Sweeney Todd is one of those horror stories so rich in possible variations that there's no really definitive version--even the Sondheim musical has been done in many styles and all of them memorable in their own ways. This one succeeds where many other Hammer homages has failed, by not only imitating the look and quotient of violence and low-cut gowns of classic Hammer but by taking the source material and running with it in a completely different direction than the ones you're expecting. Like the best of Hammer it's gripping, ingenious, very adult and leaves you with a queasy awareness of the world's nastiness.

Sweeney Todd is set in London during the early 19th Century where a man named Sweeney Todd (Ray Winstone) runs a barber shop in Fleet Street, one night a jailer (Roger Frost) from Newgate Prison pays for a shave. The jailer reminds Todd of his childhood he spent in Newgate where he was abused by the jailers & in a moment of rage slits the jailers throat. After giving a woman named Nellie Lovett (Essie Davis) an abortion Todd falls for her & buy's her a shop from which she sells meat pies, Todd suddenly hits on the idea of slitting his customers throats, cutting them up & giving the meat to Lovett to turn into pies which quickly become very popular...This English production was directed by David Moore & was almost certainly made to cash-in on the then forthcoming Tim Burton musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) with Johnny Depp, some say the character of Sweeney Todd was based on a real person but I don't think there is any hard evidence that he was. The script by Joshua St. Johnston plays it straight as a grim drama rather than an over-the-top musical or horror, as one might guess a lot of this films duration is spent trying to get inside the mind of Todd & develop a real character who had real motivations & feelings. Despite this there's not much reason behind his killing, sure the first victim reminded him of his unhappy childhood but thereafter it's not quite so clear cut. The main focus is on the relationship between Todd & Lovett, it's fairly deep & the character's are well fleshed out but Todd's throat slitting activities were of more interest to me so I sort of lost interest in the film as a whole as it decided to concentrate on personal angst & drama. This is not a bad adaptation at all, it moves along at a decent pace, it's well written & tells a good story but it never really grabbed me.Made for British telly I was surprised to learn that Sweeney Todd was shot in Bucharest in Romania, I mean it was set in London & made by a London based company with British money so why film in Romania? Then again I suppose modern day London looks nothing like it did back in the 19th Century, maybe Romania is a closer match. This is quite gory for a TV production, there's a few gory slit throats, a rotted corpse, sliced up body parts, a severed hand, a tongue severing, a stabbing plus an operation to remove a gall stone & one to remove a bullet. I was disappointed with the way this looked, it just looked flat & cheap especially if you have seen Tim Burton's wonderful visuals on his recent version.Technically this is alright, I must admit the production design didn't impress me that much & it felt a bit cheap. The acting was fine, Winstone was an interesting choice to play Todd & puts in a restrained performance while it was nice to see David Warner in a small role.Sweeney Todd is a slightly above adaptation of the often told tale of the demon barber of Fleet Street, it's not bad for what it is but it's hardly life changing & I doubt I will remember anything about it in a week.

This is a great film! It has good period costumes, the charters and acting are convincing, the set is simple and the scenes flow from one to the other. I found myself feeling vary involved in the film.I am usually disappointed by films set in the past and feel that this is the perfect example of what I like in a period film with the hard accents and the attention to detail of the clothing and furniture. The Acting was excellent by the actors of all the main characters and it is a great story of life of London's past.I will find it interesting to see the Johnny Dept version of this film. I am expecting Hollywood to make a mess of it.It was also fun because it was grim but not gruesome so my wife could watch the whole film.This is a classic style horror film with a lot to it.

I watched this when it first aired on BBC television and, coming from London and having grown up with the Sweeney story, I was quite excited at the prospect of this version. It seemed a good idea because Sweeney began as a Victorian comic book story anyway,so dramatising it for a modern audience is the logical next step.When I saw it, I thought it was very good. It did not, however, recapture that youthful, dark fairytale quality that I loved (and all children love) but it did create very real characters. The story is actually disturbing in the sense that Sweeney, who is himself the murderer, is character you feel sympathy toward. This television production is as a previous reviewer said 'not for all tastes', but if you get caught in the story and put it into the context that a Victorian London was actually reading this amazing tale, then this film will get you snared in it web like Sweeney got his victims in the barber's chair. For fans of this programme: You'll probably remember that this was billed as a 15 or so certificate for BBC 1 when it aired, but an 18 certificate directors cut is on release and is supposedly very good so watch out for it!