From Hell to the Wild West (2017)

Serial killers have fascinated people for many years.  They may not have always been known as serial killers, and the psychology behind them may have only been deeply researched over the past few decades, but the idea of someone killing numerous people for seemingly no reason is one that has filled people’s minds with curiosity and anxiety for many years.

One of the most notorious serial killers in history was Jack the Ripper.  The unknown killer murdered five prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London in 1888.  Or so people think.  There may have been more or less, but the five that are generally considered to have been Jack the Ripper’s victims shared many similarities in how they were killed.

The legends behind serial killers can inspire many people to write stories sharing similar traits.  There are books, short stories, movies, and television shows that chronicle the brutal deaths caused by the serial killers.  Jack the Ripper is no different.  Fictional tales have been made time and time again that have some sort of a connection to the British murderer.  This week’s movie was one of them.

From Hell to the Wild West was a movie that didn’t necessarily scream Jack the Ripper before it began.  It felt like it would be a western about a cowboy fighting off demons or something.  Instead, it was a what if scenario where, after committing the murders in London, Jack the Ripper moved to the wild west and continued his killings.  Two researchers in the present discovered the connection between Jack the Ripper and a serial killer in the wild west, as the story of the past played out on screen.

Robert Bronzi starred in From Hell to the Wild West as a cowboy trying to hunt down the killer and clear himself of suspicion for the deaths.  Many lawmakers had thought that he was the person murdering women throughout the open land, but he knew who the real killer was.  He teamed up with a US Marshall to save some women and get rid of the killer for good.

The thing about Robert Bronzi was that he bore a striking resemblance to Charles Bronson.  He knew that when he changed his name to Bronzi from Kovacz.  The similarity in their looks wasn’t something unique to them.  Robert Bronzi wasn’t the first actor to try and cash in on how much he looked like someone else.  When Bruce Lee died, there were a bunch of Bruce Le and Bruce Li actors who popped up.  It’s just something of note that the main star of this movie was that kind of thing for Charles Bronson.

The story wasn’t all that strong in From Hell to the Wild West.  There was a murder followed by a chase followed by a shootout followed by character introductions right before the characters were killed followed by the researchers, and back to the chase to start the loop over again.  There wasn’t depth and there wasn’t any real way to connect to the characters because they ended up dying almost as soon as they were introduced with only the smallest amount of backstory given to them.  It’s hard to care for a character that isn’t fully formed.

As for the Jack the Ripper story thread, it felt unnecessary.  It was disconnected from what was happening in the past, which could have been the whole movie by itself.  It felt like the theory was tossed into the movie simply to pad the runtime because the movie would have been about an hour and ten minutes otherwise.  They wanted to be closer to the hour and a half, feature film time, and added the scenes in order to get the movie there.  That said, it contained the best acting in the movie because everyone that was in the wild west turned in bad, overwrought performances.  So there was that.

From Hell to the Wild West was not a good movie.  It posited an interesting idea.  What if Jack the Ripper had moved to a different place to continue his murders?  The execution of that idea wasn’t the greatest.  The stale acting and the main plot’s disconnection from that idea made the movie feel like a poorly put together conspiracy theory.

Serial killers have captured the minds of people all over the world.  With the rise of true crime shows and podcasts into the forefront over the past few years, fictionalized films were poised to go to the same places.  Some of them ended up being successful.  From Hell to the Wild West wasn’t one of the successes.  It has its place among the David DeCoteau and Jim Wynorski horror flicks that have come out in the past decade.  It’s not much more than that, though.

Here are some notes:

• From Hell to the Wild West was suggested by @einsteinsarcade.
• Charlie Glackin was in From Hell to the Wild West.  He was in another western with horror elements called Jonah Hex (week 249).
• Have you seen From Hell to the Wild West?  Have you seen other movies about Jack the Ripper after his five known murders?  What did you think of any of it?  Let me know in the comments.
• The comments are also a place where you can suggest movies to be covered for the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  Comments or Twitter, that is.  Let me know what you want to see me write about.
• Sometimes when I watch bad movies, I’ll share clips from them on Snapchat.  Add me (jurassicgriffin) if you’re interested in that sort of thing.
• Next week, we’ll be finishing up another month of horror for the Sunday “Bad” Movies by checking out a movie about an asylum called Hellriser.  For some reason, I had expected it to be about an elevator.  I think the “riser” part made me think that.  It’s not about an elevator.  I’ll tell you about it in seven days.  See you then.