---
title: "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: the reviews"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/sweeney-todd-the-demon-barber-of-fleet-street/reviews"
title_page: "https://film.one/film/sweeney-todd-the-demon-barber-of-fleet-street"
critics_score: 81
critics_reviews: 16
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007): what the critics said

Critics' score 81 from 16 reviews: 14 positive, 2 mixed, 0 negative.

Most critics welcome Tim Burton’s adaptation as a forceful match between his Gothic style and Sondheim’s grim musical. Praise clusters around the muted London settings, the contrast between monochrome design and bright blood, and the intensity of Depp and Bonham Carter’s performances. The songs generally earn approval for carrying the story forward, while the mixture of black comedy, cruelty and sorrow strikes many reviewers as well judged. Several admire its resistance to sentimental comfort.

The spread runs from wholehearted enthusiasm to qualified approval, with no outright negative reviews. The chief disagreements concern the singing and how much feeling survives the visual treatment. The AV Club finds the leads’ voices inadequate for the score, despite enjoying the humour of “A Little Priest”. Time Out points to thin character psychology and a flat middle section. The Guardian finds the proceedings oddly tasteful and unscary, arguing that the digital London flattens the film.

## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert

Rating 4/4. 20 December 2007. 

Ebert praises the film as a dark, faithful adaptation that becomes the bloodiest musical in film history, a revenge tragedy with strong performances and a brooding atmosphere. He singles out the cast's merciless performances and Burton's evocation of 19th-century London poverty for praise.

[Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/sweeney-todd-the-demon-barber-of-fleet-street-2007)

## The New York Times — A.O. Scott

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 21 December 2007. 

Scott calls the film a dark and terrifying work, as much horror as musical, with a rigorously pessimistic view of human nature that makes it close to a masterpiece of extreme genius. He singles out its bracing refusal of sentimental consolation and willingness to push the story's dreadful implications to their blackest conclusions for praise.

[Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/21/movies/21swee.html)

## Evening Standard

Fi1m's normalised score 88/100 (inferred from the text). 10 April 2012. 

Burton has made a perfect, just-about-perfect film with Sweeney Todd, a blood-soaked spectacular that hurtles along with momentum and fuses the personal and political into a blazing whole. The critic singles out the intense performances from Depp and Bonham Carter that make it impossible not to connect with the killer and his accomplice, along with Burton's treatment of the material.

[Read the review](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/sweeney-the-spectacular-7403128.html)

## Slant Magazine — Robert Keser

Rating 3.5/4. 18 December 2008. 

Burton draws the material into a black comedy and still blacker tragedy surging with jugular urgency that haunts the mind for days; Depp’s commanding performance and the atmospheric evocation help elevate revenge to tragedy. The film enlarges the work while displaying its dark convictions, though its graphic violence is not for the squeamish.

[Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/sweeney-todd-the-demon-barber-of-fleet-street/)

## Empire — Kim Newman

Fi1m's normalised score 87/100 (inferred from the text). 29 December 2007. 

This is a rich, demented experience that is somehow not a downer, with everyone getting what they deserve in a magnificent death. The critic singles out the daring adaptation (songs trimmed, sub-plots pruned), the stars' fair fists at singing and acting that put over Sondheim’s lyrics, and Burton’s arterial spray and gruesome touches.

[Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/sweeney-todd-demon-barber-fleet-street-2-review/)

## The Independent

Fi1m's normalised score 81/100 (inferred from the text). 27 January 2008. 

Tim Burton's musical is rollicking good fun despite copious blood and guts, a strangely moral tale where the innocent prevail and the wicked are punished. The critic singles out the staging, which honours Sondheim's songs and ironies while resembling engravings in a penny dreadful, and the performances of Depp and Bonham Carter.

[Read the review](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/sweeney-todd-the-demon-barber-of-fleet-street-18-774425.html)

## Radio Times — Jamie Russell

Rating 4/5. 

The critic praises Burton’s distinctive Gothic stamp on the dark musical, highlighting the detailed monochrome production design that contrasts with the blood, and the committed performances by Depp and Bonham Carter despite their lack of vocal training.

[Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-fv316i/sweeney-todd-the-demon-barber-of-fleet-street/)

## Screen Daily

Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 4 January 2008. 

The piece highlights how Burton’s sensibilities perfectly suit the grisly Grand Guignol musical about murder and revenge, calling it the high point of his collaboration with Johnny Depp and noting its awards potential despite the bloodletting.

[Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/best-picture-sweeney-todd-the-demon-barber-of-fleet-street/4036448.article)

## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw

Fi1m's normalised score 74/100 (inferred from the text). 25 January 2008. 

Bradshaw finds the film likable but no masterpiece, noting its entertaining but unscary digital ride through a CGI Victorian London accompanied by classy music. He singles out the muted and oddly tasteful proceedings and the flattening effect of the CGI for complaint.

[Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/jan/25/musical.horror)

## The AV Club

Fi1m's normalised score 60/100 (inferred from the text). 

The film isn’t as potent as it should be; Depp has the right look but neither he nor Bonham Carter has a strong enough voice for Sondheim’s pop-operatic style. Burton’s gothic horror elements and the score’s core hold firm, with the showstopper “A Little Priest” remaining stirring and funny.

[Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/johnny-depp-kills-em-and-helena-bonham-carter-grills-1798284528)

## Time Out — Dave Calhoun

Rating 3/5. 22 January 2008. 

The critic finds Tim Burton’s adaptation of the Sondheim musical bloodier and more theatrical than typical musicals, with strong visual style and production values, but notes weaknesses in character psychology and a flat middle section.

[Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/sweeney-todd-the-demon-barber-of-fleet-street)

## Den of Geek — Paul W. Smith

Fi1m's normalised score 91/100 (inferred from the text). 20 December 2007. 

The critic finds it a long-awaited return to form for Tim Burton in a bloodthirsty tale of barbers, pies and revenge. Depp and Bonham Carter are singled out as the perfect macabre couple, with Depp's Todd a tragic Shakespearean hero; the film is praised as the most satisfying stage-to-screen musical adaptation in years and Burton's most disturbingly delightful to date.

[Read the review](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/sweeney-todd-review/)

## Digital Spy — Ben Rawson-Jones

Fi1m's normalised score 91/100 (inferred from the text). 22 January 2008. 

The critic calls it a magnificently realised musical with the right blend of emotional pathos, stunning visuals and accessible songs, a unique masterpiece and an absorbing, sad tale. The songs are singled out for seamlessly propelling the narrative rather than halting it, and the translation from stage to screen is praised as hard to imagine being done any better.

[Read the review](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a86698/sweeney-todd/)

## Eye for Film — Jennie Kermode

Fi1m's normalised score 91/100 (inferred from the text). 22 January 2008. 

The critic praises the film as one of the year's finest, calling Johnny Depp's performance one of the greatest of his career and noting the dazzling, thrilling gothic tale with no room for redemption. They single out Tim Burton's technical achievement and the grimly muted yet exquisitely shot visuals of squalid 19th-century London.

[Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/sweeney-todd-the-demon-barber-of-fleet-street-film-review-by-jennie-kermode)

## The Ringer

Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 1 April 2019. 

The piece positions the film as a standout in Burton's post-millennium output, highlighting its operatic melancholy and fully realized R-rated cruelty as elements where the director seems at home, in contrast to later weaker work. It describes the adaptation as deluxe.

[Read the review](https://www.theringer.com/2019/04/01/movies/tim-burton-dumbo-career-pee-wees-big-adventure-batman-edward-scissorhands)

## Consequence — Allison Shoemaker

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 25 August 2022. 

The critic presents the film as peak Burton visually and tonally, with strong costumes and design that suit its operatic emotional scope as an adaptation of a great American musical. It notes the film is essentially an opera with epic inner lives of characters, making it a good fit for Burton's grandiose style.

[Read the review](https://consequence.net/2022/08/tim-burton-movies-ranked-list/)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/sweeney-todd-the-demon-barber-of-fleet-street.md