The Total Bastard Database

The greatest killers, madmen, monsters and maniacs in horror movie history

SPOILER WARNING!!

All entries in the TBDB are likely to carry spoliers so if you ain't seen the movie they relate to don't read 'em!

SWEENEY TODD

AKA:

Benjamin Barker (played by Johnny Depp)

Was a bastard in:

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2008)

So who the hell is he?

Once a ‘foolish barber’, Benjamin Barker was falsely accused and sent off to Australia by the rather unpleasant Judge Turpin who then had the temerity to rape his wife and adopt his daughter. The rotter.

Upon returning to old London town fifteen years later complete with a change of name and a rather fetching gothic make-over he sets about taking revenge on the nasty Judge…and his assistant…and the guy who tries to blackmail him…and the bloke who lives next door…and well pretty much everybody really. That’ll show ‘em.

That’s not a knife…

No, it’s a strangely ornate straight razor actually. A beautiful tool which when wielded by the skillfull hand of Mr Todd can either give the quickest closest shave of your life or slice open your jugular vein.

Why, for the love of God, Why??!!?

Not being amongst the most reasonable people in the world Sweeney has decided that whereas it was Judge Turpin who specifically dealt him his fate it is the fault of all society to allow this to happen. A perhaps slightly rash judgment which is good news for Mrs Lovett who of course is supplied with a regular source of quality meat. Tastes like chicken apparently.

So what’s the damage?

Lots and lots. They all get it in the end, the good the bad and the ugly. The grimmest death of all is reserved for the love-stricken Mrs Lovett who skips the throat cutting and meat-grinder part and jumps straight to the being roasted alive part. Nasty.

It’s a million to one chance but it might just work…

It’s pretty apparent from the outset that Todd is a dead man walking, he just doesn’t know it yet. Ultimately it’s his own razors or ‘friends’ as he so affectionately calls them that spill his blood.

Words of wisdom:

“At last, my arm is complete again!”

By Matt Compton

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