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Awix (3310 KP) rated Hands of the Ripper (1971) in Movies

May 27, 2018 (Updated May 27, 2018)

Bring the Daughter; Have some Slaughter

Pretty decent Hammer horror melodrama set in a sort of grab-bag version of late Victorian London. Anna (Rees) grows up an orphan, little suspecting the identity of her father, or the fact that she seems to have inherited his compulsion to kill. An ambitious psychiatrist (Porter) takes her under his wing, believing he can help her with her little problem. (As ever, hubris comes before a gory comeuppance.) Meanwhile, Hammer whips up gallons of fake blood.

Not-bad production values and decent performances go a long way to make up for some fairly preposterous plotting; you get the classic Hammer sense of a traditional costume drama coupling energetically with a disreputable exploitation movie, with a good time had by all. On the one hand this is another tale of an improbably arrogant man whose specific area of brilliance doesn't stop him making a whole series of insanely bad decisions; on the other it is about the power of men to seriously screw up the lives of women in patriarchal societies (so perhaps still somewhat relevant). Film does an interesting little dance, too: are Anna's problems purely psychological or is she genuinely possessed by the spirit of the Ripper? Well put together, some interesting ideas, doesn't outstay its welcome - definitely worth a look if old British horror movies are your thing.

Kudos

Lee KM Pallatina (951 KP) rated the Xbox 360 version of The Testament of Sherlock Holmes in Video Games

Feb 3, 2020

Graphics, story, voice overs (0 more)

Hints, objective steps, puzzles. (0 more)

Pretty good

Contains spoilers, click to show

Purchased on impulse, the testament of Sherlock Holmes is a clean puzzle based game with plenty of Victorian era style detective work that can become very confusing but is also quite a fun game.

The story follows holmes and Watson as they try to solve multiple murders & features classic Sherlock Holmes character Moriarty.

The game features some near perfect voice overs in very well built london areas.

During the game you are able to combine items in you inventory in order to progress, although knowing what and when can become mind numbing.

The control's are simple but character movement can be a tad bit glitchy (I just opened the closed inventory, it works)
The hint option is something I personally consider as broken...having to tap the left trigger when available and having to be facing the objective is annoying.

I love puzzles in games but in this case there isn't much to enjoy as there's no indication of what to do to complete it (not all are difficult)

There are times where you are able to play as watson which oddly seems better?
There's no auto save but it is a pre gen game.

The game has a nice mix of light and dark tones and to tend to put your brain to work.