Ripper: Letter from Hell (2001)

Just what I expected

Great Film overall

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Here's a list of things Ripper gets wrong:1) It's a post-Scream slasher 2) It's full of terrible music and horrible quick-cut editing 3) It's one hour and forty-five minutes long (A slasher film!) 4) With the exception of Bruce Payne and Jurgen Protchnow, the acting is terribleAnd if you think I'm going to say 'in spite of this, I liked it' then you're wrong. It was crap!After a promising pre-credits sequence where a girl named Molly survives a serial killer's rampage, we're thrown right into smart arse territory as we see our victims are all part of a college class who are studying murderers, or something. We've got our post-Scream list of morons here: goth-like Molly who keeps her past a secret, Marissa (Kelly Brook!), who's the nymph, twitchy red herring guy, the dark stud guy, the wisecracking guy, and the bitch, who hates Molly and serves to introduce an unneeded teeny drama element to the proceedings. Their teacher is Bruce Payne, an ex-FBI profiler who also has a dark secret. Everyone, with the exception of the twitchy guy, is confident and annoying. We run slap bang into the film's main problem here: too much talking! We get a lot of babble about serial killers (looks at watch), characters establishing themselves (nods off), and a fake killing instigated by the teacher (pffft). Eventually we get to the first killing, which, for anyone who sat through The Big Breakfast on British television, is mercifully Kelly Brook. She's stabbed to death in a nightclub in a way that turns out to be exactly the same way Jack the Ripper killed his first victim (more lengthy discussions about Jack the Ripper here, and indeed this goes on throughout the film). To cut a very long story short (there are only two killings in the first hour!), one of the students (or maybe the teacher) is killing everyone else in the way Jack the Ripper killed his victims. Turns out all the students have the same initials as the victims of Jack (how stupid is that?) so they know who's going to be next. Throw in some Dawson's Creek drama (Molly likes the stud, but the Bitch tries to derail things), some truly daft contrivances (the initials thing, Molly being able to hack the police database) and a severe lack of gore and nudity, and you have a truly rubbish slasher flick. What drags this film way, way down is the deadly serious tone, the crappy music (nu-metal, some emo style crap) and the acting of the younger cast. Check out Molly's tantrum which seems to involve throwing cushions around and spray painting! Also, the 'killing Jack the Ripper style' plot is plainly dropped after the first two kills (unless Jack the Ripper used a bandsaw and a hatchet), plus the ending is completely daft and annoying.It is well made enough, but the post-Scream era wasn't a great time for slasher films. What Scream missed was that, yes, the older films had clichés, and were predictable, but they were fun! Don't believe me: try Pieces (1982), Don't Open Till Christmas (1984), and any other Sleepaway Camp films. Much better. Avoid!

Typical slasher movie about a copycat killer, with young people doing things that they shouldn't and getting butchered. I could pretty much predict everything that was going to happen. You'd think that something focusing on Jack the Ripper might be a little more interesting, but "Ripper" doesn't cut it. The most befuddling thing is that Jurgen Prochnow stars in this. He played the submarine captain in "Das Boot" and the terrorist leader in "Air Force One", so what's he doing here? If you want to see a good movie dealing with Jack the Ripper, the choices are: "The Ruling Class" (Peter O'Toole's character ends up believing himself to be Jack the Ripper); "Time After Time" (H.G. Wells chases Jack the Ripper into 1970s San Francisco); and "From Hell" (Johnny Depp plays a detective investigating the murders in 1880s London). And of course some people might include "Dr. Strangelove" (Sterling Hayden plays Gen. Jack Ripper).All in all, you'll do best to avoid this one.

Whoever stayed around after filming "Wishmaster 3", to investigate which office supplies could be sold for crack money, was also forced into "Ripper". Which is probably better, but so is being chained to a bear. "Ripper" goes for the tired old whodunit slasher approach, but it has the handicap that you really just don't care. I guess it could be that professor, or that scary inspector guy (he specialises in investigating little girls' bedrooms), but this has so many twists you really just end up picking a character at random, you always have the same chances anyway. The ending is confusing, mainly because the director freely admitted he left in two separate endings just for the sake of confusing everyone. That's just pure professionalism right there. Not a very entertaining B-movie.

I paid £1.49 for this and I'd say I got my moneys worth. As you'd expect it's very derivative of most films of this genre and treads a fine line between credibility and hokum. However it's not cringe-inducing bad and I'd probably rate it a lot higher if it weren't for the lack of a clearcut resolution at the end. Even the Director's Commentary failed to shed any light on the definitive solution, basically saying it's up to the audience to decide for themselves - acceptable in a more highbrow production but a bit annoying for a film of this level. Still I've seen a lot worse and it's worth the small change from anyone's pocket!