SEE SWEENEY TODD AND YOU WILL DIE!!! Seriously he kills people with his razor blades.

I was not sure what to expect when I went into "Sweeney Todd", I knew it was a musical, and I knew it was bloody, but I have never seen the Broadway show before and knew nothing of the story only it had something to do with a barber who kills people, and a woman who takes the bodies and makes meat pies out of them. Sounded like the usual Tim Burton darkly comic romp we're all used to, only this time it's put to music, but what I got was something else entirely...put to music.

I've always been impressed with the visual style of a Tim Burton film, I don't think there is one that I dislike, they are all imaginative eye candy, but what makes "Sweeney Todd" different from the others, is the utter dark undertones. This is Tim Burton all grown up no longer making fairy tales about men with scissors for hands, or funny ghosts who haunt your house, this is perhaps his most challenging and complex film.

For those who don't know the story, Sweeney Todd is a barber who was wrongly imprisoned by an evil judge who was in love with his wife. Sweeney's real name is Benjamin Barker, who takes his alias at the beginning of the film as we see him return to London after escaping from prison. He comes home to find out his wife has taken poison, and his daughter is now a prisoner of the very judge who sentenced him to jail.

Sweeney seeks out his old barber shop which is nestled above a meat pie shop run by Mrs. Lovett, who is known for having the worst meat pies in London. It's Lovett who tells him the fates of his wife and daughter, and the two form an alliance and Sweeney makes plans for his revenge on the judge and the other people responsible for his imprisonment.

The surprising this for me in this film was how an idea about making meat pies out of dead bodies does not become such a campy film, I was shocked at how macabre it plays out. It was a bit unsettling, like I said I knew nothing of the actual story but I felt Tim Burton was pulling the wool from under our eyes. The music by Steven Sondheim also helps the film's ambitions, the songs can turn from funny, and darkly clever, to melancholy, and lovely.

Burton seems to bask in the music as he creates some great visuals particularly when Mrs. Lovett is singing "By the Sea" where she imagines her and Sweeney getting married and living their life by the sea. There is also a great duet sung by Sweeney and the Judge, and it's a great scene where Sweeney has the unaware judge right where he wants him, and Burton uses this time to have some fun with the audience.

The cast turn out very impressive performances, no more so than Burton's constant leading man Johnny Depp as Sweeney. Depp is the type of actor who always challenges himself, and as Sweeney, he achieves a very uncompromising anti-hero who is consumed by his own vengeance, which becomes his undoing and his greatest tragedy. Helena Bonham Carter seems to be having fun as Mrs. Lovett, she is very much the most spirited which I guess isn't saying much in this grim tale.

The gore and blood in the film is highly stylized which may turn some people off, but if you're game, it greatly adds to the film.

The ending is probably the most darkest deeply felt one in the who Burton canon and that's saying a lot. I felt this was a great achievement for all involved but Burton in particular, this is a stepping stone in the director's career.

4 stars out of 4