From The Lodger (1913) to From Hell (2001): Uncanny Portraits of Jack the Ripper?

During the last months of 1888 the populous quarter of Whitechapel, London, was stained with the blood of five women, all booked prostitutes and chronic alcoholics, worthy representatives of the diseases/vices of the Victorian East End. The shrewd and sanguinary Monster who realized these violent murders called himself “Jack the Ripper”, signing with his “trade name” the letters he sent to the Central News Agency and through the press he soon became a myth, the most famous “serial killer” of all time. As a matter of fact, his legend survived, and his evil figure still haunts the pages of books and—of course—the frames of many films; among the most famous: From Hell (2001) by Albert and Allen Hughes, taken from the graphic novel of the same name by Moore and Campbell; Jack the Ripper (1976) by Jess Franco, with a disturbing Klaus Kinski, but also the TV movie directed by David Wickes in 1998 entitled Jack The Ripper; more obliquely, Jack appears also in The Lodger (1913) and Frenzy (1972) by Alfred Hitchcock. But can these movies be defined as true biopics of Jack? Strangely enough, it seems, these biographies contribute to build the mythic “anonymity” of the Ripper, encouraging (and fascinating) fear and nightmares.