1080p image and is also presented in the standard 1.85:1 aspect ratio and was scanned at 4K and restored at 2K by Final Frame Post, London from an original CRI element supplied by StudioCanal, so generally it is a very solid image, but unfortunately does vary a little in the crispness of its detail. There is a slight softness and an intermittent lack of vibrancy to several of the wide shots, though whether this is down to the condition of the source material or the production itself is hard to say, as in all other respects the image is consistent throughout the film. The colour has that sometimes slightly unnatural look that was common with film stocks of the period and an earthy hue to some of the interior scenes appears to be a grading choice, as some night exteriors have a more blue-grey tone to them, and this does collectively contribute to the film’s convincingly unglamourised period feel. The film image also has a fine film grain that is visible and the image is very clean. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – British Lion, AMICUS Productions, Powerhouse Films, INDICATOR and StudioCanal brings you the film ‘I, MONSTER’ with just one standard 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio experience and typical of the period with a surprising amount of range and has no distortions of sound. The film is very dialogue orientated and it's always very clearly presented and easy to follow. Carl Davis' score is well served and the sound effects are very distinct and clear. ‘I, MONSTER’ is about as good as one can expect given the limited source for this type of horror film.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: Audio commentary with Stephen Weeks [Audio only] [2020] [1080p] [1.85:1] [80:00] With this featurette, we get to hear the personal audio commentary from film director Stephen Weeks, and he is reviewing the extended version of the film ‘I, MONSTER.’ With this 2020 audio commentary it is up to you to decide whether you listen to this one first or you decide to review the 2005 audio commentary first and of course it is entirely up to which one you think well be the best audio commentary. I personally decided to listen to the Stephen Weeks and Sam Umland first, as it happens there’s quite a bit of overlap between the two audio commentaries, although each has its unique aspect so it’s useful to have both, but listen to one after the other and you’re likely to be saying “oh dear, I’ve heard that particular information a few times.” But with this audio commentary, Stephen Weeks confirms here that he enjoyed creating the elaborate sets, but he still doesn’t know why the names of the lead character(s) were changed and confirms that the subtext of the film was designed to be reflective of the drug-taking scenes that was all around him at the time when the film was made, but that he thankfully didn’t personally partake in that sort of thing. Stephen Weeks reveals that almost all of the special effects were done in-camera that once famed British animal impersonator Percy Edwards created all of the film’s animal noises, and although Stephen Weeks was an admirer of the actor Christopher Lee’s acting abilities, Stephen Weeks seems oddly keen to paint him as vain and over-sensitive. Stephen Weeks was very dismissive of the special and fated 3D process in which the film was supposed to be shot and tells an amusing story of how it was approved, even though no-one but Milton Subotsky could apparently see the effect, though there’s an interesting alternative take on this in the Milton Subotsky archival featurette interview below. All in all, this Stephen Weeks audio commentary is a worthwhile listen, though I have to admit to slightly preferring the more spontaneous audio commentary with Sam Umland, as this one has something of a rehearsed and read-out quality and because I had to listen to two audio commentaries that were not as interesting as other audio commentaries I have listened to with my Blu-ray Reviews, and so because a lot of what has been said got very boring, so I decided I would only give you a small sample of what I heard, because again hearing these two audio commentaries got very boring and monotonous, so it is entirely up to you to decide which one you preferred to listen to. Because I found these audio commentaries not very interesting, I can really only give it a one star rating at a push and to be honest it would of be much better not have had these audio commentaries included with this Blu-ray release.
Special Feature: Audio Commentary with Stephen Weeks and Sam Umland [Audio only] [2005] [1080p] [1.85:1] [80:00] With this featurette, we get to hear this second audio commentary with film director Stephen Weeks and film scholar Sam Umland, and again they are reviewing the extended version of the film ‘I, MONSTER.’ As I noted with the above first audio commentary, there is again some monotonous overlap, especially with the same story of how the so called special 3D process was approved and Stephen Weeks’ and claims about Christopher Lee’s vanity given another boring outing, though the second of these is tempered with some sincere praise for Christopher Lee’s acting performance. We do learn from Stephen Weeks and Sam Umland that the film’s production budget was £110,000 and that Milton Subotsky’s partner Max Rosenberg was someone that Stephen Weeks never got to meet in person, but was known to be good at securing production funding, and Stephen Weeks confirms that Peter Cushing was under a tremendous strain due to his wife’s serious illness. There’s a brief but interesting discussion between Stephen Weeks and Sam Umland on the title of the film, and the conversation got onto the subject of the film’s Freudian scenario, and in a moment that did make me smile, Stephen Weeks confesses that when revisiting the film he was expecting Mike Raven to be worse than he is. So at that point again I started to get very bored with this second audio commentary, and felt it was getting totally monotonous and very boring, so again it is entirely up to you to decide which one you preferred to listen to. Once again, because I found these audio commentaries not very interesting, I can really only give it a one star rating at a push and to be honest it would of be much better not have had these audio commentaries included with this Blu-ray release.
Special Feature: The BEHP Interview with film editor Peter Tanner – Part One: 1914 – 1939 [Audio only] [1987] [1080p] [1.85:1] [75:04] With this featurette, we get to hear an archival audio recording that was made as part of the British Entertainment History Project, featuring the celebrated film editor in conversation with filmmakers Roy Fowler and Taffy Haines, that was recorded on the 6th August, 1987. While listening to this archival audio recording we get to view the extended version on the film ‘I, MONSTER.’ Peter Tanner had a rich and varied career spanning many decades, and even late in his life when this interview was conducted he was a most entertaining raconteur with a very clear memory, and the just over 75 minutes here are littered with interesting anecdotes and information about the pre-Second World War studios and those who worked within them. The featurette audio recording quality is very good and it was really great and very interesting hearing Peter Tanner doing a very in-depth interview with Roy Fowler and Taffy Haines.
Special Feature: I, Maestro [2020] [1080p] [1.78:1] [18:08] With this featurette, we get to meet the renowned composer Carl Davis and discusses his composed music score for the film ‘I, MONSTER’ and talks about having a good relationship with the director Stephen Weeks, and Carl Davis recalls that Stephen Weeks was very eccentric and had a second life that absorbed him totally by reclaiming houses, rebuilding them and finally selling them and Carl Davis and his wife was invited to have dinner with Stephen Weeks and found that they were surrounded by church vestments and in particular old furniture from churches. Carl Davis talks about the producer Milton Subotsky [1921 – 1991] who was a massive fan of the actors Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, and says that basically the story of the film ‘I, MONSTER’ was based on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson [1850 – 1894]. Carl Davis says that the filming was very difficult for director Stephen Weeks, because of some problem with a new type of 3D camera and drove him crazy and had lots of frustrations. Carl Davis really enjoyed working on the composed music score and making the music which was set in the 19th century and wanted to make it sound very mysterious and used a chamber orchestra to get the music just right, and Stephen Weeks was very happy with Carl Davis’s composed score, and to get a flavour of Carl Davis’s composed score, we get a few clips from the film ‘I, MONSTER’ to emphasises the eerie composed score. Because Carl Davis was so proud of his work on the film ‘I, MONSTER’ he is keen to get hold of his written composed score sheets, because for some unknown reason they have gone missing. Sometime ago, Carl Davis was doing a concert in Prague and Stephen Weeks got in touch with Carl Davis and got to meet him after 40 years and informed Carl Davis that he had been divorced and now lives in Prague as he wanted to leave England because of lots of problems and Carl Davis was so pleased to have a nice long conversation with Stephen Weeks and informs Carl Davis that he now only does restoration work, but also is an author of several novels and at that point this interview ends. So all in all, this featurette is totally fascinating and is a must watch.
Special Feature: Introduction by Stephen Laws [2020] [1080p] [1.78:1] [5:57] With this featurette, we get an appreciation by the acclaimed horror author Stephen Laws and a long-time fan of the actor Peter Cushing and is also a massive fan of the film ‘I, MONSTER’ and of course compares the film as an homage to the original story of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” But also talks about the previous ‘Dr, Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ famous Hollywood film that starred Fredric March and Spencer Tracy. But Stephen Laws also again like the film ‘I, MONSTER’ and especially having to great iconic British talented actors Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Stephen Laws also talks about the fact that two directors turned down the film ‘I, MONSTER’ and that is how they eventually aske Stephen Weeks to direct the film, but it was first filmed in the special fated 3D process, but because they had so many technical problems, especially all that had been filmed so far, it eventually had to be dumped and had to then re-shoot the film all over again, but with a 2D camera. We also find out that Peter Cushing’s wife was seriously ill at the time of filming ‘I, MONSTER’ and so Peter Cushing had to catch the early milk train around 5:00am and by 10:00pm would go home to be with his very ill wife. So at that point the very interesting interview ends, and so Stephen Laws says, “Enjoy ‘I, MONSTER’ as much as do and thank you.”
Special Feature: Stephen Weeks Interviewed at the 9th Festival of Fantastic Films [1998] [480i] [1.37:1] [15:47] With this featurette, we get to view an archival video recording interview with director Stephen Weeks that was filmed in standard definition and has been transferred for this presentation for a VHS tape master. As a consequence, the picture and sound quality are not up to modern-day standards, in other words it is totally atrocious. The interview was conducted by author Stephen Laws in Manchester in 1998. They feel the archival video recording is important and a very unique archival document and makes its inclusion here essential. We hope you agree. Despite what you have read, it is still worth viewing and especially hearing what director Stephen Weeks says and it is still fascinating.
Special Feature: Interview with Milton Subotsky [Audio only] [1985] [1080p] [1.78:1] [181:50] With this featurette, we get to view an archival audio recording with the writer Philip Nutman who sits down with the famed producer Milton Subotsky at his home for several interview sessions in the summer and autumn of 1985. We are informed that it is likely to be the most thorough interview with Milton Subotsky ever to be conducted. The interviews were to form the basis of a definitive book on AMICUS, but the book unfortunately never made it to print. Sadly Milton Subotsky passed away in 1991, and also sadly Philip Nutman passed away in 2013. Some of the material has appeared in an AMICUS special issue of “Little Shoppe of Horrors” magazine. This is the first time that these excerpts of the many hours of the actual audio recordings of these sessions have been published in the United Kingdom. As a tribute to the work of Philip Nutman and Milton Subotsky, they are proud to present just under 3 hours of edited highlights of their conversations. The audio equipment was recorded on consumer equipment, and the quality varies from acceptable to very poor quality. The opinions that are expressed are solely those of the participants, and Films, Inc., Powerhouse Films Ltd., and their employees of associates. The audio recording is courtesy of The Philip Nutman Estate that was used by permissn.
Special Feature: UK Theatrical Trailer [1971] [480i] [1.78:1] [1:47] With this featurette, we get to view the UK Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘I, MONSTER.’
Special Feature: USA Theatrical Trailer [1971] [480i] [1.78:1] [1:47] With this featurette, we get to view the USA Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘I, MONSTER.’
Special Feature: Kim Newman and David Flint Trailer Audio Commentary [Audio only] [2017] [480i] [1.78:1] [1:47] With this featurette, we get to hear Kim Newman and David Flint’s short critical appreciation by the two genre-film experts, and comment on the problems that happened at the start of filming ‘I, MONSTER’ with the diabolical 3D filming, but they also praise all the actors that appeared in the film, and they feel the film was an homage to Hammer Films. They also feel Christopher Lee’s make-up is slightly comical and feels the actor looks like a character from the comedy film ‘Carry On Screaming’ look.
Special Feature: Image Galleries: Here we get to view two featurettes and they are as follows:
Promotional Material: With this featurette, it consists of 130 wonderful 1080p black-and-white and colour stills, lobbies and promotional material relating to the 1971 film , ‘I, MONSTER.’
Behind the Scenes: With this featurette, it consists of 55 wonderful 1080p black-and-white and colour photographs of behind-the-scene images relating to the 1971 film , ‘I, MONSTER.’
Finally, ‘I, MONSTER’ [1971] with the many problems are probably due to the fact that AMICUS originally envisaged it as a 3D film, using a special optical illusion technique, instead of glasses, which restricted camera movements and basically tied director Stephen Week’s hands to some extent. The resulting film is turgid in many ways as a result. Still there is still fun to be had in the solid plot and performances, and the costume and set design is all top-notch, nicely portraying the Victorian period in which the story is based. Plus, it’s always nice to see Cushing and Lee on screen together, including a nicely realised fight. It’s a fairly faithful adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s original story, but streamlined for this film. I watched the longer film version and cannot imagine what was cut out. Christopher Lee, who we normally associate with Dracula, gives an almost reserved “English Gentleman” performance as the conservative Dr Marlowe, and this is well contrasted by his almost childlike personification of evil alter ego Edward Blake [Christopher Lee]. I kept hoping for a transformation scene to see the disintegration of his face and character as his vices take control and Blake overwhelms any goodness left in Marlowe. Peter Cushing has a smallish part playing Dr. Charles Marlowe’s friend Frederick Utterson and is the moral compass of the story. It’s obviously low budget but is one of those great British horrors, and does have a few grisly (though you don’t actually SEE anything) scenes in it. It’s all done by suggestion, and works really well. Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
