Sherlock Holmes (James D’Arcy) pursues Professor Moriarty (Vincent D’Onofrio) through the streets of London. He shoots the villain point blank. Moriarty falls into a cistern. Holmes is arrested by Inspector Lestrade (Nicholas Gecks) until he learns that Holmes shot the most wanted criminal in England. When a journalist named Henry Coot (Peter-Hugo Daly) finds out, Sherlock Holmes becomes an instant celebrity. Holmes took the case on behalf of a woman who said she was being blackmailed.
Recently there have been some deaths of Opium dealers. Ben Harrington (Struan Rodger), one of the biggest dealers, visits Holmes to ask him to investigate who is killing the dealers. Holmes tells him to leave. Harrington plays on Holmes’ vanity. He then tells Holmes that an autopsy is being done on the latest victim. Holmes goes to the police morgue. Performing the autopsy is Dr. Watson (Roger Morlidge). Watson thinks Holmes is a pompous ass. By the time they finish the autopsy Watson has changed his opinion. Holmes identifies the killer as a man named Dr. Cruickshank (Sandu Mihai Gruia). When the police go to question him they find him dead.
More murders keep happening. Sherlock figures out that Moriarty is really still alive and is responsible for the murders. He is getting rid of the competition and taking over the Opium market. Moriarty has found a way to make Opium stronger and more addictive. Holmes realizes that his encounter with Moriarty when he shot him was a set up and the woman he was supposedly working for was hired by Moriarty to lead him into the trap. Holmes tracks her down. She is an actress and sometimes prostitute named Rebecca Doyle (Gabrielle Anwar).
Once again Holmes must do battle with Moriarty but it is more of a cat and mouse game than a game of chess and Holmes is definitely the mouse.
“Sherlock: Case of Evil” was released in 2002 and was directed by Graham Theakston. It is an American made for television crime film. The movie is based on the characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It stars James D’Arcy as Sherlock Holmes and Roger Morlidge as Dr. Watson.
This is a far dark and much more sinister version of the Sherlock Holmes story than usual. In it Moriarty is responsible for Holmes being addicted to heroin. Moriarty uses Holmes to experiment on to see how much an addict can take of his new and more powerful drug before his dies. There are also some surreal moments where Holmes is haunted by dreams and visions of Moriarty shooting his brother Mycroft up with Opium. The film also has some interesting noir elements here and there.
This is also a younger Holmes that is plagued with insecurities and haunted by his childhood. D’Onofrio plays Moriarty as a bully who, not having a fly to pull the wings off of, stages elaborate ruses to humiliate Holmes and tortures him just for the sadistic fun of it. He doesn’t look at Holmes as an intellectual equal but as a mouse to play with. Although a bit of a ham, D’Onofrio comes off as an oversized child that gets his entertainment picking on the weakling Holmes instead of as an archenemy that he has to overcome.
By far the best of the movie is Roger Morlidge as Dr. Watson. He is smart, talented and dedicated to science. Morlidge plays him as all of that and down to earth as well.