“Hands of the Ripper” is the fourth Hammer film that yours truly has gotten around to see. The film is widely known as one Hammer’s most gruesome films. Still, I was interested in seeing because of the good luck that I’ve had with a couple of other previous Hammer films.
The film follows Anna, who witnesses a murder of her mother at an early age. The person responsible for her death is Jack the Ripper, aka her father. Years later, she is living with a fake psychic and forced into a horrible life of prostitution. One day, her caregiving is killed mysteriously. A doctor (Eric Porter) believes that Anna killed her, but can’t understand why she did it. He begins to use new Freudian psychoanalysis to find out why she committed the crime. He finds that she’s possessed by the spirit of the notorious killer. Now, he has find a way to stop this unspeakable evil before it too late.
Going into this film, I knew that this was going to be different from the other Hammer films that I’ve previously seen. Still, I enjoyed “Hands of the Ripper” for its dark gothic tone.
The direction here was very good. Director Peter Sasoy does a very good job establishing the film’s tone. Everything had a dark and eerie tone to it, which helped build tension for many of the film’s scenes and made everything feel very gloomy. He also handles the death scenes very well, as its very gory. The gore come off as very horrific and bloody and severed a purpose to the film. It made those death scenes feel a little more shocking for its time period. The performances were very good. I liked the way that he directed his cast. Sasoy does a good job making sure that the performances were good and the cast had good chemistry. It made the characters interesting to watch and kept my interest with the material.
The screenplay written by L.W Davidson was a good one. One of the things that I liked about the screenplay was that it had an interesting story. I liked how, the story focuses on its main characters. Davidson does a very good job with the way that he handles both Anna and Dr. Pritchard. He makes sure that he develops those characters enough that you’re interested in Dr. Pritchard’s obsession in finding out why Anna is murdering these people. The other thing that I liked about this was the way that Davidson made the tone of the film work so well. He does a good job making sure the films has this very distinct tone to it. Whether it was the way the death scenes were written to the psychological and supernatural aspects, everything had a very dark feel to it. It made the horror aspects of The film work so well. It’s a very solid screenplay from this time period of horror.
Blu-Ray Extras:
The first featurette is “The Devil’s Bloody Plaything: Possesed by Hands of the Ripper”. The featurette features interviews from film and Hammer historians, director Peter Sasoy and actresses Jane Merrow and the late Angharad Rees through voiceover. This was a very good featurette, as you got perspective on the film from a historical and filmmaking standpoint. From the production of the film to the various cuts that happened due fights with the censor board, everything was informative and interesting. If you like this film, this worth checking out after watching the film.
The next featurette is “Slaughter of the Innocents: The Evolution of the Gore – Motion Stills Gallery”. This features gory stills from past hammer films such as “Curse of Frankenstein, “Quatermass 2”, “Dracula” and “Kiss of the Vampire” to name a few.
After that, its “Hands of the Ripper” – Motion Stills Gallery. This featurette features a mixture of photos that includes film stills, lobby cards, theatrical posters and behind the scenes photos.
The disc then wraps up with U.S television introductions, original U.S. Theatrical Trailer and TV spots.
Final Summary:
Overall, “Hands of the Ripper” is a very effective psychological horror film with good direction and a solid screenplay. It’s not my favorite Hammer film, but it’s still a very solid gothic film.
Review Rating: Four Stars.
Blu-Ray Extras: Three Stars.
