Here's a list of things Ripper gets wrong:
1) It's a post-Scream slasher 2) It's full of terrible music and horrible quick-cut editing 3) It's one hour and forty-five minutes long (A slasher film!) 4) With the exception of Bruce Payne and Jurgen Protchnow, the acting is terrible
And if you think I'm going to say 'in spite of this, I liked it' then you're wrong. It was crap!
After a promising pre-credits sequence where a girl named Molly survives a serial killer's rampage, we're thrown right into smart arse territory as we see our victims are all part of a college class who are studying murderers, or something. We've got our post-Scream list of morons here: goth-like Molly who keeps her past a secret, Marissa (Kelly Brook!), who's the nymph, twitchy red herring guy, the dark stud guy, the wisecracking guy, and the bitch, who hates Molly and serves to introduce an unneeded teeny drama element to the proceedings. Their teacher is Bruce Payne, an ex-FBI profiler who also has a dark secret. Everyone, with the exception of the twitchy guy, is confident and annoying.
We run slap bang into the film's main problem here: too much talking! We get a lot of babble about serial killers (looks at watch), characters establishing themselves (nods off), and a fake killing instigated by the teacher (pffft). Eventually we get to the first killing, which, for anyone who sat through The Big Breakfast on British television, is mercifully Kelly Brook. She's stabbed to death in a nightclub in a way that turns out to be exactly the same way Jack the Ripper killed his first victim (more lengthy discussions about Jack the Ripper here, and indeed this goes on throughout the film).
To cut a very long story short (there are only two killings in the first hour!), one of the students (or maybe the teacher) is killing everyone else in the way Jack the Ripper killed his victims. Turns out all the students have the same initials as the victims of Jack (how stupid is that?) so they know who's going to be next. Throw in some Dawson's Creek drama (Molly likes the stud, but the Bitch tries to derail things), some truly daft contrivances (the initials thing, Molly being able to hack the police database) and a severe lack of gore and nudity, and you have a truly rubbish slasher flick. What drags this film way, way down is the deadly serious tone, the crappy music (nu-metal, some emo style crap) and the acting of the younger cast. Check out Molly's tantrum which seems to involve throwing cushions around and spray painting!
Also, the 'killing Jack the Ripper style' plot is plainly dropped after the first two kills (unless Jack the Ripper used a bandsaw and a hatchet), plus the ending is completely daft and annoying.
It is well made enough, but the post-Scream era wasn't a great time for slasher films. What Scream missed was that, yes, the older films had clichés, and were predictable, but they were fun! Don't believe me: try Pieces (1982), Don't Open Till Christmas (1984), and any other Sleepaway Camp films. Much better.
Avoid!
1) It's a post-Scream slasher 2) It's full of terrible music and horrible quick-cut editing 3) It's one hour and forty-five minutes long (A slasher film!) 4) With the exception of Bruce Payne and Jurgen Protchnow, the acting is terrible
And if you think I'm going to say 'in spite of this, I liked it' then you're wrong. It was crap!
After a promising pre-credits sequence where a girl named Molly survives a serial killer's rampage, we're thrown right into smart arse territory as we see our victims are all part of a college class who are studying murderers, or something. We've got our post-Scream list of morons here: goth-like Molly who keeps her past a secret, Marissa (Kelly Brook!), who's the nymph, twitchy red herring guy, the dark stud guy, the wisecracking guy, and the bitch, who hates Molly and serves to introduce an unneeded teeny drama element to the proceedings. Their teacher is Bruce Payne, an ex-FBI profiler who also has a dark secret. Everyone, with the exception of the twitchy guy, is confident and annoying.
We run slap bang into the film's main problem here: too much talking! We get a lot of babble about serial killers (looks at watch), characters establishing themselves (nods off), and a fake killing instigated by the teacher (pffft). Eventually we get to the first killing, which, for anyone who sat through The Big Breakfast on British television, is mercifully Kelly Brook. She's stabbed to death in a nightclub in a way that turns out to be exactly the same way Jack the Ripper killed his first victim (more lengthy discussions about Jack the Ripper here, and indeed this goes on throughout the film).
To cut a very long story short (there are only two killings in the first hour!), one of the students (or maybe the teacher) is killing everyone else in the way Jack the Ripper killed his victims. Turns out all the students have the same initials as the victims of Jack (how stupid is that?) so they know who's going to be next. Throw in some Dawson's Creek drama (Molly likes the stud, but the Bitch tries to derail things), some truly daft contrivances (the initials thing, Molly being able to hack the police database) and a severe lack of gore and nudity, and you have a truly rubbish slasher flick. What drags this film way, way down is the deadly serious tone, the crappy music (nu-metal, some emo style crap) and the acting of the younger cast. Check out Molly's tantrum which seems to involve throwing cushions around and spray painting!
Also, the 'killing Jack the Ripper style' plot is plainly dropped after the first two kills (unless Jack the Ripper used a bandsaw and a hatchet), plus the ending is completely daft and annoying.
It is well made enough, but the post-Scream era wasn't a great time for slasher films. What Scream missed was that, yes, the older films had clichés, and were predictable, but they were fun! Don't believe me: try Pieces (1982), Don't Open Till Christmas (1984), and any other Sleepaway Camp films. Much better.
Avoid!