Review of Burke & Hare (2010) by Phil H — 28 Mar 2011

So here is a John Landis film you may have missed seeing as its an Ealing production, much like Landis' other UK based hit 'American Werewolf' its full of British stars of both film and TV with plenty of blood n gore along the way :) If you like Burtons 'Sweeny Todd' then you will probably enjoy this (minus singing of course) as it has the same grimy dark look and black humour.

Based on real fact of course the film is pretty close to the truth, bar one or two things, but does try to lighten the mood with visual gags and utilizing the full gamit of odd ball expressions/features from the classic cast, think 'Sleepy Hollow'. The problem is at times the film does get abit too silly and loses the dark atmosphere, not a huge problem but it comes across as childish when you really want the edgy 'American Werewolf' shock moments instead. There are some nice bloody sequences of course which look excellent as does the entire film to be honest, the sets, costumes and location work is really grim and authentic, Landis knows how to find bleak British locations.

Its a shame this hasn't been given the proper release it deserves as it is a decent Landis flick with all the right boxes ticked for fans of his previous work, as I said Tim Burton fans may enjoy too.