Alan Moore is widely lauded as one of the finest comic book and graphic novel writers of all-time, making it completely fitting that if there’s one thing he hates above all else, it’s Hollywood getting its hands on his work. The eccentric author has never been shy in speaking out on butchered adaptations of his work, with From Hell first out of the gate in 2001.
To the surprise of nobody, then, Moore wasn’t best pleased with the end product, lamenting the fact his illustrated protagonist (a role earmarked for Sean Connery during the early stages of development) had ended up in the hands of Johnny Depp, with the actor’s take on Frederick Abberline being denigrated as an “absinthe-swilling dandy” by the creator of the source material.
The Hughes brothers’ period-set slasher was a decent enough hit at the box office, though, bringing in close to $75 million on a $30 million budget, even if the critical consensus was a touch tepid. More than 20 years on, and the investigation into Jack the Ripper has a returned with a vengeance to tear the streaming charts to shreds.
As per FlixPatrol, From Hell has entered the HBO Max most-watched list in the United States in 10th position, with subscribers evidently spending their Friday nights indulging in the screams of bloody murder. Depp and Heather Graham do solid work in the lead roles, while the production design and atmosphere is often impressive, but there’s something missing from a narrative perspective that fails to elevate the material to the same level as its predecessor on the printed page.