With Jack the Ripper’s disappearance, the spate of stories by journalist Sebastian Stubb came to a premature end as the murders stopped. He had nothing to write about and was at his wits’ end about how to survive. Then one fine day, he receives a letter, supposedly from the Ripper himself, gloating about a new murder, and Sebastian once again finds himself in the midst of another mystery. The unidentified serial killer was nowhere to be found for the past 12 months, but the letter describes his unbridled desire to hurt women once again. The message turns out to be true, and the body of a young woman is discovered on Mulberry Street. Is it really the Ripper, or is it a hoax?
Spoilers Ahead
The Mulberry Street Murder
The “Ripper’s Revenge” begins with Sebastian Stubb’s monotonous life, as he is tired of making things work. He no longer takes pleasure in anything and cannot fulfill his lover’s wish to marry him. Although he’s a pretty good journalist, he doesn’t succeed in drawing people’s attention to specific cases. But a single letter from ‘Jack the Ripper’ changes everything for him, for his writings about the Ripper achieve great fame in society. Also, the letter blatantly describes the murder of a woman, Mavis, whose body’s been dumped in a workshop on Mulberry Street. Although it’s quite clear, Sebastian decides to verify the letter because he doesn’t want anyone to mess with him. When Sebastian arrives at the workshop, he’s shocked to find the body, but before he can leave, he’s arrested as a suspect by the police officers. However, Sebastian is released due to lack of evidence.
As it turns out, Sebastian has previously forged letters to make the Ripper’s case even more sensational. But this time, Sebastian didn’t write the letter. Although all the previous letters had been confiscated by the police, someone had imitated Sebastian’s writing style, and there was no doubt that the murderer had access to the police files.
Why Did Sebastian Change His Mind?
From the beginning, Sebastian was waiting for a sensational case that would change his life forever. However, something about the Ripper case didn’t feel right, and he didn’t want to be dragged into trouble. Sebastian was afraid for the life of his girlfriend (Iris) because her profession as a prostitute could be the main reason why the Ripper tried to communicate with him. The next morning Sebastian finds a letter in which the Ripper writes of another murder in Adelina Grove and he visits the indicated place to have a closer look at the corpse with Lenny. This time, the victim had her chest ripped open and Sebastian was shocked to see the body. However, Lenny gave him a different perspective, claiming that women could be responsible for these murders too. Previously, hundreds of men had been arrested, but none of them could be connected to the case. So, there was a good chance that a woman was involved in it.
Sebastian didn’t take it seriously, believing a woman could never commit such atrocities. But what if it was true? The following night, Sebastian gets into a heated argument with Iris because she wants him to publish news articles about the Ripper. By chance, Iris reveals that she already knew about the second letter, but Sebastian hadn’t told her about it. He knew Iris was hiding something and decided to wait for her return. The next morning, Sebastian caught Iris hiding another letter in his bag.
Why Did Iris Put The Letters In Sebastian’s Bag?
Sebastian was shocked to learn that his girlfriend had put the letter in his bag, but Iris had no idea what the letters said because she was illiterate and someone had forced her to give them to Sebastian. Iris couldn’t stand the sleepless and hungry nights, and publishing an article about the Ripper would earn them enough money to get their lives back on track. Besides, Iris wasn’t afraid that the Ripper would hurt her because he was using her as bait to get to Sebastian. This time Sebastian summons up the courage to write about the Ripper murders because that is what the killer wants. He wants to attract everyone’s attention because newspapers have great power and can direct the public will to great effect. Nevertheless, the Ripper enjoys the fact that people are afraid to leave their homes because they think they’ll be his next victim and whoever the murderer is, he enjoys taking control of the weaker minds.
The following day, Sebastian is arrested for the murders, as all the suspicions land on him. Every time a woman is killed, Sebastian is already present at the location, which makes him a prime suspect. Even though Sebastian has no involvement in the murder case, the officers didn’t listen to him.
Officer Wingate & The Ripper
Sebastian decides to involve Iris in the case, as she’s the only one who knows of his innocence. But when Officer Wingate returns with Iris, he holds a knife to her neck. It turns out that Wingate has been posing as the Ripper to avenge the death of his daughter, Jessica. When Sebastian became famous for his articles, he published a story about a young girl named Jessica. She’d posed for a nude photo shoot, and her photos were circulated around town. Sebastian picked up this story and published it in the newspaper. The news made headlines, and Jessica’s reputation was completely ruined. In the end, she couldn’t take the pressure anymore and took her own life. Now Wingate wants to destroy Sebastian’s life, and this is the only way to put him in prison. In the end, Sebastian decides to confess to the murders in order to save Iris, but Wingate doesn’t go along with his proposal and decides to kill Iris himself.
Luckily, Lenny arrives at the right time and kills Wingate because it turns out that Wingate is Lenny’s stepfather, and Lenny knows about the murders. He didn’t want another woman to die and decided to stop his stepfather before things got worse. But Lenny had other plans: he decided to kill Sebastian because his family couldn’t get over Jessica’s scandal, and the news of his stepfather’s crimes would just make everything worse. But Sebastian decides to change the story and convinces Lenny to spare his life. The next morning, Sebastian publishes a story about Wingate, making him a hero. Although he doesn’t describe all the details, he gives a subtle hint that Wingate was killed by the Ripper himself.
‘Ripper’s Revenge’ Ending Explained – Who Is The Real Murderer?
Lenny apologizes for forcing Sebastian, but it turns out he wrote that article to correct his mistake. The sudden fame blinded him, and he destroyed Jessica’s life. And even though Wingate was the killer, Sebastian blamed himself for making him one. But the film doesn’t end there because the real culprit is still at large. When Sebastian comes home, he shows Iris the newspaper, and she accidentally reads the headline, which is impossible. Iris has always claimed that she can’t read, but it turns out that she was involved in the murders all along. Iris and Lenny had an agreement: both wanted Sebastian to write the article and maintain Wingate’s image, improving Iris’ financial situation as Lenny would be paying her. Accordingly, Lenny shoots Sebastian and tries to make his death look like a suicide. Relieved at Sebastian’s death, Iris dreamt of living a happy life with Lenny. But Lenny had used Iris as bait to get to Sebastian and doesn’t want to further his alliance with Iris. Once Iris understood that he had betrayed her, she tried to attack him with a pocket knife. However, she didn’t succeed and was killed by Lenny.
The ending of “Ripper’s Revenge” is quite unexpected and confirms the adage that your past always finds a way to come back to you. As it turns out, Sebastian’s one mistake cost him his life, and things would have been different if he hadn’t published an article about Jessica’s scandal. Besides, Lenny being a part-time photographer, was originally responsible for Jessica’s photos getting out to the public. He’d do anything to make money, but Wingate didn’t know about all this. Lenny manipulated his father into following his plan, and in the end, Lenny got what he always wanted. As you have noticed, Sebastian was afraid of losing Iris the whole time and didn’t want to involve her in the Ripper murders. He forgot to protect himself and loved the wrong person because he thought Iris had supported him all along. Here, everyone is a villain because everyone has good and evil in them. We have the choice to make the right decision, but Lenny chose the wrong one and unleashed the inherent evil in him.
“Ripper’s Revenge” is a 2023 horror thriller film directed by Steven Lawson.
