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Ripper: Letter From Hell - 2002
Casebook Message Boards: Ripper Media: General Discussion:
Ripper: Letter From Hell - 2002
Author: Tom Wescott
Friday, 18 January 2002 - 09:14 pm |        | This is a new film just released to home video/DVD this week. It is a stylish horror film produced in Europe with a half British/half American cast, and stars Bruce Payne and Jurgen Procknow. Let me start off by saying that despite it's modest budget (probably between 1-2 million) it is far better than that debacle 'From Hell'. Running at 113 minutes it's a bit longer than the average horror film, and could use a good trimming. But this, as well as its odd ending, are my only complaints, and they're minor ones.
The story takes place in the present time at a college course for serial murder conducted by Professor Kane (Payne) who is an ex-FBI profiler turned author/professor. Attending his class is a girl who was the sole survivor of a serial killer a few years earlier. One by one, the class members are picked off in a manner exactly like the Ripper's, and the hunt is on. Procknow turns up as a detective and doesn't have much to do, other than to serve as another of the films 'suspects'. The most interesting thing about this movie is that the filmmakers seemed to have an honest interest in the Ripper case, unlike the Hughes brothers. Two of the characters argue over whether Tabram was a Ripper victim or not, and when Payne suggests that the Ripper had exacting surgical skill, the lead female character points out that the doctors were of the opinion that a butcher or dockworker could have carried out the murders, and she goes on to say that she favors Joseph Barnett!!! After having every Ripper film force it down my throat that the Ripper was a surgeon, I have to admit it was astonishingly refreshing to see another character retort that other evidence proved otherwise. Although they were mistaken by stating that Tabram had her throat cut, they did get right that Nichols had three cuts on her side. Another surprise. All in all, it seems that this film was aimed more at Ripper enthusiasts, as a layman wouldn't quite catch all the little Ripper references. If I were a layman, this might have been frustrating, but as I'm not I must say that this above average (by Hollywood standards) attention to detail and fact made an otherwise mediocre horror film rise up a couple of points on my scale.
I look forward to hearing what others on the board think of this movie.
Yours truly,
Tom Wescott
P.S. The opening scene and the psuedo-Stride car scene were (pardon the pun) killer!  |
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