A Serial Killer in a Lugubrious London
BILL NIGHY — THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM — 2016
The film starts the way it ends, or nearly that is to say at the end of it and yet it fools you around. Everyone in this small group of music hall people can be the Limehouse Golem, every man and every woman, even those who were killed by the Limehouse Golem. It is mixed up and gothic with tremendous gusto and bravado. And you will fall into the trap and you will be fooled like a poor idiot you are.
The Scotland Yard inspector is not young. He is old and experienced and yet he sees nothing, not even what is under his own nose in the British Library. The story is so well set up by the murderer and so well disguised by the stage director of this real-life drama that everyone falls for it and is ready to accuse anyone except the real culprit. It is so easy to accuse someone who is not the criminal they are looking for, but an easy prey that will play the game of the falsely accused victim with so much truth and force since he or she is not the real culprit. But policemen do not believe denials from accused criminals, even if they are not criminals and are accused falsely.
Then the rest is just dresses, costumes, settings and dirt galore in the streets and old shops and old houses and even old ways of speaking and you have it all there in front of you. A myth, a thriller before the proper time, the sensational popular novel typical of the 19th century displayed on the screen with enthusiasm and pleasure. And you will enjoy it. But do not drink anything offered by any one of the members of the crew. There is a poisoner among them.
So to conclude, that’s a brilliant scary and disheartening beautiful crime story with so many crimes that will turn you into a vampire before it is finished.
Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU
