User reviews

Bloodthirsty Butchers is z-grade horror director Andy Milligan's version of Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Working on an extremely small budget, Milligan unwisely attempts to recreate the look and feel of Victorian England and, rather unsurprisingly, fails on almost every level, with particularly unconvincing production design, the film boasting patently fake shop facades and completely unauthentic costumery (did Milligan actually research the era or did he just go with what he imagined it was like?).

The film stars Annabella Wood as Johanna Jeffrey, assistant in the bakery run by Maggie Lovett (Jane Hilary), who gets the delicious filling for her meat pies from barber Sweeney Todd, who kills customers with his cut-throat razor. Johanna is planning to quit her job to marry her fiancé Jarvis (Michael Cox), but is unaware of the murder and mayhem that surrounds her, at least until Jarvis falls victim to the evil Mr. Todd.

Weighed down by interminable scenes of dreadful dialogue, and suffering from hopelessly amateurish direction, the film is yet another test of one's resolve from the always awful Milligan, making it through to the end being a challenge for even the most hardened of horror fans. Along the way, we are treated to just a smattering of nudity (from Susan Cassidy, as songstress Anna, who is having an affair with Sweeney), some terrible gore (rubber appendages are hacked off and there's an unconvincing meat cleaver in the head effect), and the unforgettable sight of a severed breast in a pie, all of which just about saves the film from earning the absolute minimum rating possible.

BLOODTHIRSTY BUTCHERS is another vapid mess of a film by cult director Andy Milligan, a guy whose films take amateur to a new, low level. This one's as cheap and inept as the rest of his oeuvre and the only interesting thing about it is that it was shot in London for an extra level of authenticity.

Sadly as a film this is a complete mess not to mention a travesty of film-making. It's a near-plot less effort in which various characters converse and romance each other for almost the entire running time. Occasionally some gore scenes are spliced into the mix and these consist of blood with the same consistency as ketchup and some rubber body parts being amputated. There is a plot twist of sorts at the climax but that's the only real incident here.

The entire cast is amateurish and seems to have been picked from a local amateur theatrics group. Certainly they're wooden and awkward in front of the camera although the dialogue they're being asked to deliver is about as mind-numbing as you'd expect. Milligan has cast a couple of attractive young starlets but his level of interest goes no further; they may look the part but as soon as they open their mouths the realism disappears. BLOODTHIRSTY BUTCHERS is another dog of a film from this director and only die-hard bad movie lovers are likely to enjoy it.

This is awful, you just could't believe it. The score is annoying, the filming is bad, for example, sometimes you see the shadow of the cameraman appearing on some actors faces. The quality of the movie is ultra bad, seems like it was made in the 20ies. It's terrible. There is a bit of blood in the beginning and through the movie but always too dark filmed. No gore no effects. The director made some better one like Blood Rites. But out there there is a following of the man, 'cause searching to find this cheap flick isn't that hard but you have to pay hard earned cash for it. Surely this will get in my top ten of worst horrormovies ever, I don't know if I would call it horror. There is too much talking, you will get bloodthirsty after watching it

What a terrible movie this was! I made it about 50 minutes into it and started skipping chapters until the end. The plot is nothing special, and the dialog from the movie deviates from the main story so much that your head will explode out of rage. Many useless minutes wasted just listening to characters jabber on about something irrelevant to the plot, AND/OR something that could said in a shorter amount of time. The camera work is shaky, and grainy. It seemed Mr. Milligan needed to take his finger off of the zoom button! I noticed also that at some points during this movie it seemed that Andy was having seizures, and would uncontrollably shake the camera. The splices between scenes were jumpy and didn't flow. The murder scenes were nothing special - incredibly, and laughably fake. Barely any gore, as the title suggests. This movie runs about 1 hour 20 minutes and the murder scenes take up about 1 minute TOTAL of the whole movie - if that. What a wretched piece of garbage this movie was. Andy Milligan is in fact probably one of the worst directors to plague mankind with his talentless directing, and camera-work. Usually, I can make it through really bad horror movies, and laugh about it later. BLOODTHIRSTY BUTCHERS, however, I can't. I am just angry I wasted an hour and a half of my life watching this (what I wouldn't do to gain it back). Take my suggestion, and DO NOT see this movie unless you plan on falling asleep. TERRIBLE.

Inspired by the classic urban legend of Sweeney Todd, a murderous barber who kills his customers and has them baked into pies by his business partner, Bloodthirsty Butchers keeps the basic foundation and makes up the rest with less than ideal results.

Of course, it looks even cheaper than an elementary school play, but that could be forgiven if the script was tight and the acting was better. Unfortunately, it's not and the most you have to look forward to are a few gory murder scenes that don't much convince.

The word "boring" gets thrown around way too often when referring to exactly how bad a low-budget Horror movie might, or might not be. I've seen many a B-movie. Many horrible, terribly inept B-movies. Some with a production value of a few hundred bucks. Does ineptness, lousy acting, worse continuity, and embarrassing budgets really make a movie unwatchable? Some would no doubt way yes. Most of which are probably huge fans of The Matrix. Well, I hate big-budget movies, so I say no. Bad can sometimes be funny (Blood Freak), sometimes even mind-blowing (Troll 2), but Boring will always be unwatchable... Hey, kinda like Bloodthirsty Butchers, which reminds me, I'm writing a review for this pile of garbage... Uh, yeah, anyway. This is one of late British director Andy Milligan's many alternatives to sleeping pills. This one is based on Sweeney Todd... Great. Milligan takes a boring story, and still manages to "butcher" it. Hey, that's pretty funny, I said bu... sorry, I keep getting distracted. This isn't exactly easy. On second thought, I'll make it easy. No gore, no scares, no entertainment, just unlikeable, annoying people having incoherent conversations. that's Bloodthirsty Butchers. Oh yeah, and something about a barber killing people, and something or other about meat pies. I don't know, it's not important.

For something a little more rewarding from Andy Milligan, there's always the only other one I've seen, The Rats Are Coming, The Werewolves Are Here. Yeah, you heard me. But hows about we forget about this Milligan guy all together, and pick up something sweet like Sick Girl or Teenape Goes To Camp. Whatever you decide, just know, Bloodthirsty Butchers sucks, possibly even more than any other version of this already lackluster tale. And that, B-movie fans, is really saying something. 2/10

Ooof! The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (John Miranda) lets you know his business right away as he cuts a man's throat in the first three minutes (he pulls a towel over the victim's face and the guy reacts as if he is being pulled back, despite his attacker letting go at one point). Sweeney pockets the valuables and the rest goes into the meat pies of Mrs. Lovett (Jane Hilary). Things get complicated when good girl shop worker Johanna (Annabella Wood) wonders where her boyfriend disappeared to. Good God! Only Andy Milligan could drag down the exploitation material found in the Todd story. You know what the other adaptations of that Penny Dreadful were missing? How about looooong scenes of people talking and talking and talking. To be fair, there is about a minute of pretty good stuff in here, mostly coming from some meat cleaver attacks. Milligan recreates the 19th century about as well as I can waltz and I'm pretty sure one scene has a shot of a modern era heater in the back and light switches. Miranda's Sweeney looks like a cross between Abraham Lincoln and Bowzer from Sha Na Na, but he is, surprisingly, a decent actor. The rest of the cast is there, local theater English accents and all. Look for "fortnight" to be said twice within the first ten minutes.

So bad, it is now known as a classic cult gore fest. I watched this at the drive in when it was just released, along with other gore films that were popular at the time. I remember the title as "Night of the Bloody Butchers". I was 17 then.

"Bloodthirsty Butchers" is possibly Andy Milligan's most famous horror film.This is somewhat clever take on the Sweeney Todd story woven around themes of dominance and submission.Populated with a collection of selfish characters and a very small number of decent human beings bloody murders are taking place on Fleet Street and nobody seems to notice caught up as they are in their own little worlds--until they wind up murdered themselves.Unfortunately I found this film a bit disappointing-I enjoyed "The Ghastly Ones"(1968)more.There are some good scenes of splashy gore and butchery,but the rest of the film is too talky and dull.In my humble opinion Andy Milligan was an underrated filmmaker-I'll definitely check out more of his stuff if I have a chance.4 out of 10-a breast in a pie scene is priceless!

Andy Milligan, the independent movie maker from New York, directs this little "treat" as his version of the Sweeney Todd legend. Sweeney slits the throats of customers in his barbershop and his cohort Mrs. Lovett turns them into meat pies. Thankfuly I was well-informed of the plot prior to seeing this film travesty. Milligan, for my money, has to indeed be running in the lead of worst directors of all-time race. Ed Wood looks like Orson Welles in comparison. This movie is so bad in oh so many ways. Let's take Milligan's direction for starters. The film quality is grainy. The sound quality is grainy. Many scenes look as if Milligan was using a camcorder to film. The credits say "Photograped and directed by Andy Milligan." He wants to take credit for ceilings showing up after a death scene? How about the atrocious musical score selected for the film? The film cuts with one poor transition after another. Little logic is used in the creation of the plot. The story has little to do with the actual legend of Todd. The murder scenes are plentiful but not horrifying in any way. Hands, legs, and other appendages are cut with the skill in which the editing was done: choppily! And let's take the breast in the pie scene. Yes, it is in there. The pie maker didn't know that an entire breast with nipple filled an entire pie crust? Later we hear from our characters that they "have been careful not to get caught" for the 200 plus murders they have done. Obviously they are a couple of boobs not able to keep abreast of what is going on(sorry it was too tempting). The actors are not too terribly bad to be honest. Some even have glimmers of talent, and all seem to be genuine English articles. Many non-erotic nude scenes are forced throughout. Milligan seemingly has some issues regarding sex. Plot strands are left untied. The ending is almost unwatchable due to poor camera work. I could go on and on. Did I like anything about the film? Not much to be truthful. I have a high level of acceptance for films of this ilk in terms of low budgets and marginal talent, but this film lacks any real purpose other than to be crude and sick.

As I write this user-comment, Tim Burton's interpretation of the Sweeney Todd tale is making big money at the box office and the film even earned a couple of Oscar nominations if I'm not mistaken. I haven't seen it yet, but I sincerely hope Burton didn't look for inspiration and/or stylish trademarks in good old Andy Milligan's "Bloodthirsty Butchers". Yes, even though the title distinctively mentions butchers, the main characters in the plot are a barber (the infamous Sweeney Todd) and a female baker. Together they form a vile alliance where he kills the customers in his shop and she processes the bodies into her famous London meat pies. In other words, an Andy Milligan premise at his most typical, derivative, delirious and amateurish. I think the IMDb rating for this film speaks for itself. Although the actual story definitely isn't the worst I've ever seen, Milligan somehow inexplicably attracts sheer ineptitude. The production is one gigantic mess, with an incoherent narrative structure, truly hideous photography, poor lighting, lousy acting and directing, laughable gore and zilch tension or atmosphere. More than half of the footage is pure padding and words fail to describe how BORING the film is, even with a running time of a mere 80 minutes. Ed Wood, Ted V. Mikels and Bruno Mattei; you guys need not fear as none other than Andy Milligan is – hands down – the worst director ever, but I don't think he cared. Maybe if you dispose of a really high level of tolerance, "Bloodthirsty Butchers" is worth one viewing.

Bloodthirsty Butchers (1970)

1/2 (out of 4)

Barber Sweeney Todd (John Miranda) and baker Maggie Lovett (Jane Hilary) realize that they can be a service to one another and team up in this maddening Andy Milligan film. Sweeney Todd murders the patrons who sit in his barber chair and he sends the meat over to Lovett for her pies.

I've seen the majority of the Milligan titles that are currently available and I must say that I'm amazed that he has such a following. Well, let me take that back. It's easy to see why such horrible films would have a following since many people love bad movies. What shocks me is the fact that there are many people out there who feel that Milligan was a great director and that something like BLOODTHIRSTY BUTCHERS was a great film.

It's pretty darn hard to mess up the Sweeney Todd story but Milligan manages to do that with this incredibly poorly acted film that doesn't do a thing in regards to entertainment. We start off with a man betting chopped up by the butcher and the special effects are so awful that you can't help but laugh. In fact, Milligan doesn't even try to hide how poorly the rubber hand and fingers are!

From here the film pretty much turns into a boring melodrama as we see Todd and Lovett talk, argue, fight, make up and do a wide range of other dialogue scenes that just really drag the film down. It doesn't help that the performances are on the bad side and it really doesn't help that the dialogue is some of the worst that you'll ever have to listen to. There's not much real gore or violence so that's another letdown.

What really shocks me about Milligan and films like this is that he apparently felt that someone wanted to watch them. His films are basically arthouse movies that try to pass themselves off as exploitation or horror movies. The problem is that those elements are never delivered an instead we are left with rather poor films.

Bloodthirsty Butcher (1970) is a UK film 🇬🇧 that I recently watched on a free trial of Full Moon on Prime. The storyline revolves around the infamous barber, Sweeney Todd, who kills his victims, serves their meat in pies, and makes a killing in London. But can anyone stop his reign of terror?

Directed by Andy Milligan (Carnage), the film stars John Miranda (Innerspace), Annabella Wood (The House That Vanished), Berwick Kaler (A Knight's Tale), and Jane Hilary (Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams).

This is another low-budget film, and it certainly feels like it. The movie starts off with a promising introduction to Sweeney Todd, including an entertaining kill, but it quickly falls apart once the acting and dialogue come into play. Todd's character is more annoying and awkward than creepy or cunning, which diminishes the impact of the story. His attempts at womanizing feel forced and unconvincing. The long sex scenes are oddly paired with a Disney-like soundtrack that clashes with the content, further detracting from the film. Unfortunately, there isn't much positive to say about this film, aside from its cool poster.

In conclusion, Bloodthirsty Butcher is a rare take on the Sweeney Todd tale that I would recommend skipping. I'd score it a 3.5-4/10.

BLOODTHIRSTY BUTCHERS is Director Andy Milligan's dubious take on SWEENEY TODD. As such, it contains all of the Milligan mainstays: sub-trash, thrift store costumes, beyond rubbish dialogue, "actors" who appear dazed by their surroundings, not-so special effects, etc.

John Miranda plays the barbarous barber, and Jane Hillary is his ghoulish, piemaking accomplice, Maggie Lovett. In all fairness, the two principals don't do a bad job of wading through this swill. Alas, Milligan's signature lack of production values leaves them adrift, while the other characters leave no impression at all.

As with the vast majority of the Director's epics, the main problem lies in just how bloody boring it all is! One vacuous vignette after another shuffles across the screen, interrupted only occasionally by some rib-tickling violence.

Milligan movies are a true test of one's constitution. This one is no exception! Most viewers will wilt almost immediately, while even the initiated will fight to pay attention or to stay awake. This is incredibly difficult, even if your eyelids are stapled to your forehead, and you've placed a hot coal in each shoe!

EXTRA POINTS FOR: #1- The "love scene" that's almost as erotic as watching pumpkins bob against each other in a barrel! #2- For anyone who can discern the breed of dog that makes the humanoid whining sound that's found in this film!...