Hands of the Ripper - Movie Review

As a young girl, Anna bore the misfortune of witnessing her mother’s murder. The murderer was being chased across the city of London by the citizens because this man was responsible for donning a cloak of terror across the city with his sadistic killings of prostitutes. Anna’s father was Jack the Ripper. In a confused, frightful state the Ripper didn’t know where else to go, so he went home and before the public could find him he killed his wife.



It has now been over ten years since that insidious evening. Anna is now working as an assistant to a fraudulent medium who also sells Anna for the evening to lonely gentleman. The evening after one fortuitous session, one of the skeptical attendees, psychologist Dr. John Pritchard, shows sympathy for Anna and agrees to take her in to live at his estate. He decrees that he hopes to aid Anna using the newest theories of an admirable psychologist – Dr. Sigmund Freud - on Anna in regards to childhood experiences’ effects on the behavior of adults. Of course, what none of these people know is that Anna’s childhood was much further from the general definition of normal and now she bares a curse – her father’s curse. Once her psychosomatic urge is triggered, Anna’s hands come to life and act out the same carnal deeds once carried out by her infamous father.


We have had Jack the Ripper face Scotland Yard in reality. In movies he has gone up against the likes of H.G. Wells and his time machine in Time After Time. He was a chemically transforming transsexual in Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, and in every medium thus far conceived has run across Sherlock Holmes – most particularly in the films A Study in Terror and Murder by Decree. Now, in Hands of the Ripper, we have the acts of the Ripper facing a fresh adversary on a new playground. Inside the mind, courtesy of Dr. Sigmund Freud, which translates poetically in Hands of the Ripper, because it is the Ripper’s offspring facing Freud’s theories through Dr. Pritchard’s usage.


Hands of the Ripper was an interesting experiment in itself. What the talented, veteran Hammer films director Peter Sasdy (Countess Dracula) tried to do was keep the movie and story focused on the psychological aspects of Anna, her childhood, and the effects it implicated upon her mind all the while maintaining the traditional Hammer film flair of captivating atmosphere and unbridled violence.


Hammer Films regular Eric Porter (The Day of the Jackal) sternly portrays a concerned Dr. John Pritchard whose true intentions are obvious to everyone in the audience and yet not to himself. Once he begins donating all of his late-wife’s belongings to Anna, it is clear where his character’s actions are leading. Angharad Rees has an adorable, innocent face and fit perfectly in the role of a sub conscientious killer, and while the murders are few they are intense; and maybe one that is awkward, perhaps questionable, but still lovely and bloody.


Hands of the Ripper is a sweet surprise and something slightly out of the ordinary for a Hammer films production. While the acting is up to standard, the character development has issues with logic, but I suppose when dealing with killers and love, how much say does logic really have? As a fan of old horror films, especially Hammer films, I enjoyed Hands of the Ripper and recommend it to anyone interested in more than gore porn and body counts. There is an interesting tale being told here – story matters.