Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (film)/YMMV


 * Alternate Show Interpretation: The 2005 Broadway revival, in which all of the characters are portrayed as inmates enacting the events in a madhouse.
 * The 2012 West End production gave a Setting Update by placing the show in the 1930s.
 * Alternative Character Interpretation: All over the place. Toby, for one. As the role is vocally demanding, adults are often cast in the part, which makes for the question of whether Toby is a kid or a mentally disabled man. For that note, the motives of the Beadle are ambiguous, whether he's a psychopath who's as bad as the judge or just a police officer who sincerely believes the judge is a good man. Then there's the matter of whether Anthony is a romantic hero who saves Johanna from the Judge or if he's a creepy stalker (though he's definitely a major step-up from Judge Turpin).
 * Also, the casting of Sweeney Todd himself varies from actor to actor - George Hearn's Todd is powerfully built, with a boisterous, pitch-black sense of humor. His cackles after his Heroic BSOD (Or Villainous Breakdown/BSOD in this case) song end up matching Mrs. Lovett's Stepford Smiler evil. Johnny Depp's Todd is a waif of a man. He's a quiet, haunted misanthrope before he snaps, and a barely-functional sociopath after, having to be led around and prodded into action by Dark Genki Girl Mrs. Lovett.
 * Johanna sometimes portrayed as insane from the beginning of the show. Actually, the libretto, especially "Kiss me", implies her to be at least paranoid and unstable. Also, she is the one who . Could repeat that again - a demure young noble lady of late XVIII-early XIX century who never left her house and most probably never lifted anything heavier than a needle, never saw any blood and gore and couldn't see even a picture of a pistol . She probably takes more after her father than anybody realizes.
 * Johanna can also be interpreted as genuinely in love with Anthony or just using him as a means to escape the Judge. The 2007 film, for example, went with the latter.
 * Judge Turpin, of all people, gets one depending on whether his song ["Johanna"] removed or not (that being said, it is so often removed for a good reason). This song shows that he actually tried to resist the temptation Johanna was causing and even seems to imply that she was his Morality Pet. "Johanna, Johanna, I treasured you in innocence and loved you like a daughter".
 * Does Mrs. Lovett genuinely care about Toby or just as uninterested in him as she is with everyone else other than Sweeney?
 * The 2014 concert hinted that Toby might be romantically interested in Mrs. Lovett and additionally featured a scene where the Beadle hits on her.
 * Reinterpreting the characters from the original penny dreadful is essentially how the version of the story most people are now familiar with came into being.
 * Awesome Music: "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd", "Epiphany", and "A Little Priest", just to name a few. Well... really the entire song list (given the right cast) but bonus points go to ["Johanna (Reprise)"].
 * Ear Worm: Just try to get ANY of the songs out of your head after viewing the theater or movie version. It's bloody impossible (but delightfully so).
 * Beadle deedle deedle deedle deedle dumpling beadle dumpling ba deedle deedle deedle deedle deedle deedle deedle deedle deedle deedle deedle deedle deedle...
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Toby in the 2001 concert version, for some reason.
 * Ho Yay: In the movie, there seem to be overtones of this between Beadle Bamford and Judge Turpin. Mostly coming from Bamford's end, though it IS kinda odd that he seems to spend so much time with the judge...
 * Notably, in the stage musical it's made clear in the reprise in The Barber and His Wife that both Turpin and Bamford have a thing for Lucy. In the movie, however, the lyrics are changed so that only the Judge's affections are mentioned.
 * He may be only Turpin's Igor.
 * Incest Subtext: Todd's "Johanna (Reprise)", hinting it would be dangerous for him to meet Johanna if she looks too much like her mother...
 * Jerkass Woobie: Mrs. Lovett, who is something of a Love Martyr.
 * Magnificent Bastard: Sweeney, himself.
 * Moral Event Horizon: The "Poor Thing" scene with Judge Turpin and Lucy Barker, and the scene where Mrs. Lovett.
 * It was made clear that Mrs. Lovett understood what she was doing, since she was crying throughout. Creepy.
 * Sweeney This is so bad that when he finds out, he considers it a moral event horizon for himself.
 * Most Annoying Sound/Hell Is That Noise: The terrifyingly loud, shrill sound of the factory whistle.
 * Narm: reciting pat-a-cake before  can be this if not executed properly.
 * Nightmare Fuel: After you get over the murderous barber and the cannibalism, enjoy your nightmares about
 * 's pat-a-cake-pat-a-cake at the end, Judge Turpin, The tooth pulling scene (in the original), the 2005 revival.
 * "Epiphany" is particularly horrifying. Watching Sweeney take a flying leap into the pit of insanity, combined with the song's tendency to switch between his declaring vengeance on all of humanity and mourning his wife and daughter.
 * The beggar woman becomes that much more horrifically tragic when you realize
 * Paranoia Fuel: A trip to the barber's or a pie shop both made very creepy for the Victorian audience. For the typical modern audiences, this story has made the straight razor unsettlingly best known as a weapon of murder.
 * Romantic Plot Tumor: The romance subplot between Johanna and Anthony, particularly in the film where Relationship Compression comes into play.
 * On the other hand, another way to see them is as a parallel to the Todd/Lucy couple ("she was beautiful, and he was naive", particularly if you take the interpretations where Johanna is crazy into account)
 * Squick: The whole thing is pretty squicky, but Judge Turpin gets a special mention for "Johanna (Mea Culpa)," where he flagellates himself to orgasm while watching his teenaged ward through a keyhole. While singing. It was cut from the original Broadway production, and, unsurprisingly, it's only occasionally reinstated. When done well, the sequence can be one of the most chilling in the show...which is about serial murder and cannibalism.
 * What an Idiot:
 * Anthony when he bursts into Sweeney's barber shop in the midst of his shaving of Judge Turpin. What was he expecting?
 * One wonders why Sweeney takes Lovett's advice to be patient in plotting his revenge at heart, spending his sweet time singing along with Turpin about pretty women. What was he expecting? Although... see "Squick" above.
 * Mrs. Lovett, basically keeping Lucy a secret from Todd when she kept coming around her shop. Sweeney's shown no hesitation in killing anyone who's crossed him, particularly in regards to his family. What was she expecting?
 * Pirelli, confronting a man who's been in prison for fifteen years, and blackmailing him. What was he expecting?
 * The Woobie: Toby, poor kid. Johanna too, seeing what she's had to live with.

The 2007 film

 * Awesome Music: Not sure about the original musical, but the quiet interplay between Turpin and Todd in "Pretty Women" is incredibly good, especially as it builds to that crescendo at the very end.
 * Complete Monster: Judge Turpin is a corrupt HangingJudge in Victorian London and the man who begins Sweeney's start of darkness when, lusting after the then-younger barber's wife, Turpin has him imprisoned on a penal colony for decades of hard labor so he can seduce his wife. When she refuses, Turpin has her lured to his home under pretense of offering to free her husband- but rapes her instead, and steals her daughter as his ward. Turpin guards her jealously, having a younger sailor brutally beaten for looking at her and plans to marry her himself. When she refuses and tries to run away he sends her to an asylum where he knows she'll be mistreated. At another point, Turpin sentences a little boy to death by hanging...and then asks his sidekick, the Beadle Bamford, if the boy was even guilty of anything.
 * Creepy Awesome/Evil Is Sexy: Sweeney Todd
 * Draco in Leather Pants: It's a smarmily evil character played by Alan Rickman. Y'think? He's the most blatantly, unflinchingly, over-the-top evil character in the movie version... but hey. Alan Rickman. The Other-Other Wiki's fangirls have become so dedicated to this that they list Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett under this trope, but not their darling Woobie Turpin.
 * He Really Can Act (and sing!): Sacha Baron Cohen plays Pirelli.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: When the movie came out, it was noted that there were three Harry Potter alums in the film. The actor who played Anthony later played Grindelwald, so that's four. Not to mention that three of the four played Death Eaters, and all their HP characters were, at one point or another, bad guys. Dark Wizard reunion!
 * Love It or Hate It: Critics, general audiences, and Sondheim himself love the film, but some overserious fans of the stage show despise it. The main reason for the divide comes down to the performances, with fans of the film loving the actors in it, and haters feeling they're butchering Sondheim's score.
 * Moe: Toby, before he becomes a Creepy Child.
 * Nightmare Fuel: The rape scene. Jesus Christ, the rape scene. Some consider it to be the scariest scene in the movie.
 * The beggar woman's capacity for this was ramped right up for the movie.
 * "City on fiiiiiiiiiire, city on fiiiiiiiiire...MISCHIEF! MISCHIEF!"
 * The scene with Toby in the evil basement, when the poor kid finally learns what's in the pies -- and then has to watch as the just-murdered Beadle Bamford gets dumped right down into the basement with him. And then Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney come down into the sewer looking for him because they want to murder him too.
 * When Sweeney finds out Lovett lied to him, he takes her off her guard by dancing with her - and throws her into the furnace. Unlike the stage play, we can see exactly what happens as she screams and thrashes while she burns up.
 * Imagine being Mrs. Lovett and what your thinking in that situation. The person you love finds out that you indirectly killed their wife by lying to them about if there spouse was alive or not. But suddenly, the person your in love with is okay with that! You start dancing with him and he's saying that she's already dead and that there's no point of worrying about the past. You think you're gonna marry him, live together in your dream world when suddenly, he throws you into an open oven. As you're screaming in pain and agony, he closes the oven door with an expressionless look on his face. And that's how you die...
 * Retroactive Recognition: Hey girls, it's Caius playing Anthony!
 * Tear Jerker: "Forget my face."
 * The rape scene.
 * "Not While I'm Around" is more of a Fridge Horror tearjerker, since it all goes waaaaaay downhill from there.
 * Mrs. Lovett, trying to conceal her anguish as she tries to remain cheerful around Toby, sensing that bad things will come for Toby because he voiced his suspicions about Todd.
 * Anthony's and Johanna's final interaction on-screen. He assures her that they can leave all the "ghosts" behind. However, Johanna disagrees, believing that the ghosts would never die. Although its implied they did manage to escape Tupin's clutches and move on, Johanna knows that the trauma will always haunt her.
 * The final scenes with Todd, . Todd may have ended up becoming a psychopath, but the look on his eyes is the look of a completely broken man. Can you say Stoic Woobie?