Salocin

Hell ... to watch

The only thing to be butchered in the Hughes brothers' Ripper adaptation is the source material.

Based on Alan Moore's graphic novel, From Hell presents a 'solution' to the identity of Jack the Ripper.

However, where the original text was the work of years on the part of Alan Moore who meticulously researched every character, fact and event in order to create a sense of both the time and the place, the film abandons the vast majority of facts. That it does this to no good end is doubly depressing.

The movie takes a cavalier approach to the facts associated with the case for no good dramatic reason. The writers clearly had trouble finding a device to tell the tale effectively since they have introduced a laughable device whereby Inspector Abberline (Depp) gets his clues through visions received whilst under the influence of opium.

It is a shame, since Depp struggles manfully with the part and a cockney accent that grows on him rather like his sideburns.

Heather Graham appears to have jumped out of the pages of a fashion magazine into East End London (the Ripper victims were over 40 and toothless).

However, all of the above would be forgiveable if the film managed to conjure even the slightest sense of dread or horror. However, it is so cool to its subject, and the images are so clean and precise as to render the audience completely distanced from the subject matter. The Hughes brothers are not horror directors and clearly have no clue as to how to use the mechanism of cinema to create horror in their audience.

Sadly, sitting through this rubbish is as close as I think I want to get to hell.