FROM HELL
Starring: Johnny Depp, Heather Graham
Directed by: Albert & Allen Hughes
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox

Date: 10/24/01
By: Gerry Wang

    I've been a fan of the Hughes Brothers ever since their first movie, MENACE II SOCIETY, came out. I own it on DVD and show it off to people. Its gritty portrayal of the brutality of the South Central Los Angeles streets hasn't diminished in its ability to rankle you even to this day. Their next movie, DEAD PRESIDENTS, was also good, but bit off more than it could chew in terms of scope. Nonetheless, it contained some graphic scenes that remain vivid in my memory.

    So it's w/ great disappointment that I proclaim FROM HELL the worst of the three movies the Allen Brothers have made. Although they are extremely gifted at depicting the harsh violence of the streets, it wasn't a good idea bring their style of filmmaking to late-19th Century London. 

Johnny Depp is Inspector Abberline.

    By using rapid editing, shutterbug special effects, and intersplicing scenes of tangential bizareness, the Hughes Brothers have turned what should've been a period piece into a piece of pop entertainment that neither caters to the Merchant Ivory crowd nor the MTV crowd. I was just never able to enjoy on a deep level.

    The story of Jack the Ripper is one I've never seen on screen before. I've read about it, but never in great detail, and it's fascinating, in a sick sort of way. Here was history's first serial killer who started offing whores in turn-of-the-20th Century London. He gruesomely murders five whores (though there may have been more) and all of a sudden the killings stop. They never catch the guy.

I wish all whores looked like Heather Graham.

    Great shit right? Especially now that it's close to Halloween. It should've made for a creepy slasher movie at the very least, but instead FROM HELL is really a grisly whodunit, where we're trying to figure who Jack the Ripper is. This would be fine, but FROM HELL is devoid of any suspense and scariness. I didn't give a rat's ass about the skanky whores he was killing.

    Reading about the horrific atrocities committed by Jack the Ripper has more of an effect than watching them on the movie screen. The real gore took place offscreen, and I couldn't help but feel slighted. This movie really ain't all that nasty. Maybe just one scene where a skank's throat is slashed, but the rest of the murder scenes really leaves it up to your imagination. I'm hoping the Hughes Brothers toned it down for the theatrical release and will show us all the sick shit in the DVD.

I'll bet you anything these images were doctored and sanitized.

    But one bright spot is the cast. Johnny Depp, as Inspector Abberline, is once again superb as he always is, and Heather Graham, as Mary Kelly, might just be the most attractive whore since Julia Roberts. But FROM HELL sells her character short. We're meant to sympathize for her, but we never see her getting down and dirty w/ some scumbag. We never feel any pity. If filthy clothes and bad teeth are meant to elicit pity, then I guess I'm heartless.

    In many respects, FROM HELL failed for me much as ELIZABETH did. We were sucked out of the historical era by modern, stylistic filming techniques that do nothing but seem anachronistic. Here, the Hughes Brothers use a lot of rich color and darkness to set the mood. I really must commend their attention to detail in recreating the streets of London in 1888. It feels like you're really there. But then we see a green beehive and you're all of a sudden not really there anymore.

    I wanted to watch a period piece, but instead I got SCREAM 4: JACK-GOT-KNIVES-IN-THE-BOX.

Controversial last murder right here. What really  happened to Mary Kelly?

Grade: B
-- More style than substance, but nonetheless an entertaining movie that boasts great atmosphere and setting.

Babe-o-meter: D+
-- Heather Graham might be the best-looking Victorian-era whore, but the rest of them are fucking skanky: bad teeth, filthy skin, dirty clothes. Fuck, they totally killed my libido.