Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) — watch online on iFILM. Tim Burton directed this dark musical thriller for Warner Bros. and DreamWorks, adapting Stephen Sondheim's celebrated Broadway show into a 116-minute gothic film with Johnny Depp in the title role.

Benjamin Barker was a London barber with a wife and daughter until Judge Turpin — Alan Rickman, cold and authoritative — had him transported on false charges. Fifteen years later Barker returns as Sweeney Todd. His wife is gone, his daughter is locked away, and his razor is the only justice left. Downstairs, Mrs. Lovett, played by Helena Bonham Carter, runs the worst pie shop on Fleet Street — until Todd's work upstairs gives her a new recipe. Timothy Spall plays the sneering Beadle, Sacha Baron Cohen turns up as Pirelli, a rival barber with loud opinions and poor timing.

Burton built the film around Sondheim's score rather than around gore: blood is operatic here, not cheap. The production won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction and a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy. Stream Sweeney Todd (2007) in full on iFILM.