The story of the Yorkshire Ripper is about to be made into a film, or more specifically a film trilogy, by Channel 4 and Revolution Films. The trilogy will be based on three of the four books in the “Red Riding Quartet” by Daniel Peace. The first of these three films will be Julian Jarrold, with James Marsh and Anand Tucker set to direct the following two features respectively. Announced as a Ghoulish trilogy, the films will follow different aspects of both the killings and the investigation thereof. There is a fair bit of controversy over making a film about a man who is still incarcerated in prison, though it is hardly a surprise that the Yorkshire Ripper was selected. Many may not be terribly familiar with the case, as it was concluded in 1981.First off, the Yorkshire Ripper is not to be confused with Jack the Ripper, a mistake I actually made as I started researching this article, downloading numerous cool pictures and checking many facts. Fortunately for me, the tale of the Yorkshire Ripper will doubtless have more substance to go by than the tale of Jack the Ripper. The Crimes, however, are no less gruesome. The Yorkshire Ripper is the nickname given to Peter Sutcliffe (pictured above, NOT to the right), a lonely and somewhat reclusive man who was convicted of murdering 13 women from 1975-1980. The murders were certainly very much a gruesome and violent way. Sutcliffe, upon his incarceration, confessed to a further few murders, and was also convicted of several counts of attempted murder, cases in which due to some interruption he left the victim bloodied and battered, but still alive. The full investigation was one of the largest investigations in Britain at the time, and much criticism has been made of the way in which it was  conducted. For a start, the police pulled Sutcliffe in numerous times for interview and let him go. Such things are bound to be included in this film trilogy, and we can assume that just because it is a Channel 4 production does not mean it will not carry a fair bit of weight and be rather disturbing. Any trilogy that tries to deal with one of the modern-day serial killers is bound to have to try and make some sense of the senseless, and hopefully this trilogy will try to handle this thing with care. It is hard to tell if it counts as ‘horror’ as such, but it is dealing with the most sinister and macabre, trying to deconstruct the story of a man who raped and murdered women with a hammer and knives. It was never going to be a comedy. When it comes out, I will be intrigued to see if it manages to make a good story out of it. Only time will tell. Time, and the news we keep bringing about it.