Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street kicks off with vengeance, blood, and meat pies, and never looks back. Johnny Depp’s haunting portrayal of Benjamin Barker, alias Sweeney Todd, slices through the screen with operatic brutality in Tim Burton’s 2007 adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s dark stage musical.
Released on December 21, 2007, the film is a gothic symphony of pain, murder, and warped love, directed by Burton with the brooding theatricality only he can conjure. Grossing over $152 million worldwide against a $50 million budget, Sweeney Todd became an immortal cult classic. Critics were ravenous, with particular praise for Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, and the film’s firm loyalty to the source material.
Sweeney Todd (2007): Critical Scores & Box Office Performance
The story follows a barber named Benjamin Barker, who returns to Victorian London after being wrongly sent away by the corrupt Judge Turpin (Rickman). Now calling himself Sweeney Todd, he learns that Turpin destroyed his wife Lucy’s (Laura Michelle Kelly) life and has taken his daughter Johanna (Jayne Wisener) as his ward.
Filled with rage, Todd reopens his barbershop, only this time, it becomes a front for revenge. With help from Mrs. Lovett (Bonham Carter), who bakes his victims into meat pies, Todd begins a gruesome killing spree. Depp’s singing was surprisingly effective, and his chemistry with Bonham Carter forms the diseased heart of the story.
Sweeney Todd Ending Explained: How Tim Burton’s Original Script Was Even Darker
The final act of Sweeney Todd doesn’t end; it bleeds out. After slitting Turpin’s throat in a symbolic act of vengeance, Todd unknowingly murders his own wife, Lucy, now reduced to a nameless beggar woman. In his frenzied grief, he incinerates Mrs. Lovett, who had deceived him about Lucy’s fate, before surrendering, deliberately or not, to death at the hands of young Toby (Ed Sanders), the surrogate son Lovett once adored.
But if you thought that was morbid, the original script would’ve sent scars deep enough to freeze your soul. In the final cut, Depp’s Todd holds Lucy’s body in an eerie stillness. Yet, the script hints at more clarity. Todd locks eyes with Toby, unbuttons his collar, and offers his neck, silently begging for release. A haunting moment, stripped from the final version, but one that would’ve deepened the pathos of Todd’s tragic arc.
Another deviation? After throwing Lovett into the oven, Depp’s Todd stands coldly, blank-eyed. But in the script, he collapses to his knees, muffling her screams as guilt suffocates him. He crawls back to Lucy’s corpse, shattered, not murderous. A scrapped musical number would’ve raised the dead, literally, with ghosts of Todd’s victims (including Lucy and Turpin) returning to haunt him. It ends with Todd alone in darkness, his life flashing back in a red haze of regret.
Was Burton wise to show restraint? Perhaps. The final film leaves us rattled, but the original script could’ve broken us. That said, Depp’s performance, even in its muted sorrow, is arguably his finest.
Sweeney Todd: Why Johnny Depp’s Horror Movie Deserves a Rewatch in 2025
Sweeney Todd stands out in 2025 like a sharp blade in a drawer full of butter knives. Tim Burton didn’t just adapt Stephen Sondheim’s musical; he disemboweled it and stitched it back together with operatic tragedy, biting wit, and barrels of blood.
As Roger Ebert wrote:
It isn’t a jolly romp, either, but a dark revenge tragedy with heartbreak, mayhem and bloody good meat pies.
That “bloody good” is not just a pun; it’s a promise. The production is a masterclass in world-building: Dante Ferretti’s grimy sets, Dariusz Wolski’s claustrophobic cinematography, and the 19th-century London aesthetic drenched in soot and sorrow. What about the singing? It is surprisingly moving.
Depp and Bonham Carter sing not to impress but to confess; their pain, longing, delusions, and despair unravel in every note. And Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin? Utterly despicable. His venomous charisma makes the revenge feel righteous, even when it’s monstrously wrong.
If you’re a fan of psychological horror, musical drama, or just want to see Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter cooking up something wicked, then this is your dark dinner party invite. So what do you think? Was Burton right to tone down the original ending? Would you have preferred the ghostly finale with Lucy and Turpin haunting Todd’s last breath?
Also, do you think Sweeney Todd deserves a sequel? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is streaming on fuboTV and Paramount+.
