31 DAYS OF HORROR 2022 - Day 3: HANDS OF THE RIPPER (1971)

 

The Ripper stalks again (sort of).

Possession of the mind is a terrible thing/It's a transformation with an urge to kill 

-The Misfits

Some fifteen years after Jack the Ripper's reign of hideous terror, Anna (Angharad Rees), the Ripper's daughter, who as a child witnessed the Ripper murder her mother, has fallen into the unsavory care of an older woman who uses the now-teenage girl as part of her phony seance racket. The poor girl is also pimped out to sleazy upper-class "gentlemen," the old lady charging a high price for the leave to take what the clients are promised is the girl's virginity. (The scam is that once a gentleman has handed over the cash to have his way with the girl, the old woman interrupts the proceedings, claiming the girl is not right in the head, and the gentlemen callers have little choice but to leave or have their governmental positions jeopardized. That said, it is implied that Anna has seen many such callers, and was likely "deflowered" years previous.) The seance scheme is rumbled by the disbelieving Dr. Pritchard (Eric Porter, memorable as the ship captain in 1968's unintentionally ludicrous THE LOST CONTINENT), who's a devotee to the new methods of Sigmund Freud, and he takes Anna into his care after Anna suffers what is at first believed to be a psychotic break that prompts the girl to murder the old woman who exploited her. Installing Anna at his home, the doctor endeavors to find the root of the girl's problems and cure her, but what he did not count on was Anna not being psychotic. No, the poor girl is possessed by the spirit of her murderous sire, and she's a ticking time bomb that can be set off by certain triggers. By the time the story reaches its climax, three people are dead, one maimed and possibly dead, and one run through with a sabre, and the whole affair is rather bleak with only one way out...

So I finally saw HANDS OF THE RIPPER (1971), one of the remaining Hammer horror films that I had not had the opportunity to encounter over the course of a lifetime as a staunch supporter of the distinct Hammer flavor of horror. It's often overlooked, presumably due to it not featuring any of the classic-style monsters that the company revitalized via color and generous lashings of violence, blood, gore, and female nudity, but once it gets going it's a solid enough little shocker. 

This a more modern-looking Hammer, as it eschews the vivid colors and mist-shrouded and forested Gothic European landscape that so many of the company's classics are defined by, and no Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee is present to distinguish it, but the cast is game and it moves at a decent pace, though it does take almost a half hour before it really gets going. But when it does kick into high gear, hoo-boy, does it deliver. There were two moments of graphic carnage that made me exclaim "WHOA!!!" when each occurred, and it was nice to have such "HOLY SHIT!!!" moments in what could otherwise have passed for a particularly sordid installment of a British period drama. Not a classic, but definitely not deserving of the relative obscurity that it languishes in.

The entire uncut film can be had on YouTube. 

Poster for the American theatrical release.