Directed by Tim Burton
U. K./U. S., 2007
116 minutes
Titular quote by: Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd
There is no such thing as the scariest movie I’ve ever seen.
I do not get scared easily, if at all, when I’m watching what most people would call ‘horror’ movies. It’s hard to have a lasting connection to a film that is largely constructed on brief bursts of energy. If a film has an ingenious device by which it generates its scares, like John Carpenter’s The Thing, or if it succeeds in immersing the audience through atmosphere and tone, like Kubrick’s The Shining, that’s very much of note for me. Zombies, vampires, creepy dolls, decapitations and jump scares, however… these do not keep me awake at night.
The most potent horror comes from a challenge of ethics. It's forged over centuries and permeates the human subconscious. It forces you to consider why people acted in such a way and whether or not they were justified. When that line is blurred so much that there is not even a sense of grey - when there is only blackness - there you find the dread that creates a film that I can truly admire, not just for its craft, but for its horror.
Sweeney Todd… the most haunting movie I’ve ever seen. The best movie Tim Burton has ever directed. The first and some say only adaptation of a Stephen Sondheim musical that does its source material justice.
My favourite horror film of all time.
Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd, formerly Benjamin Barker, an innocent barber stripped of his position and left to rot in prison on a false charge. Escaping from his sentence after 15 years, Todd returns to a dilapidated London to find everything that once was his taken from him; his shop abandoned, his wife poisoned and his daughter in the care of the judge who convicted him. With nothing left to lose, why deny the one feeling left on your mind? Why deny revenge… cold, bloody, silver-tipped revenge!?
Sweeney Todd was another formative film from my teenage years, which from what I've heard is not an uncommon opinion. Even in the comparatively small school I attended, this movie became something of a hidden text that several students knew and loved. Even people who weren't fans of musicals found something to latch onto in watching it and reciting it. However, my love for this movie goes beyond just the intrigue of watching the sensational gore or my admiration of the director and cast. I love Sweeney Todd for the type of story it is telling, the kind of characters it depicts and the near perfect interpretation and execution of its source material.
Sweeney Todd is the most successful adaptation of the style known in literary circles as penny dreadful - which has significantly less to do with that other show you know writer John Logan for than you think. Penny dreadfuls were considered low-brow horror stories from the mid-1800s, equivocal to American dime novels or pulp fiction. Their graphic sensationalism and twisting of human morality turned their characters into well known folk villains, Sweeney Todd being only the most famous. The horror of the Demon Barber and his neighbour Mrs. Lovett comes from their character, more specifically their moral standing. Having been subjugated or robbed of their basic needs by the higher-ups, they feel the need to subvert the system, not through protest or revolution, but through horrific violence hidden behind closed doors. They are not supernatural beings or faceless killers, but thinking, feeling people who live and walk on the streets; they know what they want and they know how they're going to get it.
Neither Sondheim's musical nor Burton's film force you to sympathize with these characters. They present them as well realized and motivated individuals with well written dialogue and ingenious lyrics. In the film's case, it may even be able to manipulate you into thinking that a certain character could have some sense of well meaning. In the end, however, their true colours are still brought to the forefront. This is more akin to Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange than The Shining, in that the dilemma comes from how much you feel sympathetic to their plights and how that sense of sympathy makes you feel in retrospect. You're left to ponder each character's role in this violent plot and question their motivations, until you're left with the conclusion that the only true innocents are those who are subject to others' wants and desires. Everyone else is an anti-hero.
It's been ten years since this movie was released. It's been that long since Johnny Depp made a great film. It's been that long since his finest hour. Sweeney Todd is perhaps Depp's most challenging role, but it was also his greatest success. It's rare for an untrained voice like Depp's to be put through the ringer and come out sounding so effective. His vocal tone gives the character a more introspective feel than any of the Broadway actors, but as a film interpretation, it works exceptionally. But it's not just his singing that makes this my favourite Depp performance; even in its simplicity, his acting has never been more effective in conveying pure emotion and history. Even in the first scene when Todd arrives in London after years of suffering: everything from the dialogue to the make-up to the lighting to, of course, his performance gives him the aura of a weary lost soul, searching for some semblance of his old life, and being brutally reminded that all he can do is deny everyone else the pleasures that were denied him. Depp had pretty much no chance against Daniel Day-Lewis during the Oscar race for 2007, but for me, this film represents the purest expression of his talent and the role that most deserved an award. My admiration has waned in the years since, but I still have this to remind me of his true capabilities.
I've seen interesting critiques of the rest of the film's cast, mostly from fans of the Broadway musical. It's always difficult to convince longtime fans to embrace a completely different take on their favourite show - I still wonder about Les Misérables - but speaking as a fan of Sondheim's musical, those criticisms shouldn't apply here. There isn't a single miscast actor in the film from a cinematic perspective. Proving yet again why we miss him so much, Alan Rickman's turn as Judge Turpin is truly creepy; it's perhaps the most unsettling character of his entire career and he owned every second of it. Yet another young actor whom I wonder where he's gone to, Ed Sanders is endearing and funny throughout as Tobias. This is the only film where I willingly say, 'I like Sasha Baron Cohen.' Cohen's Adolfo Pirelli is the most flamboyant character in the entire show, which is one of the few things that can be transferred almost unchanged from the original show without compromising the film's style. Of course, what's a Burton film from this decade without Helena Bonham Carter? This is the one casting decision I feel the most strongly defensive about. While Angela Lansbury's Mrs. Lovett is unquestionably iconic, Bonham Carter and Burton together make her all their own. What I said before about manipulating sympathy is made most clear when observing Bonham Carter shift between phases of melancholy and cunning; it makes for several disturbing moments as Mrs. Lovett's role in this plot is unearthed, step by sickening step.
Despite sticking closely to the events of the musical, this is still a Burton movie through and through. The film is awash with grim shadows and set pieces that mirror Burton's love for the grotesque, while also amping up the emotional impact through its cinematography. This movie made me a huge fan of Dariusz Wolski, an underrated visual stylist if I've ever seen one. The camera work is much tighter and more intimate than other movie musicals, doing away with flash and making it more reflective of the character's thought process. Even during a more active scene like the iconic 'Epiphany', the shots, including two stunning crane shots, are composed deliberately to reflect the emotion of the moment and the scale of Todd's vision. The costumes and props are at times absurd in their focus on certain bodily functions, fitting considering what many of the male characters obsess over. Even the artificiality of the art direction feels deliberate. The film makes brilliant use of the digital backlot, giving London a superficial feel to reflect the shallow, self-obsessed minds of its residents. And of course, nearly every surface is, at some point, smothered in blood. The onscreen violence is exaggerated, but to a purpose; every murder has a reason for being presented the way it is. Just like the Hammer films that Burton was influenced by, the shock hits you head on, and with all the other colours drained from the scene, the crimson blood washes over everything. You may want to look away, but you can't stop yourself from witnessing every single death.
If there are people who do not consider Sweeney Todd a traditional horror film, they're not wrong. But to say it isn't a horror film at all is a serious mistake. The characters in this film are iconic figures of the genre, even outdating Stoker's Dracula and Stevenson's Mr. Hyde. They still permeate the popular conscious to this day, largely thanks to the status of this musical, Sondheim's masterpiece, which in turn became Burton's masterpiece. The grim world that this film creates, populated by people with such warped morals and cruel intentions, is unforgettable, just as much as anything directed by Kubrick or Cronenberg. It gave the world the most impressive work of so many people, and even as a cult status film, it left a mark that isn't soon to disappear. This movie is utterly disturbing, while also being utterly riveting.
Just as the trailer says:
"Never forget..."
"Never forgive."
Happy Halloween.
***** out of *****
