Jack the Ripper Conspiracies (2002)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Released by: Delta Entertainment
Region: 1
Rating: NR, suitable for audiences 13+
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 format.

My Advice: Pass

Easily the most well-known unsolved mystery in the annals of crime, the murders of a handful of prostitutes in London’s seedy Whitechapel district by an enigmatic figure known only as Jack the Ripper have spawned a booming industry that crosses all media and elicits the morbid fascination of millions. The truth of the case may never be known, but this hasn’t prevented dozens of people from writing books on the “real” Jack the Ripper, ranging from prominent physicians to elaborate Masonic conspiracies to a simply matter of protecting the bloodline of the English throne.

Jack the Ripper Conspiracies purports to examine the facts of the case as they are known, and present a sampling of the most popular theories for the viewer’s edification and personal analysis. Constructed from newspaper reports, police notes, eyewitness statements, and stacks of postmortem examinations of the crimes and possible perpetrators, the documentary certainly has the background information compiled to deliver the goods.

Unfortunately, the whole affair suffers from a gross overdose of nearly hysteric sensationalism and melodrama, and manages to only scratch the surface of the vast body of knowledge accumulated about the Ripper killings. Constructed primarily of modern-day footage from various neighborhoods where the crimes were committed a century ago, the film skims through the major facts of the case, but fails to deliver anything that isn’t known to anybody with even a passing interest in the subject.

At bottom, the documentary suffers from taking itself more seriously than its subject matter. From the narrator who speaks in Dramatically Intoned Sentences in Which One Can Hear The Capital Letters ^TM to the cheesy soundstage shots of some goth goober in a tophat brooding under a faux gaslight while a fog machine goes berserk, the dork quotient is high. While the show is busy with these gothic posturings, the actual details get passed by in favor of Sinister Intonations and lame “re-enactment.”

This might have been a passable extra feature to tack onto the From Hell DVD, but there’s exactly nada here to make it stand alone. Those interested in the subject of Jack the Ripper likely know every bit of the information presented in the documentary, even if the extent of their involvement is a cursory cultural literacy coupled with a viewing of Depp’s movie. Serious students of Ripper lore are likely to not only know some of these details, but have a half-dozen alternative interpretations committed to memory that run counter to the docu’s conclusions.

Had they bothered to throw a few supplemental features on this disc, it might make a decent addition to the collection of a Jack-o-phile. Facsimiles of Jack’s letters to the press, crime scene photos, newspaper clippings from the murders, or even excerpts from some of the more prominent books on the subject would have made this one worth owning, despite its flaws. As it is, it doesn’t really merit a rental.