The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire

Am a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes and get a lot of enjoyment out of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. Also love Basil Rathbone's and especially Jeremy Brett's interpretations to death. So would naturally see any Sherlock Holmes adaptation that comes my way, regardless of its reception.

'The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire' is the last of four Hallmark adaptations with Matt Frewer as Holmes. Don't care for any of the four, with 'The Sign of Four' being especially disappointing, but ranking the four 'The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire' is perhaps the best. Like with 'The Royal Scandal', it at least doesn't have the dubious distinction of not doing classic stories justice.

Again, Kenneth Welsh is the best thing about 'The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire' and the only good actor in the film. He is an excellent Watson and more the faithful interpretation of a loyal and intelligent Watson and not the bumbling buffoon for comic relief purposes. Cary Lawrence is also decent.

Found some of the locations suitably atmospheric and parts of the music eerie.

However, my negative feelings on Frewer's Holmes continues to remain unchanged. He is far too manic and eccentric, with too much of an over-emphasis on hammy humour in places, and his rapport with Watson too abrasive and borderline bullying. The rest of the cast struggle, especially Neville Edwards playing Chagras as too much of a cartoonish caricature and Michel Perron over-acting just as much as he did in 'The Sign of Four' and with an even more inconsistent, risible accent.

Despite being the best generally of the four films, 'The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire' is one of the weaker-looking ones too. Too much of it looks static and cheap, with only some of the sets appealing. Moreover, 'The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire' has a lack of tension and suspense and is pretty dull, the pedestrian direction not helping. It further suffers from being somewhat over-stuffed, too many various and different ideas cobbled together and it just feels muddled and disjointed. The denouement is far too rushed and doesn't make much sense as a result, while the dialogue lacks intrigue and subtlety.

Overall, far from irredeemable but lacking in a lot of lustre. 4/10 Bethany Cox

This movie has the flavor of a tv movie the from days of old, produced by and for the Hallmark channel.

A murder at a coed monastery calls for the talents of Sherlock Holmes. Holmes is unabashedly skeptical of religion, but murder is murder regardless of the venue. There are indications that the initial murder, as well as subsequent murders, were committed by a vampire, and as you might expect, Sherlock is equally skeptical about the undead. The movie proceeds at a gentle pace as we untangle the present conflict with past events which occurred in Guyana some years ago. All in all a pleasant way to pass a sleepy afternoon.

This starts off with a rather curious disclaimer stating it has taken the characters from the public domain and that no effort has been made to liaise with the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. All perfectly legal, of course, but it did make me wonder what liberties they were about to take with the long established characters of "Sherlock Holmes" (Matt Frewer) and "Dr. Watson" (Kenneth Welsh). Well, as it happens, that intrigue is about as good as this gets as our super-sleuthing duo become embroiled in a series of murders that people suspect might be the work of a vampire. Frewer and Welsh are not Rathbone/Bruce, but they make for a decent pairing in this otherwise unremarkable drama that seems to draw more from "Cadfael" then from "Hound of the Baskervilles". The mystery develops pretty routinely, as you'd expect from a ninety minute television movie, before an ending that reminded me of "Scooby Doo". It isn't terrible, indeed the production looks fine, but the sum of the parts is underwhelming, with some pretty wordy dialogue and too many characters to clutter up any participation from the audience in the investigation. Maybe one for die-hard fans of these iconic characters, but otherwise just daytime telly fodder.

It's really nice to have new Sherlock Holmes adaptions played by different actors. Every actor who played Sherlock Holmes and dr. Watson bring their own Aura to the parts. Give it a chance just enjoy it for what it. Makes more sense than the Robert Downey jr. Versions. Good atmosphere, fun to watch. I wish there were more than four.

Unlike the former three adaptations in the Hallmark series, this one makes no pretense of even loosely 'following' any of Conan Doyle's works. This is the only reason that 'The Whitechapel Vampire' can get away with near heresy. The story involves ritual, possible demonic, killings in a monastery in Whitechapel, which was only recently deprived of Jack the Ripper.

Sherlock Holmes is called in to investigate, but finds himself facing the possible unknown. A skeptic of anything supernatural, he fully believes that these 'vampire killings' can be proven the work of a human hand. Thus the story involves the Christian faith, and pagan superstition, as well as a medium, in attempts to satisfy viewers of all belief systems. What it does instead is trip over its own ambitions.

Christians like myself will resent that in the end, something the medium has said proves itself right. And skeptics won't like the 'divine intervention' at a key moment of the climax. As a full-length film, it's often hard to follow, and isn't entirely explained, but manages to keep viewers on the edge of their seats. Frewer remains stereotyped, but it doesn't bleed through as often as in the first three adaptations. It is not the finest pastiche ever filmed but is worth seeing at least once.