THIS is a hugely satisfying retelling of the great Demon Barber Of Fleet Street myth in the form of a musical.
It is a curious piece that is polished, if somewhat predictably bloodily directed by Tim Burton.
Perennial Burton favourite Johnny Depp plays Sweeney Todd, the coiffeur who used to slash his customers' throats and turn their bodies over to his partner in crime Mrs Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) to be cut up and cooked in meat pies.
This screen version of Stephen Sondheim's 1979 Broadway stage musical, of which Burton was a big fan, the Gothic architecture and darkness of old London is right up the director's street.
Out anti-hero Sweeney returns to London after 15 years in Australia, where he was deported for a crime he didn't commit.
Arriving back in London, he is hell-bent on revenge, teaming up with Mrs Lovett, to settle his score with Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman).
The end is predictable in this strange film that is a horror film within a musical.
But ultimately it is one that somehow works.
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