In \From Hell,"" directors (and twin brothers) Albert and Allen Hughes (""Dead Presidents"") create a very real, very earthbound hell in the form of England's Whitechapel District, site of the first modern serial murders. The grisly location, now brought to the big screen, brings life and new speculation to the most legendary serial killer in the Western world: Jack the Ripper.
Based on the incredibly detailed graphic novel by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, ""From Hell"" integrates the facts of Jack's reign of terror over Whitechapel with a possible solution, while considering everything from the methods used to the Ripper's sudden and haunting disappearance.
Our hero in these slums is Scotland Yard Inspector Frederick Abberline (Johnny Depp), a man whose brilliant mind is only enhanced by the visions he gets on opium and absinthe. His contact in Whitechapel is Irish prostitute Mary Kelly (Heather Graham), and together the two discover a plot far more sinister than either of them (or the audience) could have ever expected.
The Hughes put the Ripper in the context of his time and his country. ""From Hell"" is not simply a movie about five gory murders. It is about the mentality at the end of the 19th century, about medicine, psychological patients, drugs, gangs, cops and government. It reminds the audience that Jack the Ripper, frightening though he may be, was still just a man. This film attempts to explain that man, in all his gruesome legend.
The actors, for their part, manage to distinguish themselves from the distracting environment they live in, a feat in itself. Depp, as Abberline, finds himself in one of the roles he does best: that of a brooding, slightly supernatural hero with his own skeletons to contend with. Graham, for her part, looks far too American, but, with a passable accent, does not upset the story.
This being the victims' tale, however, it is only fitting that they are the ones who steal the show. It is easy to forget these unfortunate women in the shadow of their murderer, but ""From Hell"" gives them faces. The audience sees these women alive one moment, each a very real person, with friends and dreams of their own, only to have it ripped away by a very exacting set of knives. In this, the Hughes give a very clear message of the devastating senselessness behind these crimes.
Unlike other notable cinema bloodbaths, the storyline of ""From Hell"" is made for those who pay attention. The twists and turns of the plot leave the audience guessing until the very end, even as they try to assemble in their minds what has happened before. Highly intelligent and incredibly quick-paced, ""From Hell"" does for 19th century England what ""L.A. Confidential"" did for 1950s Los Angeles: It gives the audience an unflinching glimpse of a very complex, very ugly side of humanity.
