TdSmth5
As the intro credits appear, we see photos and news clippings of Jack the Ripper. Then we see a murdered woman on the street and the girl with the knife who did it.In the present, a female mental institution patient is sitting in front of the institutions director. He asks her how she's doing, she lurches forward and slams a letter opener in his neck.Then she wakes up still sitting there. The director tells her they are out of treatment options but he's going to send her to Prague to undergo an unconventional therapy.As soon as she gets there, she gets something implanted in her brain. During the procedure she has visions of the Ripper. When it's over the weird Dr. gives her a tour of the castle and she meets the other patients- a forgettable bunch. During dinner they all attack each other. Oddly enough the castle walls are covered in weapons. The Dr. vaguely explains the procedure and that it will involve sleep and risky actions during sleep but there's no danger because they'll wake her up if things become too dangerous.When the prettiest of the girls goes to bed she sees the ripper. She escapes out the window but slips and hangs for her life. Our girl comes to the rescue but the other girl falls to her death and ends up impaled on the fence. Our girl wakes up and sees the crew trying to resuscitate the "impaled" girl who's sleeping in the next bed. When she wakes up again later the girl is gone and the Dr. tells her she was let go, that treatment wasn't helping her. She of course freaks out, but oddly enough doesn't show an injury she sustained while trying to rescue the other girl.Now all the other kids start seeing the ripper who's after them. The Dr. who can monitor all this through the implants notices that something is wrong, but can't fix it. Our girl notices that the ripper and she are connected and she also notices that she has some type of an influence over the experiment. She'll have to confront the ripper and the Dr. and there's a twist at the end.Ripper 2 unfortunately sets itself in the world of dreams and mental patients, which rarely makes for a satisfying storyline. It's a bit below B-movie level. It doesn't look very good, has too loud sound effects, some cheesy visual effects, a weak cast. The story had potential had it focused more on the ripper rather than on dreams and experiments. But then the ripper angle isn't explained very well either. I did like the ending though because it brings us back to reality. For a horror movie, the death scenes aren't impressive. There should have been more gore. The movie does have some good nudity though, but it too isn't very well filmed. Why this movie needed two directors is a mystery. More should have been done with the setting in Prague. Ripper 2 could have been a decent B-movie but it just doesn't deliver.
Scarecrow-88
A group of deeply troubled teens take part in an experimental "humanizing" program once they are all sedated. It's a means of facing the horrid evil that plagues their delusional fantasies, using serial killer, Molly(Erin Karpluk)as the catalyst. The program seems to hinge on how Molly reacts to the virtual world created once they together are induced in a deep sleep. The terrifying element is that the evil inside Molly indeed separates and for the first time she is normal without the evil. But, the birthright and genes of being a descendant of Jack the Ripper wish to reunite with Molly and it is represented by a hulking figure covered with a giant Grim Reaper-esquire cloak. Each member who participated in the program are being annihilated by the evil manifestation within the dream state and when you are killed in this realm, you die in reality. Will Molly be able to deny the evil which wants to reconnect? The doctor behind this project, with all it's flaws, is Samuel Wiesser(Richard Bremmer)who honestly believes he can remove what ills those who are not normal members of society.The flick basically rips off A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET with a cloaked Ripper in place of Freddy absent the goofy macabre wisecracks. The film is ambitious enough, but doesn't have the budget or smarts to hold together. The premise, though, comes off rather silly and confusing. It's not gory enough and the ending really only fuels the incoherency of the whole picture. The film is just too herky-jerky for it's own good. Does have atmosphere to spare, but that's pretty much it.
slayrrr666
"Ripper 2: Letters from Hell" is an incredibly slow and confusing film.**SPOILERS**After declaring that normal procedures aren't working, troubled inmate Molly Keller, (Erin Karplunk) is sent overseas to Dr. Samuel Wiesser, (Richard Bremmer) who runs an experimental clinic. After being introduced to the other inmates, Erich Goethe, (Nicolas Irons) Sally Trigg, (Myfawny Waring) Roberto Edwards, (Colin Lawrence) Grant Jessup, (Daniel Coonan) Lara Svetlana, (Jane Peachy) and Juliette Dureau, (Mihairi Steenbock) they are taken into the realm of the experiments and start to die one-by-one. While the staff declares that it's only a glitch and nothing worry about, Molly is convinced that there's something wrong, and eventually learns that her ancestor is back and is targeting the inmates in the dream world. Convincing them this is true, leads a fight to stop him.The Good News: There's a few decent things about this. The opening is a pretty nice and brutal display, allowing for an expertly-done eye-gouging to take center-stage. It's an impressive visual in a creepy scene that really gets the movie off in the right way. The chase scene in the clinic, where the first encounter with the killer is shown, is a real highlight, being an overlong chase with lots of shocks, escape methods and an imposing killer inside a creepy setting. All these make it really hard to get over. The killer as well is a pretty imposing figure, and with the hood and robe it wears, creates a really nice visual. The ending half hour contains some really nice sequences all strung together, giving it a really whirlwind pace that moves at the speed of light. From the sequence in the garage to the chase in the darkened hallways, there is really nothing in here that doesn't deliver, and the odd touches inside really give it a little more charm than other scenes from other movies. Other than these three points, there's not a whole lot else about it.The Bad News: There are a couple things off with the film. The fact that it plays with dreams leaves a lot to be desired. It's always clear when it happens, which usually all the best scenes in the film and making it so that they might not have happened, since there's always the possible it was just a dream. It's all handled quite sloppily, including trudging out a cliché that everyone can see coming from a mile away that really doesn't off much in the way of being new or original. All this does is just add to an incredibly confusing and almost impossible to figure out movie. The dream world is said to have killed them in real life, yet there's characters that are killed that come back in another dream sequence. Then it's said to be a complete dream experience. Then that's wiped away and it carries on in real life, with mention of the dead people from the dream world, but then it's back into a dream world and is revealed to have been that way all along, only for the single most confusing plot twist of all to come into play, and not only does that change what's been going on, but then it doesn't make any sense at all. This isn't even half of what's going on in the film, which is just as confusing as what's been described. Thinking through this will put as much of a migraine as ever. The death scenes themselves are a huge cheat, as being incredibly brutal in sound, but extremely tame in realization. There's a grant total of about three or four actually shown, while everything else is off-screen only for us to catch a glimpse of what happened when the killer changes position to give us a look. It's a very annoying habit that is employed incredibly often in the film that's an annoying tease. It also takes an eternity to get things done in here, with the noticeable example of the dance club. There's a huge wait for it to finally do something of interest, as it goes back and forth a grand total of about four times from several different locations, dragging the scene out far longer than it really should've. All these make this a less-than-impressive slasher film.The Final Verdict: A slow, confusing and criminally boring slasher film that has some few decent moments, all of which involve the killer. This really means that it's interesting when the killer's on-screen and a plodding mess when it isn't, so take caution with this one unless you're a die-hard slasher apologist or have an insatiable need for these kinds of films.Rated R: Graphic Language, Nudity, several strong S&M scenes, and Violence
Simon Richardson
OK, OK this is far from the best horror film out there, and is definitely not as good as the first Ripper film, but its not that bad if you enjoy slasher flicks. Trust me, i've got the 'Horror Channel' here in the UK, and i've seen some very very poor horror films lately to compare this against. Yes the 'virtual reality' part of the plot is a bit stale and the 'twist' ending is one of the oldest around, but very little in the slasher genre is new these days. However the killer looked and sounded cool, and the fact that is was in fact Mollys 'dark side' that was stalking her in virtuality was something new in my book.The worst part of the film was the sex dungeon sequence in the nightclub, even as a bloke, and therefor a fan of T&A, it just seemed stuck on for the sake of it, and could of been heavily edited to fit the plot without coming across as gratuitous. A personal mention goes to actress Myfanwy Waring who unfortunately gets killed early on in the film, as its good to hear a gorgeous Welsh accent in a film.Verdict - If you liked Ripper, and like slasher films, give it a watch (if you can find it) and enjoy it for what it is. 6 out of 10