Read More @HJ Reviews: Some Cuts You Expect C. McNair Wilson A Bloody Parable Maurice Broaddus Previews: Background HJ

I have to say, when I hear the words horror musical, my first response is—never going to work. Tell me it’s a comedy—okay, a little more believable. Tell me it’s also a tragic moral drama, and my question is—do you realize you’re making one movie not four? But after seeing Sweeney Todd, I have to say that with the right story and in the right hands, horror, music, comedy, and tragedy can actually come together in a way so unique that the movie it creates moves beyond just a fun musical, a fine drama, or a cool horror flick to become a truly superb film.

From beginning to end, Sweeney Todd is a movie that grabs onto you in almost every way it can. Even before the movie begins, dark and ominous organ music previews the shadowy tale that is to follow. As its opening credits begin to creep onto the screen, an orchestral version of the Ballad of Sweeney Todd previews the haunting music that will tell its story. Dark monotone scenes of rainy London contrasted with the bright red blood that drips behind names and roles opens our eyes to the striking artistry and style that will bring to life every scene and character in the movie. And as the bright red blood continues to seep and flow, over and under and through the dark and eerie streets of London, the gruesome tale of envy, revenge, and the bloody mark it leaves on all it comes near is set to begin.

If you are not familiar with the tale of Sweeney Todd, it goes something like this. A talented barber named Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) has a wife (Laura Michelle Kelly), and she is beautiful. But then a greedy judge named Turpin (Alan Rickman) also sees that she is beautiful. He arranges to have Barker sent to Australia for a crime he did not commit. And then, fifteen years later, by the name of Sweeney Todd, Barker returns to London to enact his revenge.

As the story’s subtitle indicates, Todd soon becomes the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, giving men around London the “closest shaves” they have ever had and obsessing over his need to give Turpin his last. As his obsession grows, pie maker Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) helps Todd deal with some of the “problems” Todd’s murderous urges create and dreams of what a wonderful life she and Todd might someday have together. And as the story goes on, the blood just continues to spew and flow in more abundance with each passing minute.

In many ways, the movie is very much a portrait of how darkness takes over—how much it is present already and how much more damage it can still do when fed and left to grow. Artistically, Director Tim Burton fills the movie with shades of darkness everywhere. Most scenes are painted with muted colors, almost in the realm of black and white. Clothing is dark and grey and dirty. And almost every character is made up with a sickly white pallor and dark under eye circles.

Against this dark backdrop, color and brightness stand out in a way that is nothing less than startling. In the blue dress and golden hair of Barker’s daughter Johanna (Jayne Wisener), the color serves as a reminder of innocence, beauty, and good that might still be out there somewhere. Through every daydream of Mrs. Lovett, her colorful world and brightened countenance paint a picture of hope and belief in something better. But perhaps the most intriguing color in the movie is the bright red blood that spews from each of Todd’s victims. Through our eyes, each of Todd’s bloody slayings is gruesome and gory and the epitome of evil. But if we dare to look through Todd’s eyes, the scary truth is that he sees the blood as his salvation and his path to life just like every other color we see around him.

Even before his killing begins, Todd sings about the salvation he sees in the blood he plans to shed. When he finds his shaving blades, he proclaims, “At last my arm is complete.” He sings about the blades as his only friends, his confidants, and his partners in the deathly fulfillment he sees ahead of him. At the same time, Mrs. Lovett sings about how she could be his friend, his confidant, and a partner in a life fulfilled by love. Later, as she imagines their life together in song, her view of life and happiness in love and family is even more vivid. But while Todd is in each fantasy, he just glares back with a complete inability to connect to that view of hope and happiness whatsoever, and his stare is fixed on the only twisted view of hope he can comprehend. Everyone deserves to die, says Todd, many in punishment for what they’ve done, the rest to find relief from the torture they’ve endured.

At the end of it all, the story of Sweeney Todd is about as tragic as it comes. The envy that began in one man and translated into a need for vengeance in another destroys not only the two men, but almost every person around them. Lives are taken captive by shadows and sorrow. Dreams are replaced by nightmares. Innocents are turned into killers. And as blood drains from body upon body upon body, so does every life anywhere in the path of the torture and madness that wields the story’s vengeful blade.

But Sweeney Todd is more than just a dark tragedy. It is also an hilarious comedy, a bloody slasher flick, an emotional musical, and a dazzling artistic achievement. You will laugh as much as you will gasp. You will marvel at the beauty as much as you will cringe at the gore. And as long as you can handle the copious amounts of blood that spew across its screen, Sweeney Todd is a movie you should definitely see—for its beautiful scenes and costumes, for its haunting musical numbers, for its hilarious asides, for its talented acting, and for its truly unique depiction of just how deadly and destructive the grasp of envy and thirst for revenge can be.

As one of my fellow moviegoers so eloquently put it, Sweeney Todd is not just a horror film that ties your stomach in knots; it’s not just a tragedy that tears at your heart; it’s an experience unlike any other that “ties your stomach to your heart, rips it in half, and stabs it with a razor.” And I would have to agree.