Burke and Hare is director Vernon Sewell’s bawdy, dark comedy based on the murders committed by William Burke and William Hare in 1820s Edinburgh, Scotland. Derren Nesbitt and Glynn Edwards star as the two would-be ghouls whose goal is to get rich quick by killing folks and selling the bodies to science.
Buy Burke and Hare Blu-rayBonnie old Scotland isn’t so bonnie in 1828 and it’s a rather tough place to live for most people. Cobbler William Burke and his pal, boarding-house owner William Hare may have just stumbled upon a scheme that will ease their strife. The two decide to take a deceased lodger to Dr. Ricahrd Knox, a renowned surgeon who is always in need of cadavers to use during his anatomy lessons. Lured by easy money, the wives of the William’s prod them into the body-snatching business by demanding they hasten the demise of another lodger that has fallen deathly ill. After they do so, the pair begin to find the task easier to stomach as they continue to make a killing knocking off the local undesirables that range from homeless drunks to street walkers.
The dastardly duo begin to push their luck when they kill a well-known local lad dubbed “Daft Jamie” and a pair of popular prostitutes. Dr. Knox cares not from where or how the cadavers reach his door but the locals begin to wonder why so much tragedy has befallen so many of their friends so quickly. Daft Jamie’s killing was a bit easier to conceal as the wounds were consistent with that of a bar fight but the girls’s deaths are harder to disguise. It’s assumed by most that the call girls were killed in the devastating fire that destroyed the kink-friendly brothel where they plied their trade but this doesn’t sit well with one young fellow. Unbeknownst to the William’s and Dr. Knox, one of those young courtesans, Marie, was the love interest of a student who knows for a fact she did not perish in the fire. Now he’s determined to find the truth and expose all involved once and for all.
Burke and Hare has its moments of cheeky humor and a couple of atmospheric gothic horror scenes but they are few and far between. Director Vernon Sewell’s final film misses the mark and comes across as a lighthearted, psycho version of The Honeymooners mashed together with The Benny Hill Show set around horrific true events. Sadly, it seems as though most of the good horror stuff was chopped down into a murder montage of sorts. To be fair, Sewell himself was very unhappy with the final cut of the film and would disown it all together upon its release. As it stands, the final version makes Sewell out to be a cheeky monkey of an old man using the film as an excuse to put T & A on the big screen. The heavy post-production edits of the murders/horror aspects along with the addition of an out-of-place pop tune as a theme song would lead to Sewell walking away from movie making all together.
The Special Features include an audio commentary and interesting interviews with two lovely ladies. Grave Desires: Corpse on Film features the striking Dr. Patricia MacCormack in all her goth glory as she discusses the use of corpses, science, and body-snatching in films like Frankenstein and its various remakes. Dr. Patricia also provides many fascinating facts about the actual Burke and Hare case. The other short interview is with actress Francoise Pascal, who played the voluptuous young Marie, as she reminisces about her movie career and her days on set filming Burke and Hare.
The audio commentary by historian/screenwriter Gary Gerani is very witty and informative. From Gerani, we learn of Sewell’s unhappiness with the final cut and that Mike McGear of British band the Scaffold, who provided the catchy theme song, is actually Peter Michael McCartney, brother of Beatle Paul. The jaunty tune, simply titled “Burke and Hare,” recounts the deeds of the dastardly duo and grows on you like unkempt graveyard grass. Gerani does a good job of digging into fun facts of Burke and Hare while discussing its highlights, both good and bad. The Kino Lorber Blu-ray cover art is also very eye-catching and looks like a twisted Disneyland poster mashup of the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Could Burke and Hare have been a much better atmospheric, gothic-horror film and dark comedy? No doubt but the plethora of bare-naked, lovely ladies running around throughout make it a wild and ribald look at two notorious serial killers. Overall, it is an entertaining 94 minutes and that darn theme song remains stuck in my head. It may very well have just become a new Halloween favorite a la the theme from Spider Baby (1967) as sung by Lon Chaney Jr.
