I know what you did at the end of the 19th Century

Rating: 1/10 (12 June 2002)

Johnny Depp plays Inspector Aberline, a cockney drug addict with psychic powers and a nice line in meaningful stares. His task here is to catch a cunning murderer, going by the moniker `Jack The Ripper', who is disemboweling the local cockney prostitutes.
From the opening scenes, where the whores are portrayed as `unfortunates' with a heart of gold and the gangsters are played as snarling, scar-faced sociopaths, I had my suspicions this wasn't going my particular cup of tea. Subtle? Not a word that springs to mind. The character development was heavy handed, bordering on downright stereotypical. Aberline is given a wife who has died in child birth, therefore he feels alone. Robby Coltrane spouts poetry, therefore he is wise. Mary Kelly has a picture of herself as a child to show that she wasn't always a whore. Big broad strokes.
Additionally, the supporting cast. (Sir Charles Warren, Dr. Ferral, Kidney and his Special Branch hoodlums) where left high and dry with hackneyed dialogue and slender, under-developed roles.
The plot development on the other hand was acceptable, though derivative. A series of vicious murders with one potential victim being singled out for development right from the start. A romantic interlude. It even includes the old chestnut where the lovable whores' leave the relative safety of their lodgings one by one (after being warned to stay of the streets!) and are subsequently slashed. Nothing you haven't seen in the Scream movies. However, there is average development in between this that lifts the story slightly. An interesting conspiracy theory is included and the conclusion was a little less conventional, so I suppose that's something.
The thing that particularly annoyed me was the style of the movie. When I heard that it was filmed in Prague I was expecting beautiful architecture, atmospheric back streets. No... A lot of the scenes looked although they had been filmed on a sound stage, whose sets were not particularly impressive. Now and again CGI shots depicted `Old London Town' in all its computerized glory. The directors used shoddy effects for the flashbacks and the premonitions. Time-lapse was used unnecessarily.
Sound effects during the murder scenes sounded like someone was dueling with a cutlass, rather than eviscerating someone. I'm sure my organs wouldn't clink and chink if someone went at them with a knife. I'd suggest a trip to the Modern Classics section in the video store for the Hughes brothers too see how it should be done.
If you approach this film expecting something other than an average teen slasher movie set in the Victorian era, I think you will be disappointed. I know I was.
Cor Blimey Guvnor, stone the crows!