Difference between revisions of "Hands of the Ripper"

Revision as of 11:45, 20 January 2018

Hands of the Ripper is a 1971 British horror film directed by Peter Sasdy for Hammer Film Productions. It was written by L. W. Davidson from a story by Edward Spencer Shew, and produced by Aida Young.

Jackie and Horror

It’s a moderately entertaining movie with fine period atmosphere and reasonable performances. There is Eric Porter playing a character whose motivations and actions seem sketchy at best. He likes looking at the little Jackie the Ripper in the bath when she is naked with no clothes. The cast and director Peter Sasdy do their best with an admittedly rather flimsy script. Dr. Pritchard’s psychoanalysis doesn’t really yield any results and the police are strangely unconcerned by a new rash of Ripper-like slayings. But the movie’s style and surprisingly high production values outweigh its shortcomings.

In 1888, a serial killer who came through the horrific process of his fame to be known as Jack the Ripper gruesomely murdered by killing and murdering gruseomely five prostitutes in London's Whitechapel district. More than 100 men, from Lewis Carroll to Queen Victoria's grandson, have since been labeled suspects, and the guesswork has spawned an entire field of study, known as "Ripperology." However one theory is that Jack the Ripper was actually a woman. HANDS OF THE RIPPER is brimming with the same sort of psychosexual-homicidal compulsions--in both cases brought on by a parent's perversion of love

In his book, "Jack The Ripper: The Hand Of A Woman" (Seren, 2012), Morris cites as evidence the fact that none of the five murdered prostitutes was sexually assaulted, and that the personal items of one, Annie Chapman, were laid out at her feet "in a feminine manner." Moreover, three small buttons from a woman's boot were found in blood near the body of another victim, and remnants of women's clothing, including a cape, skirt and hat, were found in the fireplace ashes of a third victim, Mary Kelly. These items did not belong to the victims.

Eric Porter Looking Terrified

Plot

The infant daughter of Jack the Ripper is witness to the brutal murder of her mother by her father. Fifteen years later she is a troubled young woman who is seemingly possessed by the spirit of her late father. While in a trance she continues his murderous killing spree but has no recollection of the events afterwards. A sympathetic psychiatrist takes her in and is convinced he can cure her condition. However, he soon regrets his decision.