Home / Arts and Entertainment / Victorian Women Hunt Ripper's Ghostly Forces
Victorian Women Hunt Ripper's Ghostly Forces
15 Aug
Summary
- Spiritualists sought Jack the Ripper's victims in 1880s London.
- They believed supernatural forces, not a single killer, were responsible.
- The film uses unearthed kinetoscope-style footage from the era.
A pioneering film experiment re-envisions the Jack the Ripper era through the lens of early cinema and spiritualism. This found-footage horror, set in Victorian London, presents unearthed 1880s film reels entirely in a flickering kinetoscope-style format. These recordings, purportedly made by an early cinema pioneer named Tamworth, capture an ad hoc women's spiritualist investigation team.
The team diverged from traditional portrayals, suspecting that ghosts and uncanny forces, amplified by fear and misogyny, were behind the Ripper murders. They interacted with potential victims in pubs, brothels, and opium dens, seeking truths beyond a singular, shadowy figure. The film offers an amusing yet unnerving glimpse into this historical period.
While lauded for its experimental approach and daring ideas, the film's performances are described as somewhat one-note, and its pacing remains consistently steady. Overall, it presents an intriguingly jittery and paranoid slice of anxiety from the Victorian age, incorporating elements like music-hall songs into its narrative.
