The Academy’s voters should be quaking in their hair salons. Unfairly snubbed by Oscar (who only coughed up a Best Art Direction gong), the demon barber has every right to swap Fleet Street for Rodeo Drive in search of bloody vengeance. But the truth is Tim Burton’s gruesome musical (read “grusical”) really wasn’t that suited for multiplex audiences, let alone stuffy awards voters. Like Mrs Lovett’s meat pies, it’s an acquired taste: Burton, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter putting the odd into Todd as this Victorian tale returns to its gory, penny-dreadful roots.

The full-blooded freakiness is nothing new. Stephen Sondheim’s 1979 Broadway hit sent culture vultures stampeding to the exit as front row seats were drenched in gore ’n’ gristle. What is different, though, is the lavishness of the production design, as Burton’s gorgeously horrendous sets provide so much Dickensian squalor and such a liberal dusting of talcum-powder pallor that the whole thing resembles a monochrome ’30s horror movie. Then comes the blood, bright red arterial spray spurting over the camera, an affront matched only by Depp’s untrained vocals as his madman barber goes for Cockney sneer over harmonious melody. It’s horridly enjoyable.

Disappointingly, this double-disc’s extras were unavailable as we went to press. But with a line-up that includes a wedge of background docs and Making Ofs, it looks like this Sweeney will satisfy the barber’s fans with a cutting-edge release. Let’s hope so: anything less really would be a bloody tragedy…

DVD Extras:

Featurettes
Stills galleries