**** out of 5

Rating: Null/10 (2 September 2002)

Before Manson and before Gein and before Burkowitz there was Jack the Ripper. There is something about serial killers that fascinate me but there is something about this film that sits horribly unwell with me, maybe that's half the fun of it. Where Helter Skelter and Summer of Sam gave us a biographical accout (although fictionalized in Summer of Sam) of our well known killers, this film puts us into a time frame where these events happened and tells us not what actually happened but what could have happened. For all those who have not followed the story of Jack the Ripper should know that the case never got the proper explanation it deserved and has gone unsolved all these years. It is 1888 and a madman is killing off prostitutes in a ritualistic fashion. It is up to Scotland Yard inspector, Fred Abberline (a riviting Johnny Depp) who is sent to track down the killer because he posses a power to visualize the crimes in his dreams before they happen. The killers methods are that of an educated man as he always pursuades the girls with grapes and something to drink, then he slits their throat and steals some of their intestines. Heather Graham is the uninteresting, yet important Mary Kelly, on of the whores who seems to be marked for death and also begins a romance with Abberline that is probably unlikly considering the time frame but thats debatable. Ripper followers won't get anything new from the film but is still interesting to watch nevertheless. It is clear that the Hughes Brothers have directional talent. The remind me here of a cross between Tim Burton and David Lynch and must be given credit for not reducing the film to a mindless slasher flick. The film playes more like a dense, atmospheric character study rather than the tense thriller the trailer suggested even though there is no lack of violence and and plenty of gore and did I mention several are very chilling. Where most films like this try to hard to provide vibrent costumes and elegant landscapes this film delievers both but never strays away from the task at hand, it's not out to proove a point, but trying to at least get one across. The only flaw I can visably point out is that the most effective scenes are the ones that feature Jack the Ripper himself, just to bad the film tries harder to portray Depp's drug problems and relationship with Graham that the Ripper seems to be put on a side note than a major plot point like one would expect, loosing a bit of the overall power and effect, but with strong scripting and psychidelic direction this one, although very hard to stomach, is well worth the while.