The film depicts Dr. Jekyll's transformation into Miss Osbourne, a monstrous female alter ego responsible for violent and predatory acts. This portrayal uses gender transformation as a horror device, associating the female identity with villainy and degradation, resulting in a problematic depiction.

The film adapts Robert Louis Stevenson's novel, where Dr. Jekyll's male alter ego, Mr. Hyde, is reimagined as the female character Miss Osbourne, constituting a gender swap.

The film critiques Victorian society's rigid, Christian-influenced morality as hypocritical and repressive. It depicts how the suppression of natural human desires, enforced by this moral framework, leads to monstrous outcomes and exposes the corruption beneath a veneer of piety. The narrative highlights the destructive consequences of this societal and religious hypocrisy.