I, Monster (1971)

Director: Stephen Weeks

Writers: Robert Louis Stevenson, Milton Subotsky

Composer: Carl Davis

Starring: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Mike Raven, Richard Hurndall, George Merritt, Kenneth J. Warren, Susan Jameson, Marjie Lawrence, Aimee Delamain, Michael Des Barres, Lesley Judd, Ian McCulloch

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The face of evil is ugly to look upon. And as the pleasures increase, the face becomes uglier!

Plot: Christopher Lee stars as Marlowe, a stuffy doctor who develops a formula to release inhibitions. When he takes it, Marlowe turns into the evil and repulsive Mr. Blake. The twist is that Blake gets uglier with each successive dose until he becomes a pitiful, ape-like monster. Peter Cushing co-stars as Marlowe's lawyer friend, and a young Chloe Franks appears with Mike Raven and Kenneth J. Warren.

My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

You'd think that with Lee, Cushing and coming from Amicus that this would be a much better than average re-telling of the familiar Jekyll & Hyde story but it's not.  It's OK.  Lee feels rather stale and uninterested.  Cushing is good but his character needs more to do and more often.  The horror aspect is underplayed and it comes across more of a drama with sci-fi/horror elements.  But when you throw in the really relaxed pacing, it gets dull in spots.  All of this together made it a slugfest for me to endure.  And since it's a Jekyll & Hyde film, why did they change Lee's character to Marlowe & Blake?  They weren't fooling anyone, you know.