Few things are certain in this life. Death, taxes and that Tim Burton always makes amazing films. My belief was slightly swayed though when I tried to imagine Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter having a bit of a sing song about the throat slitting psychopath, Sweeney Todd. An additional stumbling point was the thought of Tim Burton without Danny Elfman… it’s kind of like Led Zeppelin without John Bonham. Arghhh. Horror indeed.

Still, nothing is all that bad if you open your mind. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is an adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's 1979 Broadway musical that plays like a Jacobean revenge tragedy. Benjamin Barker, a London barber, is a man who dotes on his wife and child. Until the dastardly Judge Turpin, lusting after Barker's beautiful wife, falsely charges Barker with a crime to get him out of the picture. Sixteen years later Barker returns to London as the bitter, vengeful Sweeney Todd.

Bonham-Carter and Depp have gotten some stick for being staples of Burton’s films but he always gets the best out of them. HBC is understatedly crazy as Mrs Lovett and Depp broods as the single-minded Todd. Being set in London, it’s good to see a mainly British cast: Alan Rickman is at his villainous best as Judge Turpin and his gofer, Timothy Spall, makes your skin crawl. Comedic support comes in the form of Sacha Baron Cohen, a rival barber who is all swirling cloak, daft accent and ridiculous hair. His camp pantomime character literally adds colour to the otherwise muted shades of the film.

The other colour enhanced for maximum effect throughout is red. Spraying here, there and everywhere, it’s what you’ve paid to see. The arterial spurting of blood and the slicing of throats is made believable yet not quite realistic. The bodies dropping through the floor to the bake house below are sickening in thought without being harrowing to watch.

None of Burton’s trademark style has been watered down for the musical element and there’s a dark humour running throughout. Mrs Lovett and Sweeney Todd are deathly white with wild hair and eye bags you could carry your shopping home in. The costumes are outlandish and sharp and the sets simple yet detailed. A scene in which Mrs Lovett proclaims her love to Sweeney Todd is poignant, amusing and a touch mad. As she sings, he sits there motionless whilst they are transported through her fantasy - all Victorian seaside picture postcard and bright sunny colours except for their faces which remain bloodless in the daylight. Todd, on the other hand, only has love for “his friends”, his cut throat razors. He eyes them up with a sexual delight, with no mind to Mrs Lovett’s permanently heaving cleavage. He sings of and to them and wields them like he was born with them.

There can be no happy ending really in a film about a tormented murderer, unless you’re a fan of the death penalty. Sweeney Todd is a fun slasher movie which doesn’t quite warrant taking a cushion to hide behind. You just have to watch the film slowly climax and the plot twist whilst the blood flows, spurts and stains and the death count rapidly rises. If you like your horror with humour and your pie with lager, you can’t go wrong watching this.

 

 

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