Hands of the Ripper
Dir: Peter Sasdy. Starring Eric Porter, Angharad Rees, Jane Merrow, and Keith Bell. 1971
Hands of the Ripper takes everything I love about Hammer Horror (but for Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee), and presents them in one glorious picture – The gothic atmosphere, the crimson, the contemporary twist on a well-known tale, the monster waiting to strike, the innocent heroine... The difference being that here, the monster waiting to strike is the innocent heroine. Never before has there been a Hammer heroine with more pathos than Anna, daughter of Jack the Ripper, whose own murderous rage is unknowingly unleashed when a perfect storm of circumstance occurs. Our hero, Dr. Pritchard, is closer to filling the role of villain as he enables Anna to commit her crimes due to his fascination with her psychiatric condition. It’s this grey area, set against a backdrop of Victorian England, séances and murder, that draws me to Hands of the Ripper time and time again, standing as Hammers’ greatest Freudian take on the gothic.
I'd previously written about Hands of the Ripper in My Hammer Horror Dilemma. Click here to read it.
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