Another film that I probably wouldn't have bothered to see unless I'd won free tickets to see it (which I did, without really knowing what films I'd won tickets to). Though, after seeing it, it wasn't as gruesome as I'd have thought.
It's another depiction of the Jack The Ripper story, though (thankfully), this one concentrates more on the detective work of trying to catch the killer, more than making cinema of the grisly things that he did. Even the morgue scenes are a case of seeing the staff being utterly disgusted by what they see, instead of showing you what was done to the bodies.
There was a different twist to who the ripper was, and why it was happening than I've heard of; though I don't think it's an entirely new proposal. If you want to find out the plot, you can read the spoiler on another page.
The detective, working on the case, is an opium smoking addict, who gets visions during his drug taking, and can supposedly see the murders taking place during these visions. Though, that angle doesn't appear to be the way that he solves the case.
The film is sordid, in all sorts of ways. The obvious one being that it's about murders, but the murders are of prostitutes, and we see and hear a fair bit of their activities. Then there's the general squalor of the period, and the conspiracies behind everything.