Bullet Points: From Hell to the Wild West

The opening of From Hell to the Wild West will lead you to believe that it is based on true events. Well, as you might imagine, that is a line of bullshit that you should be used to by now. When I see that pasted onto the front of a movie I immediately assume the movie is full of crap. Normally I’m right…especially in this case.

Synopsis: The infamous Jack the Ripper has made his way to the American West and continued his killing spree that started across the Atlantic. He’s targeting women and being chased by a couple of men who are determined to stop him.

• Say what?: So the main plot behind this movie is the idea that real historical dude Francis Tumblety was Jack the Ripper. This is an actual thing that exists where people are still trying to figure out if this American dude, while in England, killed a bunch of prostitutes and came back to the States and just hung around killing people. Any research would tell you that most of this movie is so full of it that my opinion is absolutely biased against it.

• Nice mask: We get very few names for characters in this movie. Jack the Ripper is more or less assumed in this movie. I don’t think his name is ever actually said. The most noticeable thing about Jack in this movie is his sewn-together mask that reminds me of something that Clive Barker might choose not to put into his movie. It feels like it was shoved into this movie for the effect of having some dude in a mask killing women instead of a man in a top hat. Either way, it just didn’t work for me.
• Bronzi on the hunt: Charles Bronson look-alike Robert Bronzi, who I really enjoyed in Death Kiss, plays our nameless hero in this. At least I think he was nameless. I don’t remember a name being said at any point and there is hardly anything about Bronzi that comes up during the movie. It’s a real shame, too. He was the only reason that I started the movie and he was my favorite part of the movie. His character is on the hunt for the killer who we know as Jack the Ripper. That means that Bronzi is a one-man posse on the hunt for some ripping action!

• Help Wanted: The American Ripper is hanging out at a small mining town that is now empty of people. Jack has killed them all. Now, Jack has been relegated to putting help wanted ads in surrounding towns which definitely doesn’t seem like something that was done in the Old West. The ladies are showing up to his deserted town looking for work as a “hostess”…. he basically just waits for them to get off from their stagecoaches and then he chases them down and kills them. It’s kind of an obscene plan, to be honest.
• Runtime: So far, one of the best things about From Hell to the Wild West has been the runtime. It’s a movie that only runs about an hour and 15 minutes but it really feels longer. There is an awful lot of time spent with characters that don’t matter to the story and the story isn’t that great to begin with.

• A posse for you: With all of the murders going around, you better believe there is a posse on the trail. Too bad that trail leads to Bronzi instead of the real killer. What that means is the posse and Bronzi have themselves a good old shootout while the real killer is murdering hot chicks in that mining town we learned about earlier.
• Back to the future: One difference with this movie that you might not expect is that there are a few jumps back into the present that show a college girl and professor doing research into what happened 150 years earlier. I wish I could say that it really adds something to the overall story but that just isn’t the case. It’s more filler than anything.
• Finish it: I spent most of the movie just wanting to see more of Bronzi. He is the only character with any presence on screen and you’ll just wish there was more of him throughout the movie. Most of that comes from the horrible story. Nothing happens. A random girl shows up and gets killed by Jack. Then another shows up and gets killed. The only thing we look forward to is when Bronzi finally shows up and puts a bullet through him.

The Verdict: The characters that we don’t like are being chased by that other character that I don’t like while those other characters that I don’t care about are looking for that one character that I don’t like but there are some other characters chasing those guys that I don’t care about. Got it? For a movie with a short runtime, From Hell to the Wild West feels far too long. Nothing happens for long stretches at a time and they don’t take advantage of the fact that Bronzi looks so damned cool. I would have spent a little more time with Bronzi and some more time getting to know one of the girls. You won’t care about the characters who are being killed if they’re barely introduced before they’re dead. Watch this at your own peril…