Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
2007 · Directed by Tim Burton
Original language: English
- drama
- horror
The story
The infamous story of Benjamin Barker, a.k.a Sweeney Todd, who sets up a barber shop down in London which is the basis for a sinister partnership with his fellow tenant, Mrs. Lovett. Based on the hit Broadway musical.
What it’s like
Drenched in soot-black and bruised purple, with Victorian London rendered as a crooked, rain-slicked maze of chimney smoke, flour-dusted bakery light and cold steel gleam, this is a film of heavy shadow and saturated Gothic colour that lingers on grimy faces, bloodied porcelain and the wet glint of a razor. Tim Burton's camera swoops and tilts through cramped rooms and a looming asylum, while the stage-bound musical numbers arrive with theatrical sweep, sung in full voice and punctuated by sudden silences and clanging industrial sound. Its vibe is operatic, mordant and gloomy, a dark fairytale that suits a late, alone night rather than a casual background watch. The rhythm is fevered and deliberate, building toward grim comedy and a bleak, tragic register where revenge curdles into something sad. Violence is frequent and stylised but arterial: throats are slit on screen, blood sprays in abundance, and there are scenes of menace toward a child, with dread and cruelty more pervasive than the gore suggests. Not gentle. It is for viewers who relish grand gothic theatre, macabre humour and musical darkness, and who can stomach brutal, unsparing bloodshed.
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