‘The Possession of Mrs. Hyde’ Probes the Dark Side of the Soul
“Through my studies, I have come to believe that in the human mind there are two separate entities constantly waging war with another. Let’s call them good and evil. After many years of experiments, I have discovered it is possible to polarize and separate these two entities.”
The Possession of Mrs. Hyde is a classic tale of the good and bad side in all of us, but the story of how it came to the screen is anything but black and white. Director Axel Braun, who opted for the daring choice of shooting the movie in monochrome, originally began writing the script in 1988, long before he became known as one of porn’s all-time masters of parodies and features. Begun as a collaboration with Braun’s late father (director Lasse Braun), this long-in-development movie has blossomed into one of the sexiest, most provocative porn features of the year. It won AVN’s Movie of the Year award in January and has caught the eyes of many industry observers thanks to its noir-ish look and twisty Hitchcockian plot.
The story is a modern variation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the famous horror tale of a man with a horrifying, psychotic split personality. Seth Gamble steps into the Mr. Hyde role, while industry vet Tom Bryon (known for numerous ’80s porn faves as well as the more recent Star Wars XXX) brings prestige and weight to the role of Dr. Jekyll in a non-sex role. (Jessica Drake also appears in a brief but memorable bookending role as investigator Sarah Walden.)
For Gamble, the role made him reach deeper than he had ever had to before. “I challenged myself by digging into my own personal demons to methodically play the character. I have to say playing this role was by far the most personal I have ever gone with a character because I believed in the entirety of the production from the cast and crew and everything in-between,” he told AVN last year.
As charismatic as Gamble’s performance is, Avi Love owns the movie as the enigmatic, tortured Valerie, who finds herself bewitched by Hyde. The Possession of Mrs. Hyde is unusual in that several of its sex scenes manage to sustain the overall sinister mood of the piece without lessening any of the erotic impact of the action they contain. One of the best examples is Avi’s scene with Ramon Nomar, who plays a limo driver caught unexpectedly in Valerie’s lustful spell. The scene is unsettling and sexy all at once, a perfect combination of tones for a movie with a split-personality theme. The sequence deservedly won Best Boy/Girl Sex Scene at 2019’s AVNs. Avi also shares the screen with Charlotte Stokely in a scene with some startlingly visceral turns (and an appearance by a fetish that it’s still unusual to see in a mainline porn feature).
The unusual decision to shoot the movie in black and white also aids its overall effectiveness, although it was a risky choice for Braun. “Making this movie was definitely an experience shrouded in secrecy,” he said. “[Cinematographer] Hank [Hoffman] and I were so excited about shooting in black and white CinemaScope 2.35:1 that it was really difficult not to tell everybody, but I wanted it to be a surprise so we just basically looked at each other and giggled after every shot.” (The 2:35:1 ratio makes for a wider, more cinematic image. For comparison, most porn movies are shot in HD formats with an aspect ratio of 1.77:1.)
