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Although the Ripper murders were obviously a true historical event, the facts of the case have become so confused over the years that they lend themselves naturally to fictional embellishment. Many previous literary and movie adaptations have done a half-assed job taking a crack at the story, but the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell struck a particular chord with its evocative black and white sketch drawings and convoluted conspiracy theory about the killer's identity. The movie is based on that comic, but is faithful more in spirit than in detail. The comic, for example, wastes little time revealing the killer and is told primarily from his point of view. That would pretty much deflate the suspense in a movie, so the plotting has been substantially reworked while attempting to remain true in intention and tone.

Albert and Allen Hughes, the twin brothers famous for directing Menace II Society and Dead Presidents, may not sound like the first choice for this type of material (there is not a single black character in the film), but they treat it as a natural extension of their ‘hood movies. Stripping away the period costumes and British accents, this is a story about inner city poverty, violence, drug abuse, oppression, and crime. It's right up their alley. They had already proven themselves accomplished film stylists and they take enthusiastic delight crafting a flashy B horror picture with a lot of gore and some devilish thrills. The movie is much more than that, though. It is also a clever police procedural that plays with themes of racism, sexism, class warfare, and mental illness.

Unfortunately, the film takes two significant missteps. The first involves Johnny Depp's police inspector having drug-fueled clairvoyant visions of the killer. This device may provide the directors with an excuse for some stylish visual shorthand, but it is a bit of a hackneyed cliche at this point. The other weak link in the chain is the presence of Heather Graham, both as an actress and a character. Her Mary Kelley is a misconceived character and the love story aspect of the plot is never convincing. Kelley is supposed to be a prostitute, yet unlike all of the other girls she is never shown at work. She is also much better looking than any of the other whores, has better skin, better hair, and dresses in much nicer clothes. I call this the Pretty Woman Syndrome. The filmmakers assume that the audience will not develop sympathy for her as a romantic lead unless they soften the edges. As such, she is completely out of place in this movie. It doesn't help that Graham isn't much of an actress. She proves here yet again that she only ever had one good performance in her. Rollergirl, may you rest in peace, wherever you are.

Nevertheless, the film's strengths outweigh its weaknesses. Robbie Coltrane is a strong benefit as Depp's Shakespeare-quoting partner, and I have yet to see a movie with Ian Holm in the cast that isn't at least a little interesting. From Hell is scary, smart, and a lot of fun. Is the movie's elaborate conspiracy plotline historically accurate? Probably not. Does it make a great movie? Absolutely. This is one of the best horror films I've seen in years.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

Peter Deming's photography is a complex layering of darkness upon darkness. The film often sports a drab, almost monochromatic look in homage to its black & white source material (and the story's dingy settings), with sudden bursts of shocking color that break through at key moments. This could easily have been muddled in the transition from film to video, but fortunately the THX-mastered disc transfer is exquisite. Letterboxed to 2.35:1 with anamorphic enhancement, the DVD features a sharp image with well-realized colors and strong shadow detail during even the murkiest of scenes. I noticed little in the way of visual artifacts or excessive edge enhancement. Fox has performed an excellent transfer that captures the nuances of this difficult cinematography.

Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?

The soundtrack comes in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 flavors. The disc's authoring prevents you from switching between the two tracks without going back to the menu each time. This is annoying, and I have been seeing it on a lot of DTS discs lately, no doubt to make a direct comparison difficult. I watched the entire film through with the DTS soundtrack, which was very nice, and later rewatched certain scenes in Dolby Digital. To be honest, I think I liked the Dolby Digital a little better. It had crisper sound effects and more aggressively defined separation effects, providing a seemingly more expansive soundstage. The DTS track, on the other hand, had smoother sounding dialogue and more swell to the music. They are both terrific. Choose based on your natural inclination.

This is a great soundtrack, with lots of swishing knife blades and other sharp sound effects coming from every direction, as well as a robust amount of bass. Both audio options deliver it nicely. No matter which you select it will surely give your sound system a workout and, in my case, have the wife screaming bloody murder about turning down the volume.

Also available are French and Spanish dub tracks in plain Dolby Surround. The disc has English subtitles for the hearing impaired (sound effects are spelled out) as well as true Closed Captions, but no other subtitle options.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Fox has put together a great two-disc limited edition loaded with genuinely worthwhile bonus features. The supplements start on Disc 1 with the audio commentary by Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes, screenwriter Rafael Yglesias, cinematographer Peter Deming, and actor Robbie Coltrane. Each was recorded separately and the sessions have been spliced together into one well-focused track. This is the third commentary effort for the Hughes Brothers (the first two appearing on Criterion laserdisc but not yet on DVD), but they start it off by admitting that they were tired of the commentary format and did not initially want to do one for this film. As a result, their presence on the track is understated and Yglesias dominates the majority of the discussion. Regardless, it is a very good commentary with a great amount of information about the story's intentions and the changes made from the historical facts for the purposes of artistic license. Albert (or is it Allen? Their voices are nearly indistinguishable) comes back at the end for a very funny and frank rant about movie studio politics that may leave you almost as depressed as he seems to be.

Following this are no fewer than 20 deleted scenes and an alternate ending. There is some good stuff here, most of which does not really need to be in the movie and was wisely cut. The alternate ending is visually striking but does not work nearly as well as the one eventually used. Albert Hughes provides an optional commentary over all of these scenes describing why each was cut, and provides some insight into the editing process. As he explains, most filmmakers hit a stage in post-production where they become dissatisfied with their work and want to cut it to pieces, only to slowly add things back as they go. Rounding off Disc 1 are some THX Optimizer test patterns. The animated menus for the disc are very stylish, but the text is small and often difficult to read.

Disc 2 contains the rest of the bonus features and has more legible menus. Offered here are 6 featurettes (each in 4:3 full frame) and the theatrical trailer, which does not sell the film particularly well. Jack the Ripper: 6 Degrees of Separation is an examination of the real Ripper case evidence and how it conflicts with the fictional treatment of it in the film. All of the key suspects, including several not used in the movie, are introduced. I'm sure that dedicated "Ripperologists" may not find much new here, but novice sleuths will learn some fascinating information. The featurette itself runs 30 minutes, but activating the magnifying glass icon that pops up on screen regularly will take you to excerpts from an older television documentary that presents an alternate theory (supporting that used in the movie) about the killer's identity. All told, there is close to an hour's worth of material in this section of the disc. A warning for the squeamish: At several points we are shown extremely graphic autopsy photos of the actual victims. These are the real thing, not Hollywood prosthetic effects.

The Production Design featurette runs 12 minutes and describes the hard work needed to recreate Victorian London from scratch on the outskirts of Prague. I recommend jumping from this to the 8-minute Tour of the Murder Sites, since the two programs work nicely together. The Hughes Brothers walk us through the elaborate street sets and point out many details only glimpsed in the movie. The Graphic Novel Comparison is a 10-minute look at the Alan Moore source comic and how much of it was changed for the movie. We are allowed a good peek at the original artwork, including some sexually explicit images that were not retained in the film. Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder (also 10 minutes) is a romanticized historical lesson about the illicit drink, as explained by two aficionados who have undoubtedly partaken in their share of it.

Unfortunately, even great special editions sometimes throw in a little bit of worthless crap. In this case, we've got the 15-minute A View from Hell featurette. This is pure promotional junk designed for cable TV filler. Heather Graham hosts, annoyingly. It's barely worth one viewing.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

No ROM extras have been included.

Parting Thoughts