The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire

Trailer—The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire

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 a fake Sherlock Holmes adaptation, but the movie starts off by warning you that it's fake. Although I love the BBC and Hallmark adaptations of Holmes, I can't say that I like this version of Sherlock, who is never told like a gentleman in the books. Matt Frewer is great again. Even though it's called Vampire, the movie actually deals with the Dhampire cult, which is the only movie I know/watch on the subject.

A monk is murdered and a vampire is suspected. Sherlock Holmes (Matt Frewer) dismisses the supernatural explanation but Dr. Watson (Kenneth Welsh) is unsure. Brother Marstoke reveals a series of murders with accompanying blood scrawled walls and large bat-like demon Desmondo from a faraway mission. This is missing an exciting twist or an inventive take. Frewer has been more charismatic than this. The church should be a dark gothic setting but it's much too dull for that. It is a TV movie all the way through. This is functional but not much more than that. The Hallmark Channel is using the public domain classic character to do a non-canon mediocre mystery.

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

From the opening few seconds it is immediately obvious that this is a TV movie. The production values scream this out. The music and sets all show their limitations pretty clearly, while the acting on display is very much of television standard. So from the get-go you are at least under no false impressions of the scope of this one and that's probably a good thing in the long run because this Sherlock Holmes mystery doesn't really ever ascend above the level of mediocre. The story is about a series of murders at a monastery seemingly committed by a vampire in the same area as Jack the Ripper operated. One of the monastic Brothers believes that it is the work of a demon he claims to have encountered before in British Guyana called Desmondo. The 'agnostic' Holmes is sceptical from the outset regarding this explanation and sets about applying his famed logic to solving the murder-mystery. Apparently this is not actually based on an Arthur Conan Doyle original story. This may go some way to explaining some of the more ambiguous supernatural material such as a possibly-maybe divine intervention moment towards the end. Despite a very promising set-up, it isn't a particularly exciting or well written story. The actor who played Holmes didn't seem right to me, on the other hand Dr Watson was portrayed in a textbook manner. But overall, the acting was sub-par amongst the side characters, with the character who played the police inspector spouting a truly dreadful 'Scottish' accent. Despite all this, it was an acceptable enough way of spending ninety minutes and I was interested enough to discover the solution to the mystery. But overall there was little in the way of actual atmosphere or inspiration in this one.

These are two of the choices offered as possible solutions in a fairly anachronistic rendering of an apocryphal Holmes-like tale. This made-for-TV story got nominated for cinematography awards in both the United States and Canada (it was filmed in Montreal). Therefore, if you want the best quality experience from WHITECHAPEL VAMPIRE, watch this with your television on "mute," and you will not hear the evidence as to why this offering did not receive any script-writing kudos. While it is clear Matt Frewer models his rendering of Sherlock Holmes more on the character "Snidely Whiplash" from TV's 1960s Bullwinkle cartoon than on Basil Rathbone's characterization in his famous string of 1940s Holmesian offerings, Tom Rack as Brother Abel is perhaps the weakest link in an acting chain of questionable strength. In terms of whether this series is great for kids, as some have suggested, it may well be, if one's goal is to raise little agnostics or atheists.

The four Sherlock Holmes movies by Hallmark are just good fun versions for kids. Don't even try to take 'em seriously folks. Don't expect them to be artistic masterpieces based on literary classics. These TV movies were made for a family audience and there's plenty of comedy for kids in these things. Frewer's Holmes must be seen to be believed! He's a hoot! He's the most eccentric Holmes EVER! Kids will love this guy! Kenneth Welsh is much more traditional in his role and he makes a very fine Watson. These Frewer Holmes flicks are sure to entertain the kids and will hopefully encourage them to read more about The Master Detective. They certainly wont get bored watching any of these with the ultra-intense and comedic Frewer on the screen.

source: The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire

Holmes (Frewer) and Watson (Welsh) are called to a case that takes place in an Abbey inhabited by monks and nuns. A couple of monks wind up with the signature bite of the vampire on their necks. The monks are terrified. It surely has something to do with their having done missionary work in Guyana, which is full of bats. The tale is a little twisted but the general idea is that the monks and nuns think they're being pursued by some South American demon, while the atheistic Holmes and the more prudent Watson look for a material source of the problem. The photography is just fine. The chiaroscuro is masterful. No kidding. Some shots evoke images of Rembrandt. We've all seen the stone and brick walls of night-time Victorian alleys before, the cobbled streets, but rarely more vividly, never more slick with glittering patches of water. Unfortunately we don't get to see too much of London. The budget apparently didn't allow for it. None of the performances stand out much. Frewer has the right features for Holmes, but a fair-haired Holmes takes a little getting used to, and so does his gaiety and light voice. Between Rathbone and Brett, the character was ruined for everyone else. Although, come to think of it, things might have been worse -- Arthur WONTNER? Cary Lawrence turns in a polished performance as the blind Sister Helen. There are one or two evocative phrases, words, or character. Whitechapel, of course, conjures up Jack the Ripper eating somebody's kidney, probably with a nice chianti. Vampires today are all over the screen, sometimes pathetic, sometime demonic, sometimes just thirsty. There was a real Doctor Chagas -- Carlos -- who became famous in tropical medicine in South America. He had a disease named after him. (Kids, the name of the disease that was named after Doctor Chagas is Chagas' disease.) Either the structure of the story is tortuous or I'm aging at a faster rate than I'd hoped, because I kept getting all those monks mixed up. If they'd only dress differently from one another. And the ending: all the clues, ratiocination, and events that have been edited out of the narrative come crashing in all at once. It leaves you feeling as f you'd just gorged yourself on the collected works of Agatha Christie. There have been worse movies about Holmes and there have been better ones. This one will pass.