The Limehouse Golem

It translates novelist Peter Ackroyd's densely historical and cerebral foray into the horror genre into an entertainment, without being weighed down by Ackroyd's numerous fascinating but imaginative layers and tangents.

The moviemakers have more on their minds than mounting a Ripper-like Sherlockian detective case with an unusual blend of grit and lushness.

... this nasty little Victorian London horror film has more than a few blood-soaked charms of its own.

Adequate as comfort food, but fails as anything else.

Marrying fact and fiction, Jane Goldman's seamy screenplay is wildly overstuffed; but the director, Juan Carlos Medina, gives the music hall scenes a rowdy authenticity.

A wonderful cast make themselves at home against the music halls and maggoty, murky streets of 1880s London.

The film’s overstuffed plot does not quite leave enough space for other film elements to “breathe”, but...viewing will be rewarded...given the film’s deliciously macabre atmosphere...and the unexpected twist-finale.

Isn't much of a penny dreadful thriller - there's too many red-herrings for that - but it does spill enough of the red stuff to satisfy fans of Victorian horror.

You may still have fun with The Limehouse Golem, but you aren't likely to come away enriched by the experience.

It should be seen on as big a screen as can be with the color balance perfect to fully enjoy is darkly lush layers and the cast's acting in all its glory.