From Hell (DVD 2004)

Folks, this is not a picnic you’re embarking on here. It’s dark and it stays in the dark - and it keeps you there. The good thing with cinema is that there is a scriptwriter who decides what’s going to happen, the problem with reality is that it’s irrevocable. And so here the script was irrevocably ‘written’ by the very real and very sick Jack the Ripper, a mysterious and never caught psycho/criminal who tore apart the flesh of a bunch of prostitutes in the London of the late nineteen century – the London of Conan Doyle. So what you expect is what you get – without mildness. It’s a film about insanity, secret societies, abominable crimes and police investigation. Johnny Depp leads the investigation with his best somber talent.

Even though we don’t see the ripping (it’s not a horror movie), we swim in their dire consequences like in sheer blood. This film makes you feel a little as if something atrocious was happening close to you, to your friends and family. There is a sordid atmosphere that permeates every sequence and floats all along. The kind of atmosphere where love cannot blossom – even though it will try.

If we’re talking cinema there is some artistry in the making. It’s certainly not a Hollywood movie with heavy stunts and an array of commonplaces. Rather the contrary. The directing is creative and its sensitive realism renders the action even more crude and horrid. There is even that little gaucherie that manages to add more realism – and entraps your emotions into futile hopes. The actors are superb and they give us rich interpretations. In its kind it’s a beautiful daring film, but we might wish to see all this talent put into somewhat more optimistic and hopeful enterprise.

So, if you’re not afraid of dark and devious atmosphere, well then this one was tailored for you.