Ripper: Letter from Hell (2001)

Fresh and Exciting

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

When I saw the title and cover I was hoping that the movie would be like "Ripper" (videogame 1996 starring Christopher Walken). It was an excellent game that combined the old legend about Jack the Ripper with cyber technology. The result a "killer" thriller. But sadly I have to report that "Ripper: Letter from Hell" is nothing like that game. It is just a slasher movie with a very pretentious story. First of all there were some good moments. But overall I missed tension. The murders seem brutal and bloody, but the violence isn't explicit. Also a big problem is that the characters are not very likable. So you won't care for them if they die. The only exciting thing is wanting to find out who the killer is. When the characters have a dialog in one scene it somehow doesn't connect with what happened before the scene. I got the feeling that scenes were missing. This should not have been a problem if the the story was straightforward and clear. This is not the case. The story is confusing as hell. (Maybe that is why we would need a letter to explain things.) And if you were hoping for a decent climax than you will be disappointed. The way it is presented leaves room open for different interpretations. Normally I would love such an ending. Here it isn't very effective. The ending doesn't clear up motive for the killings. Also the connection between Jack the ripper and the killer is not explained very well. There is very little background given on the original Jack the Ripper murders. Assuming that you are not familiar with the murders committed by Jack the Ripper you could easily put some other famous serial killer in his place. The end result would be the same. Since good old Jack still makes quite the impression today he deserves much better treatment. I could have forgiven the pretentious ending if the movie would have been entertaining and exciting but as I said earlier the movie lacked tension and is quite boring. Jurgen Prochnow and Bruce Payne should be ashamed with their performances. It clearly shows that they don't believe in this project and only are in this movie for the money. You know I get it sometimes you have no choice but to be in certain films in order to make a living. But is it that too much too ask that once you are involved you can give it a little effort.I know that like me some of you will be intrigued because of the name Ripper but believe me that nothing remotely interesting has been done with it. A giant waste of your time.

Five years ago, Molly's friends were brutally murdered on an island. Now, she has started a new life and is studying to become a profiler. Soon, the nightmare begins again for poor Molly as it seems as if the killer who's basing his murders on Jack the Rippers murders (a so called copycat killer) is back. Will anyone survive this time or is Jack The Ripper's clone back for good?Ripper was one of the slashers that came out a bit too late to benefit from Scream's success. Even so, the movie actually did pretty good money on DVD and in theaters in Europe. This however is not one of my favorite 2000s slashers. The movie tries to be a serial killer thriller even though it's obviously just another teen slasher flick. None of the characters are very likable. The killer doesn't wear a mask (well except for in the first murder) and we only get to see a hand killing people (like the Italian giallo flick which we have come to love so much). And even though the murders are supposedly brutal, all we get is some pathetic blood splatter and no real gore (Jack the Ripper? Come on, we should be able to crave more gore than this). A.J. Cook is without a doubt the best thing about this movie. She's a very talented actress and even though she got a terrible character in this flick, she still tries to do the best of the situation. Derek Hamilton is also a pretty good actor, unfortunately he doesn't seem too comfortable playing the snobby rich boy in the movie. The movie is quite nicely directed and photographed and it definitely doesn't look like a DTV flick. Some angles are very original and some of the camera-work is also very slick and eye-catching. Some people love this movie, some people hate it, I'm stuck somewhere in between. It starts out as a pretty good teen slasher flick but it feels a bit too ambitious and the ending is a complete mess. I've seen this movie three times now and I still have a problem figuring out what's going on in the big climax (well, maybe I'm just stupid). Either way, Ripper is an all right movie over-all but it tries too hard to be something more than it really is; a shameless Scream rip-off which was released a bit too late to become really famous. Overambitious slasher flick which tries too hard to be more clever than it really is. The story is pretty weak and even though it's a cool concept, it doesn't really work. It's an awesome and extremely entertaining slasher flick.

Girl-running-in-a-thunderstorm-with-killer-close-behind-girl-trips killer-gets-her kind of story. Lots of blood, no originality. One would expect more from a movie which promises serial psycho killers copying Jack the Ripper. No real motivation for the blood bath, least of all a psychological one. Except for the ending which at least creates a little bit of confusion, one could predict every scene at least 10 minutes before it unfolds. Everything in this movie has been done, redone and overdone. It's like watching Scary Movie and taking it seriously. It's been a real disappointment. Where are the calculated blood thirsty psycho killers? What happened to movies like Seven or Silence of the Lambs, with original plots and motifs? Because personally I'm tired of watching helpless blonds being butchered like cattle while instead of defending themselves they scream in agony and then always manage to trip and fall.

Ripper: Letter from hell is a fun and stylish slasher that manages to be better than most of its kind. The plot is fairly silly at times and some of the acting is choppy on the parts of the corpses-to-be but it overall delivers and turns out to be a fun movie. A.J. Cook is awesome as molly and does excellent and steals the stage from everyone. The music is also very very suprisingly good, performed by little-known rock bands, selected well for each scene. The gore is a plus and the death scenes are well done. Overall, Ripper: Letter from hell is a fun movie to watch on a friday night when your all alone in the dark. Also, I really liked the ending, something that you will have to figure out as you think about it days later. GRADE: B-