I’d imagine there are a great deal of you reading this who have already been to see Johnny Depp and pals in Tim Burton’s take on Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Some of you will have loved it, some of you will have hated it, and some of you, like me, may have wished it hadn’t been a musical.
Which makes the news that the trailer for the film has received complaints in the UK an intriguing proposition, especially that most of the complaints aren’t targeted at the gore, or the dark quality, but to the fact that there was no suggestion that the film was in fact a musical.
It seems a number of cinema goers had been enticed to go and see the film after watching the trailer, but were disappointed to find there was singing in the film, as the trailer hadn’t shown any of that. Instead, punters thought they were going to see a straight up horror flick.
According to Digital Spy, Trading Standards and the Advertising Standards Authority have received a slew of complaints that the advertising campaign for the movie was misleading.
Filmstalker website boss Richard Brunton told them:
“When the UK trailer came out there was nothing in it that pointed it out to be a musical. I would say the advertising has been blatantly misleading and I assume that the feeling was that less people would pay to see a musical so it would be better to sell it as a horror movie.”
Intriguing stuff, but I can’t help feeling that the people who got the wrong end of the stick deserved all they got, as surely everyone knew Sweeney Todd was a musical?
It might not be my favourite genre of film, but I knew months in advance that if I were to go and see it, I should expect a healthy dose of singing invading my eardrums.
Maybe these people should read At The Movies more often?
