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Silence
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 14, 2005 - 10:08 am: | 
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This doesn't appear to have been brought up here before, so can I tell you about Jack the Ripper's part in a 1999 video game called 'Shadow Man'?
'Shadow Man' is a horror-themed adventure game in which you must track down five murderers who have returned from the netherworld. One of these is Jack the Ripper.
Rather like the film 'Time After Time', 'Shadow Man' opens with the Ripper leaving his 1888 setting and reappearing in present day, where he begins a new series of killings.
These are my own points of interest:
- The actor who provides the Ripper's voice gives him a working-class accent, which is a refreshing change from the usual stereotype. (Also, the Ripper does not dress in the stereotypical top hat-and-cape outfit. Another welcome change.)
- The story is fictional - fantastical even - but the names of the five 'canonical' victims in 1888 are given correctly, as are the dates of their murders.
- In the prologue set in 1888, the Ripper writes in his diary that he 'truly loved' his victims. This is perhaps why, in 1999, he chooses victims whose names resemble those of the 'canonical five': Marie Nicholas, Anna Chaplin, Eliza Strinder and Katrina Eddison.
- The Ripper's face resembles the usual photograph of Dr Neill Cream (but without the top hat). The player can access a police file that contains an 1888 photograph of the Ripper(!). There is also a photograph of the suspect in the modern murders to show that they are the same man (the Ripper doesn't seem to be so good at discreet getaways in this story).
- The Ripper's signature tune in the game is Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. It is used in the prologue and in the player's journey through Down Street Station in search of the Ripper. For me, the most interesting and effective use of it is at a shrine, where you can hear a demented fragment of it played by a Victorian organ-grinder. To this day, this is what I hear if I want to think of a musical reference for Jack the Ripper.
- I suspect that the Ripper having his hideout in Down Street Station is only because Down Street is a 'ghost station' and makes an interesting setting. (It is somewhere between Green Park and Piccadilly, nowhere near the East End, so there seems to be no particular reason for placing the Ripper there.)
- A curious invention that seems to have no practical purpose is that the Ripper's name is John Q. Pierce. I can find no provenance for this, so I think it is either random, or possibly an in-joke among the scriptwriters. If you know otherwise please let me know.
- It is explained that the Ripper cut open his victims' bodies because he was looking for a mystical power source he believed was hidden inside. It is never explained how he came by this belief, but throughout the game the player will increase Shadow Man's power by collecting power sources hidden inside special containers. (Luckily for Shadow Man's moral standing, these containers are non-living.)
The Ripper only appears in person for a short time (like all the villains in the story). However, I think that he is actually the most important villain, despite his ostensibly minor rank. The game's central location, The Asylum, is designed by him (the story imagines the Ripper to have been an architect by profession) so he is present in spirit for much of the time. (A subtle sign of this is the Asylum's Victorian style brickwork, which shows respectable thought on the part of the game's designers.)
The Ripper elements in 'Shadow Man' are well worth a look if you are interested in this area. I think the story is a good one. Although it is fantastical, it is more in spirit with the source material than categorically similar fictions like, for example, the 'Wolf in the Fold' episode of 'Star Trek'. More thought has gone into the Ripper storyline than you would expect in something that isn't advertised as Ripper-related media.
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