FrightFest review – The Haunting at Jack the Ripper’s House (Viral Haunt)
Stephen Staley and Natasha Tosini have been very busy in the currently-thriving low-budget British horror scene, showing up in a lot of those make-a-slasher-pic-from-out-of-copyright-properties efforts. Here, they do triple duty as directors, writers and actors in a variation on the now-familiar youtubers-in-a-haunted-house sub-genre. The HauntHunters are a gang of young folks who have had internet success with hokey paranormal investigations – notably getting more views, likes, subscribers and comments when they started cheating with pranks and special effects … which has prompted founder member Richard (Jack Hyde) to quit since his ruthlessly ambitious former best friend Jake (Jack Hoy) is now calling the shots.
For their latest investigation – and this will be a real stretch for anyone who’s even looked at a Wikipedia page about the Whitechapel Murders – the HauntHunters have secured access to a derelict mansion formerly owned by Aaron Kosminski, who in the universe of this film has been more or less identified as Jack the Ripper by DNA evidence and committed the murders historically carried out on the streets of the East End inside the house so there’s a possibility the ghosts of the victims (and their killer) are still about. All this is so far removed from the historical record, it’s strange the filmmakers just didn’t make up their own Victorian serial killer – their preferred title doesn’t put the Ripper up front.
The true crime backstory is beside the point, since the most interesting material here is the stuff about the gang of friends who’ve had a taste of commercial success by changing their methods and found that faking it is a harder slog than just fooling about. The story would work if it were about a band (especially) or a theatre group (maybe even horror filmmakers), but is relatively fresh in the world of youtubers, influencers and paranormal podcasters – some of the writing and playing is on the awkward side (one key speech runs on way too long) but the idea is affecting … these characters are falling apart as their relationships crack even before a bagheaded/top-hatted slasher spectre intervenes to up the body count. It’s obviously cheap even in an arena where budgets always closer to Lidl than Waitrose for the craft services sandwiches – we’d suspect the cast brought their own packed lunches made by mums – but it stretches to a couple of decent scares and a leavening of proper dread.
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