It’s been some since I read Allan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s From Hell but I remember two things about it: the length and amount of research poured into it. This film adaptation is by no means as definitive as the graphic novel but it is as compelling, believable, and frightening.
In Whitechapel, London, 1888, a serial killer is targeting prostitutes. The crimes' brutality leaves the city in a state of shock and the police are ill-equipped to stop whoever is responsible. Whitechapel Police Inspector Frederick Abberline (Johnny Depp) is charged with finding answers. His interrogations of the victims' friends, Mary Kelly (Heather Graham), Polly Nichols (Annabelle Apsion), Annie Chapman (Katrin Cartlidge), Liz Stride (Susan Lynch), and Kate Eddowes (Lesley Sharp) show a possible link between "Jack the Ripper" and London's high society.
Once in a while, we get a fictionalized account of true events so radical and so well put together you wished it were true. Much of this film’s appeal comes from the real crimes themselves. Set in a time that’s not so far back that superstition overtook reason but not so far into the modern era of humanity that they didn’t have idiotic prejudices hindering the police investigations. Deep down, you know Jack the Ripper was never caught, which makes you wonder what kind of revisionist history we'll get here. That’s when our hero comes in. He's an intelligent investigator that, like the audience watching this film, looks at the facts. While suffering from a crippling opium addiction, he manages to get the clues, eliminate the red herrings, and orient the pieces in a way that seems to be leading to the ultimate answer. Too bad society itself is unknowingly helping the killer get away with the murders.
This film takes the already fascinating story of Jack the Ripper and makes it doubly entertaining. Not only do we get the police's viewpoint, we see what the situation was like for the victims. Times were already tough enough but it was even harder for the women being preyed upon. Poor, uneducated, seen as garbage by the other members of society and assumed to be in their situation because of some genetic trait, no one is the least bit concerned when they turn up dead but you do. The film develops them effectively. They don’t want to be prickpinchers but make the best of their situation. They have their jokes amongst themselves, they have dreams, friends, moments of sadness, and families. When they're forced to return to the streets night after night, you're worried.
There's much more going on in From Hell than just the investigation of the Whitechapel murders. This movie is one great paranoid development after another. You're excited to see where the murders lead but when we see the crime scenes, it turns from thriller to horror film. More often than not, the ghoulish slayings are hinted at rather than shown but once in a while, you'll see a scene you can never unsee.
From Hell is a great thriller that keeps you wondering, and curious to see more. Its most intense scenes will shock even seasoned movie-goers. If I were a gambling man I’d put my money on From Hell being the best Jack the Ripper film brought to screen.
