11. The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire (2002, TV)
IMDB score = 6.3/10
Holmes and Watson? = Matt Frewer and Kenneth Welsh
Synopsis = Sherlock Holmes investigates a series of death rumoured to be caused by a vampire.
Brief Defense by Paul Thomas Miller:
I'll not lie: I struggled this one. It's rather "meh". Not so awful it is fun to laugh at but not so good it catches your attention. But it does have good points.
The plot is original and holds together O.K. But Holmes does feel tolerably Holmesy. In fact, Max Headroom makes a surprisingly good Holmes. Especially visually. And his proclamation of agnosticism and devotion to science and logic hold up well against canonical Holmes.
The sets are rather good, I thought. 221 felt about right, for instance.
There are some nice little vampiric Easter eggs to find. I only spotted two (addresses: Renfield Place and Demeter Street) but I bet there are more to be found. That's always fun.
There's always fun to be had laughing at bad accents. Holmes is a typically overdone camp American version of a British accent. But the prize goes to Inspector Jones whose accent manages to travel from all over Scotland to Southern Ireland, Wales, Spain, Bristol and Yorkshire in the space of one sentence.
My favourite thing about this film, though, is that it is a Christmas Holmes film (just) and we need more of those. There's only so many versions of The Blue Carbuncle one can watch, after all.
