The Grand Master Ripper was released at the height of popular slasher movies such as Scream, Halloween, and Friday the 13th. It's no surprise that Ripper made a quiet entry via direct to video because I had not heard of this movie until I saw this on the New Release shelf. I didn't think much of it until I rented this on video. To sum it all up: this was a terrible movie that I saw mostly on fast forward.The derivative, uninspiring, yawn-inducing plot is summed up in a few sentences. A sole survivor of a massacre (A.J. Cook, Final Destination 2) studies serial killers under a famous Forensic Science expert (Bruce Payne, Passenger 57), but her classmates soon start dying at the hands of a serial killer who is replicating the infamous killer Jack the Ripper. A police detective (Jürgen Prochnow, Das Boot) is tasked to investigate the murders. How original, right? The movie was uninteresting, unoriginal, and worst of all extremely lame. Despite watching most of this movie on fast forward it was a total waste of time and I had wasted whatever rental fee (it may have been $6.00 back in 2002) it was that I paid to rent this movie from the local video shop.Ripper was a rip off and a complete waste of time. Avoid this atrocity of a movie.1/10.

Bezenby Here's a list of things Ripper gets wrong:1) It's a post-Scream slasher 2) It's full of terrible music and horrible quick-cut editing 3) It's one hour and forty-five minutes long (A slasher film!) 4) With the exception of Bruce Payne and Jurgen Protchnow, the acting is terribleAnd if you think I'm going to say 'in spite of this, I liked it' then you're wrong. It was crap!After a promising pre-credits sequence where a girl named Molly survives a serial killer's rampage, we're thrown right into smart arse territory as we see our victims are all part of a college class who are studying murderers, or something. We've got our post-Scream list of morons here: goth-like Molly who keeps her past a secret, Marissa (Kelly Brook!), who's the nymph, twitchy red herring guy, the dark stud guy, the wisecracking guy, and the bitch, who hates Molly and serves to introduce an unneeded teeny drama element to the proceedings. Their teacher is Bruce Payne, an ex-FBI profiler who also has a dark secret. Everyone, with the exception of the twitchy guy, is confident and annoying. We run slap bang into the film's main problem here: too much talking! We get a lot of babble about serial killers (looks at watch), characters establishing themselves (nods off), and a fake killing instigated by the teacher (pffft). Eventually we get to the first killing, which, for anyone who sat through The Big Breakfast on British television, is mercifully Kelly Brook. She's stabbed to death in a nightclub in a way that turns out to be exactly the same way Jack the Ripper killed his first victim (more lengthy discussions about Jack the Ripper here, and indeed this goes on throughout the film). To cut a very long story short (there are only two killings in the first hour!), one of the students (or maybe the teacher) is killing everyone else in the way Jack the Ripper killed his victims. Turns out all the students have the same initials as the victims of Jack (how stupid is that?) so they know who's going to be next. Throw in some Dawson's Creek drama (Molly likes the stud, but the Bitch tries to derail things), some truly daft contrivances (the initials thing, Molly being able to hack the police database) and a severe lack of gore and nudity, and you have a truly rubbish slasher flick. What drags this film way, way down is the deadly serious tone, the crappy music (nu-metal, some emo style crap) and the acting of the younger cast. Check out Molly's tantrum which seems to involve throwing cushions around and spray painting! Also, the 'killing Jack the Ripper style' plot is plainly dropped after the first two kills (unless Jack the Ripper used a bandsaw and a hatchet), plus the ending is completely daft and annoying.It is well made enough, but the post-Scream era wasn't a great time for slasher films. What Scream missed was that, yes, the older films had clichés, and were predictable, but they were fun! Don't believe me: try Pieces (1982), Don't Open Till Christmas (1984), and any other Sleepaway Camp films. Much better. Avoid!

Sandcooler Whoever stayed around after filming "Wishmaster 3", to investigate which office supplies could be sold for crack money, was also forced into "Ripper". Which is probably better, but so is being chained to a bear. "Ripper" goes for the tired old whodunit slasher approach, but it has the handicap that you really just don't care. I guess it could be that professor, or that scary inspector guy (he specialises in investigating little girls' bedrooms), but this has so many twists you really just end up picking a character at random, you always have the same chances anyway. The ending is confusing, mainly because the director freely admitted he left in two separate endings just for the sake of confusing everyone. That's just pure professionalism right there. Not a very entertaining B-movie.

Zombified_660 When the straight to video horror market is good, it's awesome. It gives us things like Ginger Snaps, The Locals, and in this case Ripper. Granted when it's bad it spits out garbage like Alienator, Curse of the Puppet Master and The Last Broadcast, but the more movies like Ripper I see the happier I am I cast my net further afield than Hollywood.Ripper has a small budget, a relatively unknown cast (aside from Bruce Payne, but I'll come back to that soon) and an unknown director. However, it has what many films of it's ilk lack, an exciting premise and a potential that the movie follows through on.Let me explain that. Ripper falls halfway between Urban Legend and Crimson Rivers. It has a teen slasher side that flashes through in it's cast of cute 20-somethings and script peppered with 'dude' and people saying 'f**k' a lot for no obvious reason (this doesn't really detract from the story though), but also has elements of a sophisticated art-house thriller. Though it doesn't commit to either, it comes out as an exciting hybrid. This is fantastic, as traditionally attempts to make teen slashers intelligent often just come off pretentious (see Scream for details) and attempts to make arty thrillers appeal to wider audiences normally dilute the idea way too much (remember Hannibal?).It has it's down points. I had to turn every damn light in my house off to see what was going on at times, as the night scenes are at times so dark that you'll get eye strain just watching them. Also some of the actors are awful. Many of you will join me in cheering the killer on as certain among their number get what's coming to them.On the good side though, the actors who don't suck are very very good. A.J Cook as Molly is both a great anti-heroine and a wonderful surprise as an actress, and STV veteran Bruce Payne hands in a brilliant turn as the teens' ex-FBI teacher, with a British accent that puts Angelina Jolie et al to shame. Good on you my man, great to hear a convincing accent again! Add to this a twisty turny plot that had me in shock by the time it was finished (seriously, I've seen all the big horror-thrillers and I still didn't see the end coming) and Ripper is exactly what STV is for, showing up the big boys.So, if you think you can hack a movie with some rough edges, and you like a good slasher whodunnit, check this out.