The Ripper is a 1985 American Slasher Movie featuring Tom Savini.
Richard Harrell is a film professor who's stumbled upon a mysterious ring. After buying it, he starts falling asleep and having horrible visions. As it turns out, Jack the Ripper bound himself to that ring and has been using Richard as a conduit to return to the material realm. As the bodies start piling up, Richard and one of his students must stop the madness before it's too late.
This film contains examples of:
- Antagonist Title: The title refers to Jack The Ripper, the Big Bad.
- Artifact of Attraction: Jack's ring fills people with an intense desire to purchase it, though at least one person returned it to the thrift store it was bought from.
- Badass Cape: Jack wears a victorian one.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Jack the Ripper as a spirit who bound himself to a ring.
- Big Bad: Jack the Ripper, who has returned in the modern day via a magic ring.
- Clothes Make the Maniac: Jack the Ripper possesses people through a bejeweled ring.
- Disposable Sex Worker: Jack started with Whitechapel prostitutes because he felt nobody would miss them. By the 1980's he's become less discriminatory.
- The End... Or Is It?: Richard is gunned down by the police and Jack is trapped in the ring once more. The next morning, some kids find the ring and bring it home to their mom.
- Fake Action Prologue: While it appears that the film opens with the Ripper slitting a woman's throat, this is revealed to be a hypothetical posited by Richard Harrell, deliberately filled with inaccuracies to make a point about Hollywood History.
- Immortality Immorality: Jack reveals he kills to keep himself immortal, having bound himself to a magical ring long ago.
- Ring of Power: Jack possesses people through a bejeweled ring.
- Shout-Out:
- Richard is asked if he caught House of Wax (1953) on TV the night before, and is disappointed because he wanted to tape it. He also expresses a desire to catch The Conqueror Worm and Theatre of Blood.
- Richard nicknames his girlfriend Nurse Ratched.
- Richard mentions his favourite Jack the Ripper movie being Murder by Decree, and soon after mentions he'll show the class The Lodger. He also name-drops The Twilight Zone (1959) and Star Trek: The Original Series when discussing their versions of Jack.
- Richard watches Blood Cult with his girlfriend.
- A Sinister Clue: One of the first signs Richard's got Jack's spirit latching onto him is suddenly switching from right- to left-handedness. However, the clue's more about him suddenly switching his dominant hand more than left-handedness being inherently bad.
- True Crime: Richard teaches a class on true crime cinema, and how Hollywood uses inaccuracies to make the story more dramatic.
- Villain Opening Scene: Subverted. While it appears that the film opens with the Ripper slitting a woman's throat, this is revealed to be a hypothetical posited by Richard Harrell, deliberately filled with inaccuracies to make a point about Hollywood History.