Sweeney Todd

James and I saw Sweeney Todd today. The movie was a musical like the broadway show and featured Johnny Depp. The movie was a bit gory, but still very good. Not a recommendation for young children but a good adult flick.

Sweeney Todd is a villain appearing in various English language works starting in the mid-19th century as a barber and an early example of a serial killer. His weapon of choice is a straight razor, with which he cuts his victims' throats. In some versions of the story Mrs. Lovett, who is his lover, friend, and/or partner in crime—and who is variously Marjorie, Sarah, Nellie, Shirley or Claudetta—bakes the corpses of his victims into meat pies, and sells them. He is also assisted by an unwitting apprentice lad named Tobias Ragg, who later aids in unmasking his crimes. In most versions of the story, Sweeney either helps or hinders (sometimes both) the love affair of a young woman, Johanna Oakley, who in the musical stage production and 2007 film, is Todd's daughter Johanna Barker, and a sailor named Mark Ingesterie or, later, Anthony Hope. Sweeney Todd may not be a wholly fictional character. In two books,[1][2] the horror and crime story writer Peter Haining argues that Sweeney Todd was a historical figure who committed his crimes around 1800. Nevertheless, other researchers who have tried to verify his citations find nothing in these sources to back Haining's claims.