From Hell: Engraved In Stone

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9.5 (12)
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9.5
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9.7(12)
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9.8(12)
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9.7(12)
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9.3(12)
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8.8(12)
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Overall rating
 
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
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10.0
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9.0
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10.0
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9.0
Just finished watching this last night.
Very, very fine work.
Audio and video editing appeared seamless. No oddball scene jumps, no sudden shifts of audio levels.

The overall tone of this edit was grim, more so than the original, which I believe was by intent.
The "look" was more grindhouse than films meant to be that way.
The film was dark. I mean that literally, the look was very dark with lots of blacks, grays, shadows, and little white. The black seemed to deepen as the film / narrative progressed. By the end my eyes were fatigued. When I rewatch this, I will undoubtedly increase the Brightness on my monitor. Just a comment.

Nice bit of removal during closing credits. Marilyn Manson was completely inappropriate. Antony & The Johnsons was a nice choice, though perhaps a trifle obscure for the average listener. The Smiths, less so. Still welcome adds.
Overall, a great edit, one I think a lot of members will appreciate.

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DVD
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(Updated: May 31, 2014)
Overall rating
 
9.2
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
6.0
The change to a deep black and white is very striking and fits the mood of the film perfectly. It looks great and gives the film a visual sense of creeping dread. I especially like how dark it was when the woman was grabbed from the shadows and disappears into them. The darker deleted scenes also aid the film in feeling darker and less like a typical Hollywood film.

However, these changes cannot overcome the fundamental flaws that the movie has. This should be a dark and disturbing movie with a low budget and no-name actors to justify its poor box office prospects. Instead there are big name actors so of course the movie has to have Johnny Depp doing his standard eccentric performance and the cliche of the prostitute with the heart of gold. It can't be too disturbing either and there has to be a happy ending. TM2YC succeeds in cutting down the eccentricities, removed the happy ending, and made the mood darker so it's a definite improvement. But the big problem I still have with the movie is that it's rather boring. Mostly we just wait until one of the prostitutes is killed and then Johnny Depp strolls up and says there's a mad doctor on the loose. Since Jack the Ripper's identity is a mystery for most of the movie we either follow the prostitutes which are uninteresting and mostly just drink and bicker or we follow Johnny as he does not very interesting detective work. There's not really much suspense as it's mostly just people wandering down dark cobblestone streets and occasionally dying.

In conclusion, this edit is far superior to the original and has a bold look, but some things just can't be fixed through editing. Based off how well the changes were made and what a difference they make, I recommend the edit on the chance others will enjoy it more than I did.

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Overall rating
 
9.2
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
The original From Hell had the unenviable task of trying to adapt an Alan Moore story...no easy task at the best of times, and even worse to boil down 9 years of publications filled with liner notes and easter eggs. Like a mad genius or an obsessive savant - or likely a combination of the two - Moore had imagined the interwoven lives of a couple dozen individuals and how it lead to an infamous series of murders that can only be called conspiracy of the highest order. The film script attempts to preserve the lyricism and detail of Moore's work while also giving a less-cerebral audience some emotional investment and entertainment value. It's safe to say that the filmmakers managed only mixed results at this probably-impossible task.

TM2YC tries here to give us a film version closer to Moore's original work, and in that I think he succeeds. As written in the notes, the material available simply doesn't allow a truly accurate rendition of the graphic novel, but what's here is certainly closer. The look of the film is jet black like the comics, and the tone is grim and dry. I'd say that (as written in the notes) the visual quality of the film does suffer somewhat from this conversion, and that does make some of the scenes seem a bit too visually-extreme for me (demonic eyes, for example). I also remember spending much of the film on first watch just trying to figure out what the hell was happening. Here, the narrative is streamlined and, I thought, almost telegraphed from the start. It'd be ideal for a first-time viewing, less-interesting on a re-watch.

All that said, I don't think this actually makes it much BETTER of a movie than the theatrical cut. This is the problem with adaptations... a more accurate one isn't necessarily better for the new medium. The film as-is still retains all kinds of bits and bobs that weave an amazing tapestry in the graphic novel but just seem incredibly contrived and half-baked in the movie. The romance is still undercooked and honestly comes almost out of nowhere here, and our detective has had his character gutted and so we have little emotional attachment to him. The "alternative" ending for me was better, as it paid off the sudden introduction of a new prostitute, and it gave some satisfaction for the only character that really had an arc: Mary Kelly. However, the film as a whole is quite straightforward and uninvolving in this form. It's not a work of suspense, and there's not really enough horror...it's a mystery more than anything, but not one with clues that a viewer could logically work out unless they have a lot of previous knowledge.

I think my preferred edit of the film would be more radical, lots of cutting, rescoring, maybe playing with flashbacks during investigations. I don't honestly think a great adaptation of Moore's work is possible, so better to just make it a great movie of its own. That said, that's not the intention here, so I have to judge this on its own merits: which are plentiful. It's a well-executed and creative work that is indeed more faithful to the original material. If that's what you're looking for, you should definitely give this a watch.

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(Updated: May 30, 2015)
Overall rating
 
8.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
8.0
Enjoyment
 
8.0
This was a very strong edit of From Hell. Compared with the original, this is a much grittier, more somber and (dare I say) "Victorian" rendering. The black and white plays beautifully, with some particularly striking city-scapes really selling the environment.

The music plays more strongly, too, with greater resonance.

A couple (small) nitpicks:
1. The name "Jack the Ripper" comes out of nowhere; at first multiple names play out in the public's musings. Then, suddenly, we are talking about Jack with no introduction. This may have been a flaw in the source material - I forget. But it jars.

2. The last murder I believe is a mirrored shot from the original. This is slightly frustrating, as the historical photos of this murder show the lady to have been lying head-right rather than head-left as here. Also an inspector later comments that her *left* arm is draped over her stomach, but last we saw her it was clearly her right arm. I suspect the Editor flipped this scene for aesthetic reasons, and it will probably slip by most. As someone who has been fascinated by the Ripper story in the past, I noticed ;)

3. Skyled noted below that the film in general has a palpable lack of suspense. We aren't really invested in any of the characters, and since Depp is not really ever in any direct danger it plays a bit weakly. This is not TM2YC's fault at all: the film (possibly even the original comic?) suffers from playing to certain beats we know are coming: we know the prostitutes will all be murdered - the only question is when. A stronger script might have overcome that, but alas they missed their opportunity. I think this edit improves on the original's mood vastly, but one will still be relatively unconnected to the characters.


Overall a very strong edit. Unfortunately the original material is still weak enough that this is simply an "enjoyable" film rather than a truly "good" or "great" one. That being said, this is much more artistically bold than the original.

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Yes
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DVD
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(Updated: October 06, 2023)
Overall rating
 
9.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
This edit replaces the original movie for me.

I didn't like the original movie at all, I couldn't finish watching it and I'm glad I didn't because focusing the story on the whores and giving Frederick Abberline superpowers were terrible ideas that this edit got rid of. now it's one of my favorite films, the deleted scenes that were added are so much better for the narrative.
But I didn't get why to removed the death scene of Frederick Abberline's wife, which actually happened in history although she died 3 months after her marriage and not after having childbirth like what happened in the movie, keeping it will make the ending much more powerful, it will explain why Abberline uses opium, that is my only issue with this edit, this scene could be put after Dr. Gaul asks Abberline for how long he uses opium.

Overall I enjoyed this edit a lot.

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Digital
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