From Hell

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Sensational and accomplished.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Gripping and stylish thriller.

LA Weekly F. X. Feeney

Their discretion makes From Hell less a horror movie than a classical film noir.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Ambitious, visually stunning and hugely accomplished.

Variety Derek Elley

Surprisingly conventional Olde London Towne gaslight mystery, gussied up with some doctored visuals, and an eccentric performance by Johnny Depp.

New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf

A visionary breakthrough for the young directors, a darkly alluring and largely successful attempt to crowd the territory of Roman Polanski and Dario Argento.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Superbly shot around Prague -- From Hell is even more stylish than gruesome -- it has the lush decrepitude of an autumn compost heap or an old Hammer werewolf flick.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

Mystery skillfully evokes Victorian London's dark depths.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The movie works well as a straight-out horror yarn, proving that the Hughes Brothers are more versatile than their previous "ghetto pictures" suggest.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie feels dark, clammy and exhilarating -- it's like belonging to a secret club where you can have a lot of fun but might get into trouble.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Depp gives yet another introspective, slightly mopey performance -- Graham never begins to act (and never has begun, as far as I know). But they're surrounded by an authentic, first-rate English cast.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It's not a great movie by any means, but it grips tighter than a chokehold and it cuts as deep as a knife.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A tug-of-war between a bracing vision of a truly infernal crime spree -- complete with engaging whodunit storytelling -- and a sometimes clumsy period drama.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It's by far the most violent, most clinical and most sumptuously atmospheric.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

An amazing physical specimen, beautifully photographed and edited. If you think of it as your own opium dream, you may dismiss the lousy story as a mere side effect.

Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark

The movie's most glaring flaw is that the brothers and their screenwriters, Terry Hayes and Rafael Yglesias, don't manage to preserve the secret of the Ripper's identity for nearly as long as they intend to.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

So beautifully realized as a mood piece that it takes a while for a slight disappointment to register.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

An astonishing act of synthesis, bringing together disparate Ripper theories and a fiercely idiosyncratic version of London's history, architecture, policing and social structure.

USA Today Staff [Not Credited]

With almost as many subplots as corpses, the movie maintains its mild watchability only because the Ripper saga still engrosses.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Labyrinthine yet oversimple, the story seems to hide a more provocative one. But perhaps this is the nature of the beast.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

There's no bite or sting, nor is there a single moment when the film is anything close to scary. It isn't ever engaging, either; it's a dull, sluggish bum-out.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

Lacks the energy and urgency of its source material.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

A visual tour-de-force; it's just that there's not much else to sink your teeth into once the pretty colors fade from view.

Film Threat Heather Wadowski

Could have been a beautiful and suspenseful thriller, lukewarm performances make the film just another movie to add to one's "rent-it-when-it-comes-to-DVD" list.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

It is deeply unpleasant to see women abducted, tortured and eviscerated by a methodical and meticulous butcher.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

A visionary sort of horror movie should ponder three words: "Bram Stoker's Dracula."

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Feels stagy, stiff and entirely unnecessary.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

What the Hughes brothers have come up with is, to borrow another phrase from that bygone age, a penny dreadful.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

A brain-dead version of a dark and complex work.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

The only note of authenticity in the movie comes from Ian Holm, playing the royal physician. What is this nuanced performance -- at least until the final fireworks -- doing in this twaddle?

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Feels razor thin. None of the characters is particularly noteworthy. And the revelations of deep-seated conspiracy in the usual privileged, closed circles are hackneyed and tired.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The Hughes boys blow it by burying a fine cast -- Robbie Coltrane as a cop and Ian Holm as a royal sawbones are standouts -- in stock scares, sappy romance and cliches that really are from hell.