I absolutely should not have gone with Am to see “Sweeny Todd” last night.

True, it was a good movie, and true, there were bits that made me laugh and others that made me cry. True also that I knew going in that it was about a barber who kills people, and that they serve them up as food.

However, I just didn’t expect it to be so… so… gory. There is something personal in watching someone get their throat slit that just doesn’t come across with a bullet. I’m an intensely visual person (odd, since I can create no visual art) and have an active imagination, and so thus could place myself in the position of one who was killed. And watching Johnny Depp slit the throats of people, including my beloved Alan Rickman, was just to much for me. And the way they slid out of the chair to break their necks on the floor below was… worse, in a way, even though they were supposedly dead when they hit.

fingers.jpg Am and I both watched the gory parts through our fingers, saying to each other “is it done, is it done?” and I seriously considered leaving the movie because I knew how it was going to end, and didn’t know if I would be able to handle it.

Oddly, the part that was the worst for me wasn’t the throat-slitting. No, it was when Toby is locked in the basement eating meat pies, and pulls a toe out of his mouth, realizing then that the meat is people. That is the image that was haunting me as I fell asleep last night.

I think it’s because the night before (Monday night) I dreamt that I was a cannibal, eating the brain of someone who is still alive–a scene from a Hannibal Lector movie that I haven’t seen in ages.

So, “Sweeny Todd” was good, if nearly too graphic for me. Can’t say I’ll be renting it, but I would definitely get the soundtrack.