Mary Reilly

We hate to admit it, but we're old enough to remember a time when horror movies were fun: sexy vampires, howling monsters of the id, cackling mad doctors gloating over bubbling potions, that sort of thing. Be warned, however: This Jekyll and Hyde pastiche -- told from the point of view of the mousy housemaid who loves Jekyll and secretly lusts for Hyde -- is a complex psychological tale of terror, or a revisionist Gothic romance, or, at any rate, something serious. So if it were fun it would be a positive betrayal of intent. Relentlessly gray and paralyzed by narrative inertia, it collapses under the weight of its stars. John Malkovich plays Mr. Hyde as a so...