Rent The Limehouse Golem (2016)

Great gothic drama, not a horror - The Limehouse Golem review by Champ

I don't like horror, so was pleased that this didn't turn out to be one. I did watch a couple of bits through my fingers, but that's more about me being a wuss than any real gore in the movie.

And what an enjoyable movie! The performances were all great - Bill Nighy was his usual reliably brilliant self, but new to me were Douglas Booth and Olivia Cook, who were just as good. The plot genuinely kept me guessing, as a good whodunnit should.

I didn't see one big clay Golem in this film, it was set in Limehouse though... - The Limehouse Golem review by Strovey

The Limehouse Golem is called a horror film due to a few extreme gory and graphic murder scenes but all told it is a Sherlock Holmes-style murder mystery where the viewer is expected to figure out who the killer is whilst being led up the garden path by misleading reconstructions of the murders. It’s none the worse for this.

Victorian London is a place that regular viewers of TV dramas and cinema is now getting used to and the squalid underbelly her is shown to good effect, although everyone, once again, is probably a bit healthier and more bonny than what would be the real thing, but it is a drama, a film, entertainment, so this has to pass. Including, as the novel does, real Victorian characters, Dan Leno, Karl Marx and George Gissing, once again for clarity the timelines of these real people don’t tie up particularly the real Marx and Leno but this doesn’t distract from an interesting twist in the usual type of Victorian murder mystery.

Oliva Cooke plays the role of Lizzie Cree almost to perfection and certainly, there is not a trace of the irritating vocal-fry the distracted so much in the TV production of Vanity Fair, her story is sordid, sad, vicious and interesting. Ably supported by the somewhat somnambulistic and unemotive Bill Nighy and the ever-stalwart Daniel Mays who could play his type of role in his sleep the film is in experienced and good hands. I couldn’t decide if Nighy was playing his character in this style or if he was picking up a cheque. To be fair to him it does work. Douglas Booth gives a strong performance as the Victorian superstar Dan Leno and the whole parts of the film involving the music-halls are lovely recreated, add into mix creepy Eddie Marsan and Maria Valverde and you do have a melodramatic grand Guignol murder mystery. It’s always a matter of opinion but I think the film was created on the slightly over-the-top camp side to fit in the setting and story if it was it works.

Overall The Limehouse Golem is a slice of horrific melodrama populated with good actors playing mysterious characters all apparently hiding their true selves from the world as the real Victorians did. The dark alleyways, murders and music-halls are all ticked off in competent style, the murders mysterious and gory and suspects many. If you looking for straightforward entertainment with a dark side this could be the film for you.

Interestingly depending on your experience you make take a guess at the killer and get it right at various points throughout the film. It took me just over halfway through the film for the coin to drop, others I have read online took less time and still others longer or not at all.

I would recommend The Limehouse Golem if you like your murky, gory, Victorian murder mysteries but if you are a bit blase about the genre and are looking for a realistic representation of that period be warned you might get a bit peeved.

Golem, go get em.... - The Limehouse Golem review by porky

Entertainingly Dark in the best Victorian way.

Picture the Johnny Depp Movie 'FROM HELL' only ,thankfully, this time without that dreadful over acting of Depp himself .... a Much ,much better movie by far .

Sherlock holmes for adult market! - The Limehouse Golem review by HM

A whodunnit detective story revolving around great characters in a naughty Victorian revue Club. Very British, couldn't be from another country. Intriguing mystery unmasking a Jack the Ripper style killer. Detective meets horror really. Worked for me.

Bill goes straight. - The Limehouse Golem review by NC

To be fair, not as good as Depp's 2001 From Hell, but goes well. Bill shows can do it fairly straight if given the chance.

Gripping - The Limehouse Golem review by AL

Not the sort of film is usually watch, horrors aren't my sort of thing, but the impressive cast got me intrigued. Really gripping many twists. Don't usually comment on sets and design, but these were very realistic and helped pull you into the story. Not for the faint hearted though.

Achingly 'politically correct', feminist fantasy set in the Music Hall of Victorian London - The Limehouse Golem review by PV

This film annoyed me massively. From the start, it has a pc feminist agenda - incl the predictable child abuse back story (though the idea working men would stand by and let a small child get raped is wrong, and I doubt they'd be working alongside a black man either back then), hinted-at FGM with a hot iron, mucho abuse by nasty men (typical of drama and movies in this metoo mob age), loads of innocent fluffy women, and a 'strong' survivor woman taking centre stage.

OK so it's based on a Peter Ackroyd novel DAN LENO AND THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM and we have to remember that this author is gay, Jewish and NOT a novelist really, being expert at non-fiction about London. And it shows.

Typical 'grand guignol' gruesomeness as expected from a Spanish director (more yawns).

I loved the actor playing Dan Leno; I thought the leading female failed to convince though. AND for me the twist was predictable, and also unbelievable. To murder someone and dismember them requires the strength of a strong man! That's all I'm saying. Pc reversed roles do not work - just as casting women as snipers and in roles which are 90% men (as in The Bodyguard) is dishonest and fails to convince.

My favourite part of this film - the Music Hall context - and Eddie Ramsden as the UNCLE character was great - until the YAWNSOME predictable 'men are all abusers' trope kicks in.

A film that could have been good but which annoys greatly and grates. 'Political correctness' and gender quotas do not a great movie make. Be warned - much more of this sort of stuff on its way from femi-Hollywood. We all lose as a result.