I recently watched the movie Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Upfront, I’ll warn everyone that this is a really dark story. It’s classified as horror, and yes, there are some “icky” moments, though it’s not really a slasher kind of film. There are strong psychological elements that dominate over the physical gore, and it’s these psychological elements that make the story a good one. There are several posts a person could write about this particular movie, but I want to discuss the value of adding layers to a story because this movie does that in a brilliant way.

Before I go into that, I’ll sum up the story. Years ago, there was a barber named Benjamin Barker who had a wife (Lucy) and baby daughter (Johanna). A judge happened to lust after his wife, so he convicted Benjamin of a crime he didn’t commit then sent him off with the hopes Lucy would be with him. The movie opens with Benjamin’s return, except now he calls himself Sweeny Todd, and he looks for his wife and daughter, only to be told that Lucy poisoned herself. Meanwhile, Johanna is now the judge’s ward. Sweeny vows to get his revenge on the judge by slitting his throat.

That pretty much sets the stage for the movie.

Spoilers ahead…

I will be spoiling this movie as I dive into the layers I discovered while watching it. Keep in mind that not every story will be able to incorporate these layers. It might be that only one layer will work. It might be a layer I didn’t mention here will work better for your specific story. Each story is unique and should be given the layer(s) best suited for it. Never try to force a layer into your story that shouldn’t be there. The best stories are organically written. You don’t want to force the story to be something it’s not intended to be.

Some layers to consider in storytelling that I found in the movie:

Put in something that readers won’t know until the end that changes the entire reading experience when they read the book again.

The best compliment a reader can get is that their story was so good that someone read it again. After watching this movie the first time, I had to go back and watch it again because I knew that if I watched it a second time after knowing the “twist”, then the movie would be a different experience. As stated above, not every story will have this twist in it, but it is a layer that is effective. But if you can use that “twist”, it will change the reading experience the second time around. Below, I’ll explain what I mean.

In this movie, there is a homeless woman who pops up from time to time. She doesn’t have a large role. She seems to be an “add on” that is just there, like wallpaper in a room. For most of the movie, I even kept wondering why she was even there. It turns out that this woman was Lucy. You don’t find this out until the final scene, and the moment I found out this homeless woman’s identity, I knew I was going to have to watch the movie again so I could put that piece of the puzzle into the story. At the beginning of the story, Mrs. Lovett tells Sweeny Todd that Lucy poisoned herself. At the end, we find out Mrs. Lovett didn’t add that Lucy survived the attempted suicide. Now it makes sense why this homeless woman was outside the judge’s house watching Johanna in the window and why this homeless woman knew the house was locked up tight (hinting that Lucy had made attempts to get her daughter out of there but was unable to.) Now it also makes sense as to why Mrs. Lovett is constantly telling the boy to “throw the woman out” every time the homeless woman showed up in her shop. Mrs. Lovett knows who Lucy is and is determined to keep Lucy and Sweeny Todd apart. So it’s really fascinating what little things you notice the second time around that you didn’t notice before.

It was fun to go back and pick out these details, and I suspect readers would have a fun time doing the same in your story if you can manage to put something or someone into the story that works like this.

Have characters doing the same thing but in different ways.

I think of this technique as a compare and contrast sort of strategy in storytelling.

In the movie, it doesn’t seem like it from the start, but it turns out that Mrs. Lovett is just like the judge. While you know the judge is corrupt and driven by lust from the beginning, you are led to believe that Mrs. Lovett, while amoral, sincerely has Sweeny Todd’s best interest at heart. It’s not until the end that you realize both the judge and Mrs. Lovett are doing the same thing in different ways. Both want to keep Sweeny Todd and Lucy apart. While the judge sends Sweeny away for life on a trumped up charge, Mrs. Lovett simply chooses to let Sweeny think that Lucy is dead. So the goal is the same. The methods are different. And this adds an interesting layer to the story. While Sweeny knows his enemy is the judge, he thinks Mrs. Lovett is his friend.

Again, this can’t be used in every story, but if you can use it, then it’ll add another layer to the story you’re telling.

Have characters say the same words but make those words have different meanings.

Another layer I found in this movie is that Sweeny’s “love” for his blades is mirrored by Mrs. Lovett’s love for him. This is best appreciated while watching the way the two actors perform the song “My Friends”. It’s obvious he has no interest in her while she shows an interest in him.

At times, they sing the same lyrics. For example, “You’re warm in my hand” and “splendors you never have dreamed all your days” have different meanings to him and to her.

A fun storytelling technique is having characters the same thing that only the readers knows conveys different meanings. This is the benefit of third person point of view, by the way. In first person, you can’t get this duality because you’re only in one character’s head through the entire story. But in third person, you’re able to get into two or more characters’ heads, and that can help you use this particular layer if it fits what you’re doing.

Another layer that isn’t in the movie but I find fun is this:

Have something that only the reader knows. It can be that only one character (or even none) know something, and during the course of the story, it’s never reveals to another character. I’ll give an example. I wrote a story years back where a secondary character is believed to have murdered his wife, but it’s only when I gave a flashback scene from that character’s point of view that the reader realizes her death was an accident. That secondary character ended up dying, and the other characters went on believing he murdered her. So it’s a secret only the reader gets to discover. You can use this strategy in many ways, and in some cases, it can change the way the reader views the character or the story, even even both. It depends on how it fits into the storyline.

My point is that not every single thing needs to be spelled out on the page. There doesn’t always need to be this “big reveal” moment between two characters for the story to be effective. In fact, sometimes it’s what the character doesn’t say (or doesn’t even know) that makes the story better.

Show the struggle between good and evil within one character.

Another layer I found in the movie is the struggle between grief (and the “good” side of Sweeny) vs. the need for vengeance (the “evil” side of Sweeny). The song Epiphany best shows this, though we do get other hints at it during the movie. I’m sharing the song because it makes this struggle stand out the best. Sweeny goes back and forth in this song from mourning his wife’s death and the fact that he can’t see his daughter versus the need for revenge, which he believes will give him peace.

The evil side wins in this movie, which it must if there is to be a movie with this kind of plot. It’s only at the very end where Sweeny comes to his senses, as it were, and realizes he’s turned into a monster. The theme of this story is how revenge ends up ruining you, and the story does this theme very well.

Maybe your story will call for the evil to win out, too. I write romance, so good always triumphs in the character, but there are stories that must go the other way. It depends on the story’s purpose. As a writer, you’re going for the biggest impact because the biggest impact is what makes the story strong. Strong stories are memorable stories. They might not be the ones that sell the most, but they are the ones that have the biggest emotional impact on those who enjoy them. Though tragic and dark, I love this story. I keep going back to it to dive deeper into the storytelling elements I found, and there are more elements than the layers.

Regarding the emotional struggle within a character, you shouldn’t have every character in your story struggle. You need some, like Mrs. Lovett and the judge, who remain constant in order to best appreciate the struggle that one character is going through. If every character struggles in the story, then the story gets convoluted. Then the story loses its impact because the reader has to experience “angst” for a bunch of characters. Keep it simple. Sweeny is the only one who struggles in this movie, and, as a result, it makes him a more compelling character.

***

A final note:

I don’t suggest you watch the movie if you don’t have the stomach for it. It contains blood and a nod toward cannibalism. These are not easy subjects. It’s definitely a mature movie. But if you want to see what good storytelling is like, this movie is an excellent example of it. For one, each character has a purpose. Two, the main characters are well-developed. Three, there are no loose ends. Four, the ending delivers. Mrs. Lovett dies. The judge dies. Lucy, though innocent in all of this, dies, but it’s through her death that Sweeny realizes he’s become a monster, and that final moment of clarity is satisfying to see. It’s proof, I think, that there was a piece of Benjamin still left in him. Once upon a time, I read that a tragic ending can be the best ending for a story if it satisfies. Typically, tragedies don’t deliver, but this one did.