This is super stuff, and the Hughes brothers and their collaborators should be heartily congratulated for it.

They've got their Screams and their Scary Movies, and they're welcome to them. It's hardly surprising a generation weened on MTV - folk with the the attention span of a gnat and the emotional depth of a paper cup - didn't like it. I can't think of a recent major release that is so relentlessly downbeat. To me it appeals almost on a subconscious level, forcing us to confront our deepest fears and taboos - death, pain, suffering, human wickedness. This is a proper grown-ups movie that probes some of the darkest regions of the human psyche, places mainstream filmmakers like Lucas, Spielberg, James Cameron and their ilk don't dare to go, or couldn't go even if they wanted to. No happy Hollywood ending, no phoney saccharine or cheap laughs to satisfy the popcorn brigade. This is marvellously thoughtful, evocative film-making, very bold and brave. (Contrast the depiction of prostitution generally in this film with the utter garbage that is Pretty Woman.) What's so great about this film? The quirky, literate script the performances (all, with the possible exception of Graham, excellent) the wonderful photography and production design the depiction of the murders themselves - elliptical, shocking, mesmerising and above all the aura of brooding menace, gloom, cruelty, darkness, melancholy and downright despair running through it as deeply as the veins through a block of marble. The notion of the 'tart with a heart' is a cliché, sure, but nevertheless her character works in the context of the film. OK, so Heather Graham was impossibly glamorous, but movies with big budgets need a little bit of star appeal. Nobody knows for sure who Jack the Ripper was, and in order to make the film interesting and enjoyable the writers have speculated a little. As for history, again, who cares if the filmmakers have employed a degree of dramatic licence? This is a movie, not a documentary. Think of Kevin Costner, who didn't even bother trying in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.) I'm a Londoner by birth, and for me the accent in no way detracted from Depp's excellent performance. So what if Johnny Depp's English accent isn't exactly 'right' for his character? (English accents have always been problematic for all but the most skilled of American actors: Depp pulls it off entirely passably, way way better than - say - Keanu Reeves, risible in Coppola's Dracula.

The critics, nit-pickers and historical pedants who've trashed this superb piece of truly cinematic movie-making have totally missed the point.

From hell eddie campbell