From Hell 2001 reimagines the Ripper legend with gothic style, gruesome mystery, and a dash of opium-fuelled clairvoyance, writes DAVID SAUNDERSON
TITLE: From Hell
RELEASED: 2001
DIRECTORS: Albert and Allen Hughes
CAST: Johnny Depp, Heather Graham, Ian Holm, Robbie Coltrane
Review of From Hell 2001
The Whitechapel murders have inspired countless films, TV series and novels – but none quite like From Hell 2001.
Directed by the Hughes Brothers and starring Johnny Depp, Heather Graham and Ian Holm, the film adapts Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s acclaimed graphic novel into a grim, Gothic conspiracy thriller.
Inspector Frederick Abberline (Depp), a troubled detective plagued by opium-fuelled visions, is called to investigate a string of brutal murders in London’s East End.
The victims – working-class women struggling to survive – are stalked by a killer the press dubs “Jack the Ripper“.
Abberline’s investigation leads him into the heart of the Establishment, where a shocking Royal and Masonic conspiracy is revealed.
The central theory – that the murders were part of a Masonic plot to cover up an illegitimate Royal heir – comes straight from Stephen Knight’s now-debunked book Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution.
Historically, it is almost certainly nonsense.
If the Royals had been involved, it would have come out long ago.
As ever, it is safer to bet on a lone killer or a police blunder than on a grand conspiracy.
Still, as cinema, it is fun.
The Masonic symbols, shadowy surgeons and secret societies give the film a lurid Gothic energy that makes up for its historical leaps.
Every reviewer agreed on one thing – From Hell 2001 looks incredible.
Prague stands in for Victorian Whitechapel, and the filmmakers conjure up a world of gaslight, fog and filth.
The sets, costumes and atmosphere are so convincing that they almost overshadow the story.
The supporting cast – Robbie Coltrane, Ian Holm, Jason Flemyng – give the film a strong British backbone.
The violence is grim without being gratuitous.
The mood veers between horror and detective story, with a touch of comic book exaggeration.
It is not as sober or thorough as the 1988 Michael Caine Jack the Ripper mini-series, but it was never trying to be.
Like far too many horror films, From Hell cannot resist shoehorning in a romance.
Depp’s Abberline is paired with Heather Graham’s Mary Kelly, the most famous of the Ripper’s victims – except here she survives and escapes.
It is pure Hollywood, and it undermines the reality.
In truth, Mary Kelly was butchered in her room in one of the Ripper’s most shocking crimes.
By rewriting history into a tragic love story, the film drifts into the same territory as Bram Stoker’s Dracula 1992, where romance drowns out the horror.
Equally distracting are Abberline’s “visions” – an invention that turns him into a psychic detective rather than the dogged, practical policeman he really was.
From Hell 2001 is not the definitive Jack the Ripper film – and perhaps we will never get one.
But as a Gothic horror-thriller, it works.
It is stylish, sinister and full of atmosphere, even if the script takes wild liberties with history.
The romance subplot is unnecessary fluff, but if you can set that aside, there is much to enjoy in its foggy alleys and Freemason nightmares.
Think of it less as history, more as a fever dream – a comic book brought to life in gaslight and gore.
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