Plot: Sweeney Todd (John Miranda) is a barber by trade, but he uses his blade for more than just close shaves. When a man enters the shop and Todd sees his valuable ring, he pounces on the opportunity. Todd closes the shades, slits the man’s throat, cuts of his hand, and claims the ring for himself. But his depraved deeds go beyond even murder and mutilation, as his victims are then turned into meat. That meat is then sold to a local baker, who puts the grisly remains into pies for the public. This enterprise is mostly a success, aside from the odd complaint about hair found in the pies. As time passes however, a friend of one of the victims begins to suspect foul play. Will Todd’s crimes be revealed or will he simply slaughter those who get close to the truth?

Entertainment Value: The films of Andy Milligan are sure to divide even dedicated genre audiences, given the lower than low budgets, odd performances, and Milligan’s offbeat production methods. Bloodthirsty Butchers is a retelling of the famous Sweeney Todd story, but it isn’t slavish to the source. The whole “kill people and turn them into pies” scenario is still here, but Milligan veers off course often as well. The cast gives theater style performances, with little subtlety and high dramatics. Some people hate that, but I think it adds to the craziness of the experience. Milligan loved to have characters argue and unleash vitriol at each other, so expect short tempers and cruel, personal attacks in the dialogue. The theatrical performances enhance that bitterness and dysfunction, its like a beautiful abyss of toxicity. As I said before, Milligan’s films require a certain taste and Bloodthirsty Butchers isn’t likely to convert those who don’t enjoy his pictures. But if you are entertained by Milligan’s unique brand of low rent horror, Bloodthirsty Butchers is a brisk, fun journey into stage blood and hateful people.

A couple of brief topless scenes is all the nudity we are graced with. As for the blood, we all know Milligan loves to splash around the stage blood and he does that here. A couple of nice kills are included in Bloodthirsty Butchers, the highlight of which is a quite hilarious butcher knife to the head. There’s also hand chopping, finger chopping, head removal, and medicinal bloodletting, plus other scenes of spurts and sprays of the glorious red stuff. You also see some attempted rape, women getting slapped around, and a pregnant woman using her unborn child to force her man to stick around. These are nice, well adjusted characters, great stuff! The dialogue here is mostly mean spirited and angry, which leads to some entertaining scenes. Very few characters in the movie seem to have any empathy or care for others whatsoever. As far as the craziness, this movie earns some points for the overly dramatic performances, cruel dialogue, and wild bloodshed, but don’t expect balls to the walls insanity here.

Nudity: 1/10

Blood: 5/10

Dialogue: 8/10

Overall Insanity: 5/10