Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Stephen Abell This film has got me wanting to read the story that spurned it. I've always liked the psychological idea of hereditary madness and this is a pretty good example of that... but with a possible twist.Jack the Ripper is being chased down so he runs to the safety of his mistress' house. Still caught up in the killing fugue, he attacks and kills his mistress in front of their young child. Years later the child has become a young woman, Anna (Rees) and is helping an old woman to run a medium scam, pretending to be the dead family members and friends of the clients she entertains with her seances. It's at one of these meetings that her path crosses with Dysart (Godfrey)... a pervert who buys her virginity from Mrs Golding (Bryan). However, things take a nasty turn when he tries to force himself on her and Mrs Golding comes to her rescue. Mrs Golding is killed, but who is the murderer?The thing I liked most about this story is its darkness. Not only do you have a psychotic killer, but a doctor who is willing to overlook the murders so he can view and record the killer's moods. He's even willing to team up with a miscreant to get his results.There's nothing bad about this movie at all. It could have been stronger had the director opted to add a darkness to the atmosphere. For me, it was a little light, especially when considering all the bleaker subject matters. Though there are some really good shots in the film. The ending in the whispering gallery at Saint Paul's is very well done. As is the "Oh My God!!! That's gonna leave a mark," moment when Dr Pritchard (Porter) pulls the sword from his side. The moment when the bloody sword hangs from the doorknob, swaying and banging, will stay with me for a while. Very iconic and well thought out.Another thing that may have strengthened the film is the hinted at possession of Anna by her father Jack The Ripper. If this had become a story arc on its own then it would have opened up a few more possibilities for twists and turns. It would have turned it into a full horror film by doing so.However, this is a good psychological thriller based on The Ripper mythos. I would recommend this to everyone.

Scott LeBrun This good if not great Hammer production is efficiently entertaining, as it hits the ground running and offers up a provocative story of one forward-thinking person attempting to find an alternative way of dealing with mental illness. Some viewers may feel that the proliferation of elaborate, amusingly gory murders throw things asunder considering the more interesting aspects to the script (and Hammers' typically stylish period atmosphere). Also, one may grow impatient with the protagonists' stubbornness and sneakiness as he goes about doing everything possible to try to make his method work.That protagonist is eminent Dr. John Pritchard (Eric Porter), a psychoanalyst who is an early follower of Dr. Sigmund Freud. Into his life comes the haunted young Anna (Angharad Rees), who as we see from the opening sequence is none other than the daughter of Jack the Ripper. As a child she'd witnessed her dad murder her mom. Now Anna would seem to be getting possessed by her dear old dads' spirit, and it's causing her to commit murder. Instead of turning her over to police, Pritchard keeps her in his custody and tries his hardest to understand her, believing that studying madness would be more effective than simply punishing the guilty.The visual quality is gorgeous, the music, by Christopher Gunning, is lush and eloquent, and the direction by Peter Sasdy (also director of "Taste the Blood of Dracula" and "Countess Dracula") creates a reasonably quick moving tale (scripted by L.W. Davidson, based on a story by Edward Spencer Shew) with fine performances by all, including the lovely and endearing Ms. Rees, Keith Bell as Pritchards' son Michael, Jane Merrow as Michaels' fiancée Laura, the delicious Derek Godfrey as the sleazy Parliament member Dysart, Dora Bryan as Mrs. Golding, Marjorie Rhodes as Mrs. Bryant, and a fun Lynda Baron as flamboyant prostitute Long Liz.Overall, a solid effort from Hammer that lovers of 70s horror cinema should find to be satisfactory.Seven out of 10.

James Hitchcock The sceptic-who-is-proved-wrong is a familiar figure in horror films. As soon as we hear the words "I don't believe in ghosts/witches/vampires/whatever" we know that retribution is lurking just around the corner. In some films this retribution will take no more serious form than the humiliation of being forced to eat one's words, but in others the forces of the supernatural will take bloody revenge on those who wrong them by doubting their existence. "Hands of the Ripper" brings a new twist to this theme. Dr. John Pritchard is an eminent psychiatrist in Edwardian London who brings one of his patients, a young woman named Anna, into his home. This might seem a risky thing to do, as Pritchard is well aware (although the police are not) that Anna is not only mentally unstable but also a murderess. Pritchard, however, is an enthusiastic Freudian who believes that the new science of psychoanalysis will enable him not only to find out the cause of her murderous impulses but also to cure them. Pritchard's theory is that Anna is suffering from a psychiatric illness caused by the subconscious memory of some childhood trauma. Given what the audience knows about Anna, this is in fact a pretty shrewd guess. She is the daughter of none other than Jack the Ripper. The Ripper's precise identity is never made clear, but it would appear that he is a gentleman of some wealth and social position. (Unlike some other Ripper films, this one does not try and blame the killings on the Duke of Clarence or anyone else connected with the Royal Family). As a child Anna witnessed her father killing her mother, who had guessed that her husband was the Ripper. This being a Hammer film, however, there has to be a more complex explanation for Anna's criminality. Although Pritchard as a scientific rationalist would disdain any supernatural explanation for evil, it transpires that Anna is possessed by her father's spirit and that he is using her as a vehicle to carry out further murders from beyond the grave. Pritchard is guilty of the sin of hubris- the hubris of believing that his scientific methods can cure her- and he therefore has to accept the moral responsibility when Anna, contrary to his confident predictions, does indeed kill again. Eric Porter was an actor I often associated with portrayals of rather stiff, middle-aged middle-class gentlemen like Soames Forsyte in the famous BBC adaptation of "The Forsyte Saga" or Karenin in "Anna Karenina", and Dr. Pritchard is such another such character, a respectable pillar of the Edwardian bourgeoisie who finds it difficult to show emotion or to comprehend that there may be matters in heaven and earth not dreamed of in his tidy, rational philosophy. Anna is played by Angharad Rees, an actress who was later to find fame in another BBC serial, "Poldark", which was responsible for a brief surge in the popularity of the baptismal names "Angharad" and "Demelza" (the name of her character) throughout Britain in the mid-seventies. To be honest, Angharad was never the most expressive of actresses, even in "Poldark", but that does not really matter in this film, as there appears to have been a deliberate intention to play Anna as wooden and emotionless in order to emphasise the fact that she is under the control of an exterior force. "Hands of the Ripper" is at times over-the-top and melodramatic, although if it weren't it would hardly be a Hammer film. Some of the attempts at humour seem a bit forced (such as the fake séance conducted by Anna's guardian, the fraudulent medium Mrs Golding) and some of the death scenes might seem unintentionally humorous by modern standards. Overall, however, this is one of the more inventive and original entries in the Hammer canon- certainly more original than a lot of their standard vampire fare- and can make for enjoyable late-night watching. 6/10

preppy-3 Anna sees her father (Jack the Ripper) stab her mother to death when she's a little girl. Twenty years later she's been adopted and knows nothing about her past--but she kills people when she flashes back to seeing her mother killed. Dr. John Pritchard (Eric Porter) knows she does this but wants to try to find out why and cure her while the bodies pile up.Interesting Hammer horror that mixes psychology with extreme violence. I originally caught this on network TV ages ago where all the violence was cut out. There's not a lot of it but what there is is VERY strong and incredibly gruesome. Even the R rated version released here in the US is edited! I finally saw it uncut on a Portuguese DVD. The color is a little faded and the end credits stop abruptly but it's letter-boxed and complete. The story is a little slowly paced but I was never bored and the violence shocked me--and I'm a hardened horror movie fan! The acting was excellent by Porter and Angharad Rees (playing the unfortunate Anna). The psychology is a little bit silly but the movie is strong and well-done. If you can see this uncut I recommend it.