Director Tim Burton has again brought us "The Nightmare Before Christmas." This time around, it's not a kid-friendly animated feature of that title.

Instead, it's a vastly entertaining splatterfest with some of the best Broadway music ever.

Burton tackles Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" with all the macabre stylishness and dark imaginings in his filmmaker's tool box. Broadway musicals don't always successfully make the transition to the big screen. The intimacy and the artifice of the stage show and the realism and bigger-than-life imagery that drives movies don't necessarily make for a good marriage.

This time, however, Burton defies the odds and comes up with a movie that's true to the format of its stage origins but still pulses with the vitality of the movie camera. Did we say it's bloody? Indeed it is and maybe too much so for Broadway aficionados. But what else can you expect from a saga of serial murder and cannibalism?

The story is set in Victorian London, a dark and gloomy place that Dickens would recognize. Johnny Depp plays the title character and as usual turns in a riveting performance, something that's beginning to become a cliche. Sweeney Todd is a humble barber railroaded by the lecherous Judge Turpin in order for the judge to steal Sweeney's wife and daughter. Alan Rickman, in full villainous overdrive, plays his honor.

Years later, an embittered Sweeney returns to his hometown hoping to be reunited with his family. Instead, he finds his past life in ruins so he decides to seek revenge. Enter Mrs. Lovett, played by Helena Bonham Carter. She's a pastry cook who bakes the worst meat pies in London. Mrs. Lovett becomes Sweeney's landlady and pines for his affections and an idyllic life by the seashore.

When Sweeney's rage turns to complete madness, Mrs. Lovett becomes his willing accomplice and the Iron Chef of her era.

Out of hatred for all mankind, Sweeney slashes the throats of his customers and Mrs. Lovett bakes the remains in her pies without a soupcon of remorse. Londoners respond with gusto.

Included in this mix of Gothic Grand Guinol are Sweeney's daughter, played Jayne Wisener; her sailor swain played by Jamie Campbell Bower; the judge's rodent-like henchman played by Timothy Spall; a flamboyant rival barber played Sacha Baron Cohen; and a street urchin played by Ed Sanders.

The actors sing their own parts and the result is effective if not conventional. Depp's hatred and bitterness burn through the screen and Bonham Carter brings a sardonic humor and cynicism to her role.

Obviously, this isn't a holiday feel-good musical but it's a compelling and ferocious piece of movie-making. Under Burton's direction, it's a little barber shop of horrors that doesn't let go.