5) From Hell (2001)
Loosely based on the mammoth tome of the same name by UK comics legend Alan Moore, the Hughes brothers’ From Hell adaptation might have missed the point of its source material entirely, but it’s still a highly entertaining Victorian conspiracy thriller about history’s most famous serial killer – Jack the Ripper.
Johnny Depp plays Inspector Frederick Abberline, a drug-addled psychic detective who uses his clairvoyant abilities to investigate a series of gruesome murders in Whitechapel, London. That is, when he’s not down and out from hitting the pipe anyway… But when he finally does pull himself together for long enough to get to the bottom of the mystery, he finds himself embroiled in a secret protected by the upper echelons of society.
Moore’s graphic novel is an academic and thought provoking work, rife with commentary about class division, poverty and gender politics. The film on the other hand, embraces the surface slasher and mystery elements of the story, guiding us through London’s murky alleyways and secret underworlds with ghoulish glee. The Victorian setting is glamorized to an extent, but it’s a damn cool era to tell a story in – especially when it revolves around a mystery that’s still unexplained centuries later.
From Hell isn’t a faithful adaptation of its graphic novel counterpart, but it’s a great way to spend two hours of your life.