Director Watch Podcast Ep. 124 - 'From Hell' (The Hughes Brothers, 2001)

Welcome to Director Watch! On this AwardsWatch podcast, co-hosts Ryan McQuade and Jay Ledbetter attempt to breakdown, analyze, and ultimately, get inside the mind of some of cinema’s greatest auteurs. In doing so, they will look at their filmographies, explore what drives them artistically and what makes their decision making process so fascinating. Add in a few silly tangents and a fun game at the end of the episode and you’ve got yourself a podcast we truly hope you love. On episode 124 of the Director Watch Podcast, the boys are joined by AwardsWatch contributor Josh Parham to discuss the next film in their Hughes Brothers series, From Hell (2001).

After making two independent films that feel very much like the Hughes Brothers announcing their style and cinema language to the world, they took a detour to making a studio film, one that had been in development for some time. Based on the beloved Alan Moore graphic novel, From Hell centers around a renowned detective who is hunting down Jack the Ripper and using his helpful powers of deduction to save the girls being harmed by this mad man before it’s too late, while also discovering the truth around who the Ripper is. Convoluted and silly, From Hell is a piece of early 2000s nostalgia for millennial audiences that works more as a fun, disposable period thriller than the next film within the Hughes Brothers’ filmography, as it seems that they were directors for hire and doesn’t have much of their voice found within their first two films. Ryan, Jay, and Josh talk about their thoughts on the film, how it fits in the Hughes Brothers filmography, the careers of Johnny Deep and Heather Graham, Josh’s connection to the history of Jack the Ripper, how much a nice guy Alan Moore seems (sarcasm), and what the hell is going on with the James Bond franchise and plenty of more tangents.

You can listen to the Director Watch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more.

This podcast runs 2h19m. The guys will be back next week to conclude their series on the films of the Hughes Brothers with a review of their last film, The Book of Eli. You can rent it via iTunes and Amazon Prime rental in preparation for the next episode of Director Watch. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: MUSICALIFE, from Pond5 (intro) and “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).