Hands of the Ripper (1971)

Genre: Horror, Serial Killer

Source: Netflix Instant View

Grade: B+

Ever since I first heard about the Jack the Ripper cases I have been completely fascinated by it and have made a point of watching ever movie and documentary about him. As well as reading ever book I can get my hands on about him. Anyway`s that being said Hands of the Ripper is not truly a straight up account of Jack The Ripper like I thought it was going to be, but rather he`s more of a subplot. This movie is actually much more about Jacks daughter who at a very young age witnessed her mother get brutally murdered by her father Jack The Ripper, now fifteen years later she`s an extremely emotionally disturbed girl whose seemingly possessed now by her father which causes her now to do these brutal murders while in a trance.
     As you can see they took a unique spin on Jack the Ripper and to my relief it turned out very good. One thing I noticed that really impressed me was how they took this one cliché and made like they were going to follow this cliché but then to my surprise they went in a totally opposite direction ending the movie in a way I wasn't expecting. I would tell you what happened but it would completely spoil a few things, so your just going to have to go see it your self.
          Another thing I truly loved was the very authentic looking set design. It thoroughly looks like grimy gloomy Victorian era London. Which in my personal opinion is one of the best settings for a horror movie. Also this is also due to the great direction of Peter Sasdy, whose by far one of my favourite directors from Hammer Studio. He definitely captured the right atmosphere and mood for this movie. One thing though about this movie though is since it was rated R but there wasn't as much nudity or violence as I thought there would be. Infact I don`t remember any nudity at all, but even though there's not a lot of violence but when there is violence its very graphic and gross, (example; a prostitute trys to cover her eyes with her hand but the killer put`s the needles straight into her eyes with gross sound effects and plenty of blood)

          Overall I very much enjoyed this little lesser known Hammer horror movie from the early 70s. It had a great cast who all played there roles very well, especially Eric Porter who played the psychiatrist. It was very well directed and the violence was very satisfying, especially since they didn't go to over the top with it. So i`d definitely recommend this to any fans of Hammer Horror who haven`t seen this movie already or to someone looking for a unique twist on Jack The Ripper. The only ones I can`t really recommend this to are people who hate sad endings, cause this movie has anything but a happy ending.