Jack the knife

>> Depp hunts the Victorian serial killer in From Hell

by MATTHEW HAYS

Fraternal directing team Allen and Albert Hughes certainly seem to have a fascination with prostitutes. Their last film, the feature-length doc American Pimp, focussed on the men who own and trade female sex workers. Their current film, a period horror-mystery titled From Hell, focusses on Jack the Ripper, the mysterious, famous serial killer who preyed on ladies of the night.

As well as their prostitute motif, the two films do share something in terms of their actual treatment of the stories. American Pimp, while titillating and fun to watch at points, was essentially a fairly simplistic and not terribly deep treatment of its subjects. Why not more interviews with the actual prostitutes, with questions about how they felt about the pimps lording over them?

Similarly, From Hell feels deeply shallow. We have all the gruesomeness one might expect in a Hughes Brothers movie: slash, slash, bleed, bleed, die (this cycle repeats itself several times). The film follows the narrative of the comic book of the same name: mysterious killer is pursued by opium-addicted detective (played here by Johnny Depp) who falls for one of the threatened prostitutes (Heather Graham). Depp is a bit of good casting; Graham, who can't quite muster a British accent, turns out to be a rather bad call. The film delves into the conspiracy theory about Jack, the one that suggests he was involved, somehow, with the royal family.

I caught this film at the Toronto International Film Festival. It is the type of film that the fest's detractors point to, as an example of an empty star vehicle which has been picked up because of its star and due to its studio backing. The film gained more weight than it should have, as it screened just prior to the 9/11 disaster. Depp's struggle, some argued, soon took on new meanings: his search for an unseen and deadly enemy reflected the West's new struggle to come to grips with unknown perpetrators of massive acts of terrorism.

Really, that's a bit of a stretch. There are some creepy moments in this film, but it's hardly a profound statement, or even a divine horror movie. For a film titled From Hell, I felt like I'd only been taken half-way there.

From Hell opens Friday, Oct. 19