Review of Classic Horror Collection: The Monster / Hands Of The Ripper / The Uncanny

Introduction

Hammer Horror. If these two words tickle stimulate your movie glands, then read no further. I`m sure that you will be more than acquainted with the material on this particular release. I on the other hand am not a horror fan of any kind, let alone Hammer. While the odd moment of gore may evince a visceral reaction, and I`m just as prone to sudden shocks as the next man, I don`t find Horror movies possessing any pervasive mood of terror. Other than the rare exception, (the Omen springs to mind as an example) I only view a horror movie as more of a comedy than anything else. I found the last Elm Street movie that I saw as hilarious, but usually I find the average horror as an excuse for bum numbing tedium. You can guess how thrilled I was when Hands of the Ripper turned up. This is part of the Classic Horror Collection from Carlton, which also contains The Monster and The Uncanny

The scourge that was Jack the Ripper preyed upon Victorian London. He was eventually hunted down. Trapped with his family, the murderer turned on his wife, forever haunting the memory of his young daughter. Years later, when a phoney medium is murdered, suspicion falls on a young woman, Anna. A witness of the crime, Dr Pritchard is a disciple of Freud and sees the young girl as a chance to delve into the psychology of murder. In an attempt to study her, he takes young Anna into his home. But Anna is haunted by her past and a glimpse of a shiny object triggers a fugue state. It only takes an innocent kiss to unleash the most terrible violence, and soon Pritchard is covering up murders to protect the girl with which he is becoming infatuated.

Video

Hands of the Ripper is presented on this Carlton disc in a 1.85:1 anamorphic format. The transfer is quite soft, but fairly clear in the brighter scenes. However the contrast is quite low, with blacks and dark scenes indistinct and murky. There is also a little artefacting in the mistier scenes. A horror movie set in Victorian London would of course be set in misty and dark locations, so that`s convenient.

Audio

You get the DD 2.0 English soundtrack and it is perfectly adequate. The dialogue is always clear, at least when an upper class character is speaking. I had a hard time trying to understand some of the `cockernee` accents.

Features

Just a trailer.

Conclusion

What can I say, I`m not a fan of horror movies, and I barely tolerated the 90 minutes of tedium that Hand of the Ripper delivered. I freely admit that I`m the wrong audience for this, but surely there should be some entertainment value. There must be a reason for Hammer`s amazing success, but it is completely absent here. While I haven`t seen any of the Dracula movies, I have seen a couple of efforts starring Ralph Bates, (Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde) and while they were tacky and formulaic, they were cheap and cheerful fun. The same cannot be said for Hands of the Ripper, which had a dull and uninteresting plot. There was no suspense and the story crept from one turgid scene to another. The Victorian period setting felt underused, and the characters were divided into upper class toffs or `cockernee` ladies of the night. There even was a street urchin tugging earnestly on a forelock. I`d like to say that the acting was so bad that it was good, but in Hands of the Ripper it was just plain bad.

While I don`t seek out the horror department at my local DVD emporium, I can appreciate the occasional bit of spookiness, (usually in an X Files episode) but I have a low tolerance for naffness. This movie had all the alarm bells ringing. I won`t be recommending Hands of the Ripper, and I`m sure there are better offerings from Hammer available.