LITERAL REMAINS

I’ve had a fascination with Jack the Ripper just about ever since I was in knee pants.  I’ve read the official stories of the killings, fiction stories, seen movie after movie.  I have yet to read Alan Moore’s original graphic novel, as strange as that sounds, but the film adaption of From Hell is one of the best chronicles, and speculations, about the Ripper.

Everyone knows that in 1888 London, in the impoverished Whitechapel and other districts, a monster stalked the darkened streets and alleys.  The victims, prostitutes, had their throats slit and were, in most instances, severely mutilated with internal organs removed.

Johnny Depp plays Inspector Fred Abberline, assigned to investigate the grisly murders.  Abberline has made a name for himself by solving some crimes with the use of psychic visions.  These visions, though, come from the use of opium and absinthe.  The closer Abberline and his partner, Peter Godley (Robbie Coltrane), get to the heart of the mystery, the more dangerous to the both of them it becomes.  It not only threatens the very government, but it is a matter of the heart when Abberline has a budding romance with one of the intended victims, Mary Kelly.

From Hell was directed by the Hughes brothers, known for Menace II Society and Dead Presidents.  At the time of it’s release, it was pondered why they would go from doing “street movies” to a period film such as this.  Their response was that this is a street movie.  And it is.  From Hell leads us down the dirty streets, looking face to face with the poor, the sick, the criminal, and the wrongly accused.  The period detail is phenomenal, the atmosphere drenching and intoxicating.

This is one of those movies, and I probably say this a lot, I can’t recommend enough.  It’s stylish mystery and horror, with quite a bit of grit, and deserves a better look from us all.  Ripperologists will like it, so will suspense and horror fans.

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