Ripper: Letter from Hell (2001)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Best movie of this year hands down!

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

IF ANYONE KNOWS, WHO THE KILLER WAS, THEY ARE BETTER THAN ME, I THOUGHT THE PROFESSOR? As 'Teacher' was spelt out, from the last letters of th victims names, but them i thought the blonde girl, as she was on the boat, when some1 fell in the water; but maybe it was Molly all along??? I enjoyed the Film, but seems most didn't!!! So, anyone who can help, with the identity please let me know. I think, i may have to watch it a few times and spot things, i missed first time around. Maybe more gore and violence would of made it better and more sexy scenes, naked girls perhaps? Alex is HOT HOT HOT!!! Anyway let me, know, who you thought, was the KILLER.

When the straight to video horror market is good, it's awesome. It gives us things like Ginger Snaps, The Locals, and in this case Ripper. Granted when it's bad it spits out garbage like Alienator, Curse of the Puppet Master and The Last Broadcast, but the more movies like Ripper I see the happier I am I cast my net further afield than Hollywood.Ripper has a small budget, a relatively unknown cast (aside from Bruce Payne, but I'll come back to that soon) and an unknown director. However, it has what many films of it's ilk lack, an exciting premise and a potential that the movie follows through on.Let me explain that. Ripper falls halfway between Urban Legend and Crimson Rivers. It has a teen slasher side that flashes through in it's cast of cute 20-somethings and script peppered with 'dude' and people saying 'f**k' a lot for no obvious reason (this doesn't really detract from the story though), but also has elements of a sophisticated art-house thriller. Though it doesn't commit to either, it comes out as an exciting hybrid. This is fantastic, as traditionally attempts to make teen slashers intelligent often just come off pretentious (see Scream for details) and attempts to make arty thrillers appeal to wider audiences normally dilute the idea way too much (remember Hannibal?).It has it's down points. I had to turn every damn light in my house off to see what was going on at times, as the night scenes are at times so dark that you'll get eye strain just watching them. Also some of the actors are awful. Many of you will join me in cheering the killer on as certain among their number get what's coming to them.On the good side though, the actors who don't suck are very very good. A.J Cook as Molly is both a great anti-heroine and a wonderful surprise as an actress, and STV veteran Bruce Payne hands in a brilliant turn as the teens' ex-FBI teacher, with a British accent that puts Angelina Jolie et al to shame. Good on you my man, great to hear a convincing accent again! Add to this a twisty turny plot that had me in shock by the time it was finished (seriously, I've seen all the big horror-thrillers and I still didn't see the end coming) and Ripper is exactly what STV is for, showing up the big boys.So, if you think you can hack a movie with some rough edges, and you like a good slasher whodunnit, check this out.

This movie starts out with a bang that will leave you shaking in your seats. Then it decides to explain itself. While another Jack the Ripper wannabe ripoff doesn't sound that original, you soon realize that there is more to this movie than meets the eye. With it's share of gruesome death scenes and jumpy moments, you'll be plenty scared while trying to find out who the hell is killing all these pretty girls. With a thousand different theories as to who could of done this movie keeps you on the edge, and it manages to avoid the typical cop out ending. This movie will keep you guessing all the way back to the movie store. Just don't watch it at night.

This film is vastly underrated. I discovered it by accident when I was browsing the new(ish) dvd releases in my local video store. And I only picked it up because I thought that it would be about Jack the Ripper. Which it wasn't. But I still thought it was good.*** WARNING *** SPOILERS ***A.J. Cook (The Virgin Suicides) is brilliant as Molly Keller. I've long thought that she was a hugely unappreciated actress. The plot of the film is basically this: Molly gets dissed by all these people when she's younger and escapes death when all these people she is hanging out with on an island are killed by a serial killer. About a year passes and she enrolls in a class that seems to focus only on serial killers. *Then* the people who she is in a study group with begin to get killed one by one and each in the style of Jack the Ripper. Turns out all the people that get killed, their initials are the same as the prostitutes that Jack killed. The ending pretty much sucked because we don't find out for sure who the killer actually is. But, and most people would agree with me on this, the soundtrack is *brilliant*.I'd probably give this film *** out of *****