Dark and atmospheric adaptation of Alan Moore"s cult comic book, 'From Hell' is an absorbing, albeit occasionally over stylised, dose of historical fiction which deals with the Whitechapel murders of 1888, as Queen Victoria's England plays host to Jack the Ripper; whose murderous, but calculated, rampage against prostitutes in London's East End (killing / mutilating five women in total), mark him out as one of the most infamous serial killers of all time. Johnny Depp is cast in his element as clever cockney detective and opium addict; Inspector Fredrick Abberline, paired with officer Godley (an on form Robbie Coltrane) the pair is tasked to bring Jack to justice, though a dizzying array of suspects, deep rooted police corruption, prejudice, misinformation and shadowy Masonic shenanigans only serve to aid the elusive evildoer in his heinous deeds. 'From Hell' is part police procedural, part supernatural horror, grisly thriller and labyrinthine murder mystery, but with such an expansive storyline, directors Albert & Allen Hughes just plough right in: introducing us to the working girls with an initially overwhelming, and unusually lengthy, opening sequence in the local pub. I'll be the first to admit that this doesn't appear to be the best way to begin a film, though on reflection, proves to be a daring and deceptively clever way to immerse the audience into an unfamiliar world of Dickensian inequity, of dead end poverty & desperation; an entire social class crippled under an imperial juggernaut of industrialised modernity. An English establishment who, in an unsurprising act of monumental hypocrisy, refuses to acknowledge its red light district, dismissively referring to its indentured servants as "unfortunates", look out for familiar faces Susan Lynch, the late Katrin Cartilage and Estelle Skornik (Nicole from those 'Pappa & Nicole' Renault Clio commercials) playing the prostitutes / potential victims. The film's leading lady; redheaded hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold Mary Kelly (a miscast Heather Graham), begins an off-the-clock affair with Abberline, meanwhile, his frequently sabotaged investigation leads to an encounter with Royal physician Sir William Gull (an excellent Ian Holm) who may have information regarding an alleged romance between Victoria's son HRH Prince Edward Albert Victor and a missing prostitute who recently gave birth.

Comic book fans decried the decision to make Abberline a semi-psychic empath plagued with disturbing, yet revelatory, premonitions bought on in an opiate induced stupor, but it works out quite well. Depps"s humorous banter with Coltrane is also surprisingly good and I loved Abberline's research montages (never has a library scene been so intense) though its desire to cover a variety of subplots only serves to distract us from the case (Brian De Palma's 'The Black Dahlia' had similar pace issues) and 'From Hell' loses momentum as it meanderings around a London bathed in perpetual darkness and fog. I found the ending rather flat, for it just seems to fizzle out in a manner that's neither pensive nor particularly satisfying. A rich subtext involves 'The British Empire' as a mirror of the Ripper's bloody reign; both parasitic and opportunistic in their dealings, both preying upon the riches of another. Jack a profane violator of the flesh and institutional desecrator of a nation's wealth (i.e. its youth and women), the Empire, through similar acts of terror, managing to impoverish and enslave entire civilisations; both individual and nation enslaved to a system that makes prostitutes of us all. Hughes also manages to touch upon issues and academic hypothesis such as the Royal connection and Catholic / Protestant conflict as an MO for murder. The Freemasons also play a major role in this picture, and it's possible that some people didn't quite appreciate the symbolic nature of neo-pagan re-enactment rituals (as there's not nearly enough time to go into such detail) hence may not have had as great an appreciation for how Abberline cracks the case. Scenes in the Masonic temple chapter rooms are filmed with rich detail that should appeal to those with an interest in secret societies and how they've intertwined with the establishment in an attempt to exert a shared influence/agenda upon an unsuspecting public. Now this may be heresy to graphic novel purists; but I'm of the opinion that Alan Moore movie adaptations, with the exception of 'LXG', have surpassed their source material in terms of visual flair, narrative scope and cinematic creativity, 'V: For Vendetta' is already considered a modern classic by some (your reviewer included) whilst director siblings the Hughes brothers, whose popular ghetto efforts 'Menace II Society' and 'Dead Presidents' gave little indication of their ability to tackle a period piece with the authenticity & directorial confidence they bring to 'From Hell', have managed to assemble an impressive, highly underrated and occasionally unsettling picture. With a captivating, often intense, performance by Johnny Depp, 'From Hell', though uneven in places, still has the power to provoke questions. For if all this movie does is inspire an audience to have an enquiring mind about what lurks behind the shadows; then it's already done more than a lot of similar films in this genre. Jack The Ripper is attributed to having said that he gave birth to the 20th century, it's a taunting boast that brings shame upon those whose evil crimes of empire, slavery, war, murder and holocaust made that century and, it seems, this new one, the bloodiest in the history of human civilisation, it is a sad indictment of us all; that the Ripper was right. Grim & gritty.