There is some debate (at least between my brother and I) as to whether or not a film can be both a horror and a thriller. My argument is that yes, they most certainly can, and I point to such films as Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs (and maybe even the original Friday the 13th as well) as examples. The trick is to give the audience both the horror of the situation and/or what they are seeing, while at the same time keeping them in suspense as to what will eventually happen or who is actually behind the horror. And now I can add The Limehouse Golem to the list (And even if some people might not consider it a horror movie, it's my blog and I get to review what I want in it :P )
The year is 1880 and London is gripped by fear because of a series of gruesome murders committed by someone calling themselves the "Limehouse Golem". The Golem's latest crime is the slaughter of an entire family in the Limehouse area, and Inspector Kildare has been brought in to take over the case. At the same time, music hall star Lizzie Cree finds her husband dead in bed, having been poisoned, and is promptly accused and put on trial for his murder. When evidence emerges that makes John Cree a suspect in the Limehouse Golem murders, the two cases begin to intersect, and Kildare becomes convinced that John Cree was the Golem; furthermore, Lizzie must have poisoned him to protect herself. But can he find the evidence to prove this before it's too late and Lizzie goes to the gallows?
The Limehouse Golem is an adaptation of Peter Ackroyd's novel Dan Leno and The Limehouse Golem, and while normally I'm not that interested in reading a book after I've seen its movie version, this movie is proving to be an exception to that rule. It's a Victorian murder mystery that also takes a look at certain parts of the society of the time - specifically, music hall culture and the lives of the poor in the Limehouse area - and all of it is presented in a fascinating and quite gripping way. I've also seen people in other reviews comparing it to From Hell, and I admit I was doing that too - although in my case it was more of, "Thank Gods this is more intelligent, realistic and generally better overall than From Hell."
The late Alan Rickman was originally supposed to play Inspector Kildare, but he unfortunately had to back out due to ill health (which sadly turned out to be the pancreatic cancer that killed him) and so the role went to Bill Nighy instead. It certainly would have been interesting to see Rickman's version of the character; it's not that either actor is/was better than the other, but I think Rickman would have brought a very different style to the film than Nighy did. They would still have been playing an ageing gentleman detective (who may or may not have been a deeply closeted homosexual, but more on that shortly) but they would have each played the role very differently. Meanwhile, Olivia Cooke in the role of Lizzie Cree continues to show us that she plays innocent-seeming waif-like young women that men seem to fall over themselves to try to protect (remember her in The Quiet Ones?), regardless of whether she actually needs that protection. As lovely as she is, I do hope she's not getting typecast.
Onto the subject of the movie's LGTBQ themes... as well as the obvious is he/isn't he subplot involving Kildare's sexuality, there's also the cross-dressing of Dan Leno and Lizzie Cree in the music halls (which reminded me a little of Tipping the Velvet). There's also a question mark hanging over the sexuality of a couple of other characters, Lizzie Cree being perhaps the most obvious, although she could very well have been asexual or a lesbian. And of course, all of this is set against the backdrop of Victorian attitudes to sex and sexuality.
The murders are suitably gruesome for a serial killer horror movie, although for the most part the full imagery is held back until the film's climax, where we finally see the Golem's work in its full, ghastly glory. And as for the climax... I figured out the identity of the killer about halfway through the movie, and I honestly thought it was rather obvious, but then again I'm good at picking these things out, so take that for what it's worth. It's a good revelation, though, and one that's actually threaded throughout the entire film rather than just dropped on the audience abruptly at the end.
The Limehouse Golem has some brief uncomfortable depictions of child abuse and rape, but they're portrayed tactfully (or at the very least not in any salacious way. Some might find it a little bit slow, or not quite gory enough but I found it to be a very entertaining and engrossing film and one well worth seeing.
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