Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

I recently finished "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson, and I have to say it's a pretty decent "crawler". The writing conjures such nice visuals that I briefly considered adapting the work into a screenplay (yeah, I know the movie's been done a million times, but one can learn a lot from adapting a classic).
I eventually decided against it because I don't think the real horror of this book would translate well to the screen. Film is a visual medium and the really terrifying thing about this book is the idea that man can separate his decent side from his wicked side and that the wicked side might just be strong enough to stamp out said decency.

I was surprised by the lack of characterization regarding Edward Hyde in the book. People who meet him get a bad vibe but they never attribute it to his appearance. Hyde's never actually described as monstrous -- at least not physically. He is quite a bit smaller than Jekyll (presumably because the wicked side of a predominantly decent man has not been exercised as much as his good side and is therefore not as developed) but he's not at all the brutish, hairy fellow that cartoons and cinema would have us believe.
I'm looking forward to seeing each and every one of the "Jekyll and Hyde" films (there are at least four listed on netflix) but I'll be very surprised if a single one of them affects me as much as the good Doctor's letter did at the end of the book . . .