Even though my vampire character and his army of darkness will be powerful, they will have two weaknesses. These weaknesses will not include holy water, crosses, or being staked through the heart. Instead, their weaknesses will involve sunlight and silver. These weaknesses can either kill, weaken, or immobilize my vampire character and his minions depending on how strong they are. These weaknesses will also be one of the major obstacles the vampire and his followers will have to overcome.
“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
I have an idea for a future fantasy series that will revolve around a vampire who wishes to conquer the known world. He will not be an ordinary vampire, but the progenitor of the vampire species of his world. Due to this, he will have all of a vampire’s strengths and none of their weaknesses as well as other abilities that normal vampires lack. This story revolves around this first vampire building an army of undead minions to conquer the mightiest empire in the world.
Last night, I began my reimagining of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I wrote the prologue, the first three chapters and started the fourth chapter. I wrote a total of 17 pages in one night! It has been a fun and exhilarating night and I look forward to continuing the project. I am envisioning this to be a short story or novella and not a true novel, which is good because it relieves some of the burden on my other projects. I will keep you updated on any further developments.
Guess what I found? Apparently, there is a Youtube video that has a recipe to how to recreate the potion of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is not like the real thing, but it is the closest edible replica to what is described in the novel.
“What you think of as pain is only a shadow. Pain has a face. Allow me to show it to you. Gentlemen, I… Am… Pain.”
Pinhead, Hellraiser
As I continue my reimagining of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I decided to make my version of Hyde the ultimate master of pain. Not only will he be a sadist who absolutely LOVES inflicting pain on others, but he will be a masochist who LOVES receiving pain as well. Evil begets evil, which means inflicting pain on this version of Hyde will only make him stronger. In other words, like Michael Myers from Halloween, Jason Voorhes from Friday the 13th, and Freddy Kruger from Nightmare on Elm Street, no matter how many injuries he sustains he won’t stay down.
Easily the most iconic theme of the Jekyll and Hyde story is when Dr. Jekyll transforms into Mr. Hyde. In the original story, Hyde was described as being shorter, uglier, and younger-looking than Jekyll. This means that when Jekyll drinks his potion, he physically transforms into a different person, not just mentally. Anyone who has endured cosmetic and reconstructive surgery knows how painful it is to restructure your body into another form. That is from months of surgery and subsequent physical therapy. Imagine enduring that much combined pain in a matter of minutes instead of months.
Due to the agony one must endure from physically changing their body, I will be drawing inspiration from the transformation scene from An American Werewolf in London.
“What’d we got?”
“Nothing. No matches on prints, DNA, dental. Clothing is custom, no labels. Nothing in his pockets but knives and lint. No name, no other alias.”
Mayor Anthony Garcia and Lt. James Gordon regarding the Joker, The Dark Knight
As mentioned in a previous post, I will be tying in Jack the Ripper to my reimagining of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. One of the most prominent features of Jack the Ripper is the fact that he was never caught and never positively identified. Due to this, I am thinking of making my protagonist untraceable while in his “Hyde” persona. How does a serial killer become untraceable even with the advancements in 21st century technology? I won’t say how this is possible, but it will make it all the more harder for the authorities to find and capture him.
As I brainstorm my reimagining of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I thought of including a frightening feature to my story’s version of Mr. Hyde. While my protagonist is in his “Hyde” persona, his eyes will be noticeably different than normal. I am envisioning his eyes having blood-red irises and black sclera like those seen in the anime Tokyo Ghoul. This will highlight how the protagonist’s “Hyde” persona is unnatural, monstrous, and inhuman. Imagine being stalked in a dark street by a shadowy figure with eyes like these. Gives me goosebumps thinking about it!
“Below the skin of history are London’s veins. These symbols – the miter, the pentacle star… Even someone as ignorant and degenerate as you can sense they course with energy and meaning. I am that meaning. I am that energy. One day, men will look back and say I gave birth to the twentieth century!“
Sir William Gull, From Hell
I noticed some similarities between Mr. Hyde and Jack the Ripper. Both were sinister serial killers who lurked in the dark streets of Victorian London. This makes me wonder if Jack the Ripper was the real life equivalent of Mr. Hyde. I will toy with this idea in my reimagining of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I may use Jack the Ripper in a flashback that ties the story together.
Recently, I toyed with the idea of writing a story about duality regarding a werewolf. Now, I am considering writing a reimagining of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with my own unique series of twists. There will be a new cast of characters, each with new names and their own diverse backgrounds. This will be similar to another project I am working on that is a reimagining of Frankenstein. With my story, the protagonist lives in the 21st century and works as a military scientist who tries to create super soldiers. While he does succeed in creating an unstoppable killing machine, he cannot control what he has created.
Grady P Brown - Author 