The Limehouse Golem

Juan Carlos Medina's gruesomely enjoyable piece of period pulp based on the 1994 novel by Peter Ackroyd mixes historical figures and fictional characters in a Victorian-era serial-killer melodrama recalling Jack the Ripper's spree (but with an added touch of Agatha Christie). The convoluted plot follows dogged efforts by Scotland Yard Inspector Kildare (Bill Nighy) to track down the perpetrator in a string of brutal murders in the Limehouse district of fog-shrouded London—a killer who has left behind cryptic messages identifying himself with the titular clay creature of Jewish lore. Kildare is also busy making an equally determined attempt to exonerate Lizzie (Olivia Cooke), who is accused of poisoning her husband, playwright John Cree. The link between the two plot threads is that Cree was one of Kildare's chief suspects—along with Karl Marx, novelist George Gissing, and music hall comic Dan Leno (who Lizzie worked with in her former career on the stage). As Lizzie's trial draws to a close, the detective's pursuit of the killer grows increasingly desperate. The Limehouse Golem is the modern equivalent of a Victorian penny dreadful, a goofily entertaining tale that is crammed to the brim with plot—including a couple of wicked final twists. And the actors eagerly sink their teeth into these succulently overripe roles. Recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a “making-of” featurette (7 min.), production segments on “The Cast” (3 min.), “The Look” (3 min.), and “The Locations” (3 min.), and a photo gallery. Bottom line: a decent extras package for this enjoyably over-the-top melodrama.] (F. Swietek)