by Frank Calvillo
Scream Factory’s release of the Anthony Perkins double feature of Destroyer and Edge of Sanity is a cause for celebration for fans of the legendary actor, who acquits himself well in two films from the horror genre outside his legacy-making Psycho film series. The first is a prison-set slasher, the second is a mashup of classic literature and real-life history. While both of the titles here are definitely a far cry from the actor’s glory days, both still benefit greatly from his considerable talent, which is definitely present in both of the schlocky productions.
Destroyer
Originally titled Shadow of Death, but later retitled to the more apt Destroyer, a convicted serial killer named Moser (Lyle Alzado) escapes execution when a prison riot breaks out. A year and a half later, a film crew led by director Robert Edwards (Perkins) has shown up to film scenes for a prison movie. All seems to be running more or less normally until cast and crew members begin to turn up dead.
There’s no beating around the bush. Destroyer presents itself as laughably cheesy before the first five minutes are up. The film opens with a menacing killer about to be executed watching a Wheel of Fortune-like game show rather than eating his last meal, commenting: “I would like one of these motherfuckers to get a B!” He even goes so far as to have the priest turn the TV set towards him while literally sitting in the electric chair. At times, the movie feels almost on the same corny level as the movie within the movie which plays out like an I Want to Live! knockoff. There are some slight allusions to Psycho, with Moser watching a prison shower scene being filmed through a man-made peephole in the wall, but otherwise this is a movie with horrible overacting and eye-rolling murder scenes, even by the genre’s low standards.
The only fun to be had in watching Destroyer happens whenever Perkins in on screen. The actor injects a kind of pompous frustration to his director character, making his scenes the only ones worth watching, especially since the rest of the film is totally lacking any kind of suspense whatsoever. There’s definitely a comedic element to the role Perkins is plays, which calls to mind the sad fact that studios never took advantage of his dry sense of humor. When the lead actress starring in the movie within the movie throws an overly dramatic tantrum, declaring she is walking out and never coming back before storming off, an exasperated Perkins says, “Alright that’s lunch for one hour then we’ll come back and do the shower scene.”
Edge of Sanity
In Edge of Sanity, Perkins puts his own spin on Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Jekyll and Hyde” tale as proper London doctor Henry Jekyll, who, thanks to a combination of ether and cocaine, turns into the dark Jack “the Ripper” Hyde, terrorizing the streets of the city and preying on various prostitutes in this wild reimagining of two of the most notorious cases of British horror.
Edge of Sanity boasts a fascinating concept when it comes to reinterpreting a classic piece of literature and incorporating real-life history into the proceedings. The film’s aspects of repressed sexuality at the root of the main character’s actions, as well as the more handsome aspects of the production, help to diminish some of the more schlocky B-movie qualities. I don’t know how the filmmakers accomplished it, but thanks to interesting angles, atmospheric lighting, and intriguing music, each element works together to elevate the film from its assorted moments of lurid trash. Some of the prostitute sequences do end up feeling like flat out costume porn, while the scenes at the opium den are made all the more interesting by just how lavishly tawdry they are. Even the film’s blatant “Just Say No” type of ideology doesn’t take away from the fact this is an overall decent enough horror outing.
In many ways, Perkins is the perfect actor to play the two roles since he himself battled dueling personalities throughout his life. Edge of Sanity offers him the kind of tour-de-force role that many actors dream of, which is perfect for his brand of intensity. Perkins’s appearance as Hyde is remarkably unsettling, and he turns in some extremely good acting during his moments when the character’s murderous edge begins to really take him over. Edge of Sanity has absolutely no right to be as entertaining as it is, but it remains so because of the performance of its lead actor, who is completely committed through and through.
It’s always incredibly sad for me to see when the greats are reduced to stuff that’s beneath them, such as the case with these two films. Despite the juiciness of the latter film’s role, both titles represented a low point for Perkins, who would more or less only find work in TV movies up until his death. By the time Destroyer and Edge of Sanity came to him in the late ’80s, his glory days of projects such as Psycho and Friendly Persuasion, for which he was Oscar-nominated, were long gone. It is a definite consolation, however, to see while watching these films how the actor’s talent and commitment never faltered.
Destroyer/Edge of Sanity is now available on Blu-ray from Scream! Factory.
