Tim Burton's sixth (count 'em) movie collaboration with Johnny Depp is proving almost as popular as Mrs Lovett's somewhat dubious meat pies. The critics, for the most part, love the songs, the acting and even the singing. The only question seems to be whether an 18-certificate musical is likely to go down so well at the box office.
"Whether horror fans are ready for high-notes or musical buffs will appreciate Dario Argento levels of gore is an open question," writes Kim Newman in Empire. "Nevertheless, this is a rich, demented experience."
"From the moment those first doomy organ chords shake the theatre, it's clear that Sweeney Todd is no ordinary movie musical," opines the BBC's Paul Arendt. "Tim Burton's film, his best for a good while, is an eye-popping feast of gore underscored with disturbing, dissonant ballads."
"The bloodiest musical in stage history, it now becomes the bloodiest in film history," writes Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times. "And it isn't a jolly romp, either, but a dark revenge tragedy with heartbreak, mayhem and bloody good meat pies."
Our own Peter Bradshaw, however, fails to be bowled over by the Stephen Sondheim adaptation. "It's an entertaining, unscary digital ride through the London Dungeon, accompanied by classy music," he writes. "Likable: but no masterpiece."
What did you think? Was Sweeney Todd bloody brilliant? Or did it fill you with entirely the wrong sort of horror?
