Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

(Note: This review refers to the Blu-ray version of the DVD.)

Here's a Halloween pick for you: a macabre musical about a sociopathic barber (Johnny Depp) with flashing razors, and a demented cook (Helena Bonham Carter) who hides the evidence of his murders in meat pies. Directed by Tim Burton, the dark fantastist of American cinema, the film is both threepenny opera and Grand Guignol. It's a revenge melodrama in the squalor of a 19th century London the color of bone and ash and stone. The rare flashes of color belong to the crimson gushes from the throats of his victims or the dream world of memory and fantasy. What's missing is the playful vitality that Burton normally brings to his films.

The picture has been remastered for high definition and the sound remastered for Dolby TrueHD 5.1 for the Blu-ray release, which includes all the supplements from the special edition DVD, almost all of them remastered for HD. They include the usual behind-the-scenes featurettes like "Burton + Depp + Carter = Todd" (a look at the creative efforts of the director and stars) and the conventional "The Making of Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (a quick but informative survey of all aspects of production). "Sweeney Todd Is Alive: The Real History of the Demon Barber" is a 20-minute study of the lively fictional life of the "Penny Dreadful" character who became so popular that some believed he was a real criminal, and the 19-minute "Grand Guignol: A Theatrical Tradition," revisits the lurid subgenre of gory theatrical spectacle. Other featurettes survey Stephen Sondheim's play, the set and costume design, and the special effects. The "Sweeney Todd" press conference from November 2007, and Burton and Depp on "Moviefone: Unscripted" are the only supplements not remastered in HD.