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Rating: 6/10 (12 June 2012)

Stephen Sondheim's musical, Sweeney Todd: The demon barber of Fleet Street is remade yet again on screen in this new adaptation. This successful musical horror thriller is directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen, Timothy Spall, and Alan Rickman.The film is set in a dark place called London in late Victorian time.
Sweeney Todd shows the story of Benjamin Barker. Benjamin Barker is the best known barber in all of Victorian London. He is married to the gorgeous Lucy and they have an infant daughter, her name is Johanna. The beauty of Lucy attracts the attention of the corrupt Judge Turpin. He falsely accuses Benjamin Barker for a crime he didn't commit. Benjamin is send to a prison in Australia for fifteen years. Judge Turpin rapes Lucy, after that she tries to poison herself by swallowing arsenic. Afterwards Turpin takes custody over Johanna whilst Benjamin is still imprisoned. After Benjamin's verdict is over he returns to London under the name of Sweeney Todd, trying to get his revenge on Turpin. He meets the widow Mrs. Lovett who is the owner of a meat pie shop at Fleet Street. She gives him his Barber's knifes and tells him everything Judge Turpin did. To get his revenge Sweeney Todd opens a barber shop above Mrs. Lovett's meat pie shop and he slices the throat of the customers. Will he succeed in getting his revenge on Turpin?
The most used technique in this film is mise en scène, we thought this was really well used: the lighting changes in relation to the mood, the costumes fit the setting really well and the set design was nearly flawless because it really convinced us that it took place in the 19th century. Also the light and color were a great way of creating the mood, it helped to create a dark, sinister and most of all a gloomy atmosphere. On the other hand, the special effects were on the low side. The violence in the many killings was in our opinion badly done, mainly because of the blood. Not only when a person was stabbed or sliced did insane bleeding ensue, the blood itself and the way it came out looked fake as well with it's brown blackish color. Although this was probably used to amplify the mood and the effect of the killings itself it looked extremely fake.
Having said all of that the acting in the film was really good. The role of Sweeney Todd played by Johnny Depp and Mrs. Lovett played by Helena Bonham Carter were done amazingly in our opinion. While watching the film you really get the feeling that the characters brought to life by Tim Burton were both really insane, in their own way.
In general we thought it was an exciting and thrilling film but it would've been more fun if there was less singing, it didn't really allow you to fully enjoy the film. Turning a Broadway musical into a film is really tricky for filmmakers as there tends to be something that doesn't add up with the rest of the movie or makes it less enjoyable to watch. A really off putting thing in this film is the music. In the musical it's not all that weird for a character to start singing mid sentence however in a film this does not have the same effect. In a horror film it's important to have suspense throughout the film and we found that music and the singing really did not fit well with the horror theme of the film, the songs weren't all that good either. The singing of the actors was well done but the music itself wasn't. The plot was very interesting, but at some parts it didn't make much sense. It's very complicated to grasp the full picture. This was very confusing for us so we had to watch the film a few times to fully understand the characters themselves and their motives.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a very complicated film. We liked it because of the great acting and props but it's a shame that there was this much singing. Also, the plot was confusing which made it hard for us to understand. We do strongly recommend this film for people that like or are interested in musicals or horror films. But if you can't stand lots of blood, corpses, insane characters or just generally don't like Broadway musical-film remakes, this probably isn't the film for you.