WE all know about Sweeney Todd thanks to many and varied accounts of his life - the barber who gave customers a very close shave and disposed of the bodies by baking them in pies.

Stephen Sondheim took such a seemingly-unlikely subject and fashioned it into a memorable, award-winning musical. A film of the stage show appears an even more unlikely incarnation for Sweeney's story but in Tim Burton the producers have found the perfect director.

Johnny Depp is has the ideal performer to give heart to the barber's razor-sharp murderous intent. Sweeney's a wronged man.

Shipped off to prison on a false charge so that Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman, oozing vileness) can get his hands on Todd's wife (Laura Michelle Kelly) and baby daughter Johanna.

Fast forward 15 years, Sweeney's back in disguise in a dark and dangerous London where the lecherous judge is proposing to wed the now grown up Johanna (Jayne Wisener). Sweeney sets up (barber's) shop in an upstairs room above the ailing meat pie shop run by Mrs Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), a woman who's no Delia Smith in the kitchen.

When a rival Italian barber Pirelli (Sacha Baron Cohen, a long way from Borat), threatens to reveal Todd's true identity, the first killing takes place and the resourceful Mrs Lovett sees a way of boosting sales of her pies. All the while, Todd is biding his time to get Judge Turpin and his horrible henchman (Timothy Spall) in the barber's chair and take his revenge.

Burton's nightmarish movie looks amazing as splashes, actually make that gallons, of blood fill the screen as Sweeney's orgy of throat-slitting gathers pace. The film's absence from the main categories in this year's Baftas is a mystery. Depp shows he can sing as well as act adding another superb performance to his varied CV. Bonham Carter is a very effective Mrs Lovett.

You'll need a strong stomach and won't exactly be humming the tunes on the way out, but Sweeney Todd can already, at this early stage, be claimed as one of 2008's best movies.

Stars: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen, Laura Michelle Kelly, Jamie Campbell Bower, Ed Sands, Jayne Wisener
Running time: 116 mins
Rating: FIVE Stars