Am a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes and get a lot of enjoyment out of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. Also love Basil Rathbone's and especially Jeremy Brett's interpretations to death. So would naturally see any Sherlock Holmes adaptation that comes my way, regardless of its reception.'The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire' is the last of four Hallmark adaptations with Matt Frewer as Holmes. Don't care for any of the four, with 'The Sign of Four' being especially disappointing, but ranking the four 'The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire' is perhaps the best. Like with 'The Royal Scandal', it at least doesn't have the dubious distinction of not doing classic stories justice. Again, Kenneth Welsh is the best thing about 'The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire' and the only good actor in the film. He is an excellent Watson and more the faithful interpretation of a loyal and intelligent Watson and not the bumbling buffoon for comic relief purposes. Cary Lawrence is also decent. Found some of the locations suitably atmospheric and parts of the music eerie. However, my negative feelings on Frewer's Holmes continues to remain unchanged. He is far too manic and eccentric, with too much of an over-emphasis on hammy humour in places, and his rapport with Watson too abrasive and borderline bullying. The rest of the cast struggle, especially Neville Edwards playing Chagras as too much of a cartoonish caricature and Michel Perron over-acting just as much as he did in 'The Sign of Four' and with an even more inconsistent, risible accent. Despite being the best generally of the four films, 'The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire' is one of the weaker-looking ones too. Too much of it looks static and cheap, with only some of the sets appealing. Moreover, 'The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire' has a lack of tension and suspense and is pretty dull, the pedestrian direction not helping. It further suffers from being somewhat over-stuffed, too many various and different ideas cobbled together and it just feels muddled and disjointed. The denouement is far too rushed and doesn't make much sense as a result, while the dialogue lacks intrigue and subtlety.Overall, far from irredeemable but lacking in a lot of lustre. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Matt Frewer's four films for Hallmark television are never likely to budge memories of the series made for Granada in the 1980s and 1990s; however, they are meant to appeal to a young audience and in this respect, they probably succeed.Frewer is saddled with a comedy deerstalker, the worst British accent since Robert Duvall played Watson in 'The Seven-Per-Cent Solution', and an annoying range of tics, smirks and general non-Holmes type behaviour. But he does have a rather good Watson in Kenneth Welsh who is a more serious version of Nigel Bruce from the 1940s Holmes films, so there are some compensations.The story here is nothing to do with Conan Doyle's 'The Sussex Vampyre'; it concerns a group of monks who are slowly being killed by what appears to be a vampire bat - each are found slumped and cold and bleeding from two wounds to the neck. Is there something supernatural going on, or, as Holmes believes, it this an inside job? The filming is actually not that bad - Canada passes for Victorian England, and set dressing isn't that inaccurate. With a better actor in the lead, these could be worthy additions to the screen Holmes. It's just that Frewer's version doesn't work - unless you see him as a kind of cartoon, comedy, superhero Holmes.If you are a Holmes completist, then of course you will want to watch these. But otherwise, you won't miss anything by staying away.

These are two of the choices offered as possible solutions in a fairly anachronistic rendering of an apocryphal Holmes-like tale. This made-for-TV story got nominated for cinematography awards in both the United States and Canada (it was filmed in Montreal). Therefore, if you want the best quality experience from WHITECHAPEL VAMPIRE, watch this with your television on "mute," and you will not hear the evidence as to why this offering did not receive any script-writing kudos. While it is clear Matt Frewer models his rendering of Sherlock Holmes more on the character "Snidely Whiplash" from TV's 1960s Bullwinkle cartoon than on Basil Rathbone's characterization in his famous string of 1940s Holmesian offerings, Tom Rack as Brother Abel is perhaps the weakest link in an acting chain of questionable strength. In terms of whether this series is great for kids, as some have suggested, it may well be, if one's goal is to raise little agnostics or atheists.

Unlike the former three adaptations in the Hallmark series, this one makes no pretense of even loosely 'following' any of Conan Doyle's works. This is the only reason that 'The Whitechapel Vampire' can get away with near heresy. The story involves ritual, possible demonic, killings in a monastery in Whitechapel, which was only recently deprived of Jack the Ripper. Sherlock Holmes is called in to investigate, but finds himself facing the possible unknown. A skeptic of anything supernatural, he fully believes that these 'vampire killings' can be proven the work of a human hand. Thus the story involves the Christian faith, and pagan superstition, as well as a medium, in attempts to satisfy viewers of all belief systems. What it does instead is trip over its own ambitions.Christians like myself will resent that in the end, something the medium has said proves itself right. And skeptics won't like the 'divine intervention' at a key moment of the climax. As a full-length film, it's often hard to follow, and isn't entirely explained, but manages to keep viewers on the edge of their seats. Frewer remains stereotyped, but it doesn't bleed through as often as in the first three adaptations. It is not the finest pastiche ever filmed but is worth seeing at least once.