Hell's Gate Movie Review

It's ripped from today's headlines, as a psychotic mental patient (Patsy Kensit) who believes she is the girlfriend of Jack the Ripper reincarnated, wreaks havoc on the family of her vacationing psychiatrist (Patrick Muldoon), who she believes is Ripper himself.

Got that straight?

Neither do I, considering the opening scenes have a younger version of Kensit (I think -- later they say she surgically altered her appearance), with a different name, getting electrocuted by a psycho and driving her crazy. Later, she fakes a drug overdose, which convinces another therapist to untie her (so he can do naughty things), thus letting her escape the institution so she can kill people and bite off their tongues.

What?

I'd go on but I just don't understand any of this, and the quality of the acting is at such a low, low level it's hard to care. The scenes of violence are fake to the point where they might as well have been using Muppets. (Watch wife Amy Locane drop to the ground when Kensit doesn't quite hit her with a log!) The DVD case tempts you with flashbacks to Muldoon/Kensit's alleged past as Ripper/Ripperette, but those scenes amount to about three minutes of film. Oh well, something tells me real period vignettes wouldn't have been any better anyway.

Aka Bad Karma. (At least changing the name change was a good move!)