RIPPER:LETTERS FROM HELL [2001] [HCF REWIND]

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Directed by:
Written by: , ,
Starring: , , ,

HCF REWIND NO. 214: RIPPER: LETTERS FROM HELL [Canada/UK, 2001]

AVAILABLE ON DVD

RUNNING TIME: 114 min

REVIEWED BY: Dr Lenera, Official HCF Critic

 

Ripper_-_Letter_from_Hell_(2001)

Molly Keller narrowly misses being murdered by a serial killer who has killed everyone else on an island. Five years later, she takes a forensic psychology class taken by famous expert Marshall Kane. At an evening study session, the others are irritated by Molly’s hostile attitude, and go to a club. Molly follows, but at the club one of her classmates is murdered. The study group that she belonged to decide that this would be a perfect opportunity to conduct a field-test of what they are learning in class by attempting to work out who the killer is, a killer whose exploits have certain similarities with those of a certain Jack the Ripper…..

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This mudded slasher came out, though bypassing cinemas in most countries, just after the ultimate Jack the Ripper film From Hell hit cinemas and was an obvious attempt to cash in the interest in the world’s first serial killer that was around at the time. Despite having a great interest in Jack myself, it’s taken me until now to watch this film, and I can’t at all say that it was worth the wait. As I write, I’m trying to work out if it’s extremely dumb or extremely clever, and may have answered my own question when I reach the end of this review. Right now, I think it may be the most confusing slasher film I’ve ever seen, though I will say right off that the Jack the Ripper elements are tenuous. The killer copies a few things Jack did, the victims share the initials of Jack’s victims, somebody hallucinates they go back in time and becomes Jack the Ripper for a few seconds, and the teacher in the film claims that Montague John Druitt, a teacher and lawyer who committed suicide just when the Ripper murders ended and a popular suspect for many years, was Jack, but that’s really about it and, to be honest, the film may very well have been better without all the Ripper stuff.

The intense opening scene is very strong. A woman is being chased through some woods by a killer amidst much thunder and lightning and lots of rapid editing. She runs past a man buried alive and a woman nailed to a tree until she arrives at a boat. A victim in the water tries and fails to climb on to the boat, then killer tries to do the same, but she stabs his hand with a knife and he falls back into the water. Then we flash forward five years, and see the same woman attend her forensic psychology class. The teacher plays mind games with the students, then pulls out a knife and slashes someone in full view of everyone…only it was staged. Sadly after this very striking scene the film takes a nosedive and never entirely recovers. The teenage protagonists are a pretty annoying bunch, even including Molly. She’s undoubtedly been through hell, but her constant rudeness hardly makes her very sympathetic. The film soon resolves itself into alternating often tedious sequences where the teenagers spout out dialogue which seems like it’s trying to be intelligent but is more often just cringe-inducing badness, with kill scenes, while Jurgen Prochnow [can the paycheck have been that good?] lurks in the background as a cop who may know more than everybody else, until the 114 [far too long for a film like this] minute movie plods to its baffling climax.

The first kill is amusingly elaborate and has some inventiveness. The victim [Kelly Brock!] is stabbed several times, then dropped off a balcony on the end of a pulley, from where her blood drips down onto a girl in a white dress dancing at the club below, after which the victim’s body is then smashed through a window. You’ve seen similar images in Carrie, Suspiria and others, but it’s all well done nonetheless. There’s also a tense scene where two victims are attacked by a sawmill buzz saw. One is sliced up and the other has to try and escape from under the jammed blade where all that is stopping her from being chewed up is the other victim’s severed foot caught in the blade! However, director John Eyers thinks that frantic MTV-style editing compensates for hardly actually seeing much that is nasty during the killings, and it just gets irritating after a while, while some of the night time scenes are unintelligibly dark, resulting in a film where it’s often hard to tell what has just happened. Meanwhile the story does have a decent premise, as indicated by my synopsis of the first third, but doesn’t do as much with it as it should, while only Prochnow and Bruce Payne seem to try with any gusto amongst the performers [some of whom also turned up in Wishmaster 3 for some reason]. At times Ripper seems torn between being a dumb slasher flick and a more sophisticated murder thriller and doesn’t satisfy either way….

Which leads me to the ending. What Ripper basically does is give you two explanations, one after the other so it looks like they filmed two endings and used both of them, and strongly hint at another one [hint – if you decide to watch this – glove!]. The writer was obviously attempting to parallel the Ripper murders which have still not been satisfactorily solved, so I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a brave and even praiseworthy attempt at ambiguity that doesn’t really come off due to the poor way it’s done. I will say that this film has a sequel, Ripper 2: Letters From Within, that does offer an explanation, though it’s from a different writer so its validity may be in question. I’m in no rush to see it. Ripper has a few good ideas but all but all but ruins them with poor execution. Perhaps this is one horror film that could be remade to good effect.

Rating: ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆

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About Dr Lenera 1969 Articles
I'm a huge film fan and will watch pretty much any type of film, from Martial Arts to Westerns, from Romances [though I don't really like Romcoms!]] to Historical Epics. Though I most certainly 'have a life', I tend to go to the cinema twice a week! However,ever since I was a kid, sneaking downstairs when my parents had gone to bed to watch old Universal and Hammer horror movies, I've always been especially fascinated by horror, and though I enjoy all types of horror films, those Golden Oldies with people like Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee probably remain my favourites. That's not to say I don't enjoy a bit of blood and gore every now and again though, and am also a huge fan of Italian horror, I just love the style.

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