Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a Tragic Tale of Blood-Soaked Revenge

Tim Burton has created a number of masterpieces that have impressed my horror brain since I was in high school. I had yet to watch Tim Burton’s horror musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

That is one of the longest horror movie titles ever, but I know that they were going for a title like this on purpose, since this film is based on a play.

Once I watched the movie, I became so infatuated with this film.

It’s sort of beautiful in a really disturbing way, and I was so curious as to how this film was going to end.

I will never forget the way I reacted when I figured out the dark twist ending, and I immediately knew this would become one of my favorite horror films of all time.

I’ve already seen this film about 4 times, and I freaking love it.

The story follows Sweeney Todd, a man who was once a good soul before his whole life was taken from him.

15 years ago, he was once a man named Benjamin Barker, who was a barber, and had a beautiful wife and child.

The judge who ruled over London with an iron fist spots the couple, and becomes obsessed with Barker’s wife. He takes Barker away, and decides to keep his wife and his daughter for himself.

Once Barker returns to London as the mad Sweeney Todd 15 years later, he discovers that his wife is dead after the madness she endured with the Judge, and now his daughter is trapped in the house of this madman.

Todd vows revenge against the judge, wanting to get back his daughter, and murder the man who destroyed his life in such a horrid way. He teams up with Mrs. Lovett, a crazy woman who makes the worst pies in London.

Plus, she is totally in love with him, so that is a bonus for him to have her help him get revenge for what he lost. He also teams up with a young boy named Jonathan, who falls in love with Todd's daughter. He plans his own scheme to save her, while Todd is stuck in his quest for revenge.

Mrs. Lovett adopts a little boy Tobias, and the three of them become some sort of sick family, but the poor boy and Jonathan have no idea how crazy these two are.

The musical numbers were fantastic present in the story, and each song blended perfectly into the dark setting of London and its characters. Watching Sweeney Todd sing about revenge in a lovely melody was both really cool and disturbing.

Mrs. Lovett’s musical scenes were mostly pretty hilarious in a dark humor way, like when she admits that she puts cats into her pies.

Not kidding here, she actually tells Todd that when they first meet. He didn’t even seem that bothered, but he did make it obvious that her pies sucked.

As the film progressed, I was left wondering just what the hell was going to happen. It was so interesting following a villain as the main character, and what he was planning to do next.

I was in shock to see how far Todd was willing to go to kill the judge. He murders multiple people, and even goes as far as to hide the bodies by…cooking them into Mrs. Lovett’s pies.

They even get her business booming, and everyone really loves the pies.

Eww.

By some point in the film, it was obvious that Todd was too far gone. I loved those little moments when it appeared that he was debating on whether he should stop his revenge plot, but he couldn’t bring himself to end it.

He was a tragic character, who was so caught up in his revenge scheme, that he never saw the potential to a bright and happy future. He could have been happy, if only he had not allowed the madness to take over.

His revenge ends up being his own downfall.

Poor Tobias ends up finding out the pies are made out of human meat, and he hides from the couple as they prepare to kill him. Tobias is thankfully spared by the sick duo when they can't find him. Jonathan's plan pulls through for Todd's daughter, he hides her in Todd's shop, and disguises her as a boy.

He then tells her that he is preparing for them to run away together. I believe Jonathan wanting nothing to do with Todd by the third act of the film. I think he saw the madness in him, and wanted to do the right thing by making sure his daughter wouldn't reunite with him.

It was definitely the right choice, when she witnesses him commit two murders.

Todd eventually kills the judge in a fit of glory and maniac glee. Then a random homeless woman that had been present throughout the film appeared to him in the shop, and Todd kills her to cover up his crime. He catches his daughter hiding in the shop, and he does not realize that he has reunited with his own kid.

He spares her life, and the poor girl looked so scared of him. I was honestly so worried that he was going to murder his own child.

Todd runs to the basement to help Mrs. Lovett with the bodies, and then he catches a glimpse of the homeless woman he had killed.

It was his wife.

Mrs. Lovett pleads with Todd, telling him that she lied about her being alive to protect him, since his poor wife had gone mad after she tried to end her life with poison. Todd tricks Mrs. Lovett with his 'love' for her, and then throws her in an oven to burn her alive.

Todd cradles his dead wife, singing to her one last time. Tobias emerges from his hiding place, and the kid looks traumatized and full of anger. Whether or not he was angry with Todd for killing his mother figure, or that he had discovered how evil they both were, we will never know.

The film ends with Tobias murdering Todd with his own razor, and he bleeds out, his blood falling onto the face of his deceased wife.

Now isn't that a messed-up ending?

I guess it really goes to show that revenge can destroy anybody. Mrs. Lovett was also pretty damn evil for keeping his wife still being alive a secret too. There were way too many evil characters in this film, and I'm so glad that Jonathan and Todd's daughter got to live happily ever after, despite never seeing the aftermath of their story playing out in the film.

Tim Burton wanted to focus only on the revenge plot of Todd, and oh boy, is it a tragic one.

Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn