REVIEW - Burke and Hare

Whatever happened to John Landis? The director of The Blues Brothers and comedy/horror classic An American Werewolf in London has disappeared off the theatrical release radar since the horrendous PG-13 Blues Brothers 2000 back in 1998. Well the 60 year old is still alive and kicking, which is more than can be said for much of the cast of his latest effort.

The film follows the story of real-life Irish born graverobbers and murderers William Burke and William Hare, who profited from a lack of corpses for medical study in 19th Century Edinburgh by killing people so they could sell the bodies to a local medical college. It’s a macabre and honestly horrifying story of just how mercenary people can be in order to make money and the depths they are willing to sink to – the accomplices even started to bump off their own family before the end. Perfect fodder for a comedy so.

In movie land, the villains are played by Simon Pegg (Burke) and Andy Serkis (Hare) so you already know from the start that they are going to be likeable rogues. The film goes out of its way to paint them as human beings, layering on Hare’s browbeating wife (Jessica Hynes) and a love interest for Pegg in the form of the delectable Isla Fisher while pointedly ignoring the genuinely horrific nature of their crimes.

There was room here for a truly black comedy with lashings of over the top gore (courtesy of the many dissections) but the film keeps things far too light, trying to make us feel sorry for the characters – particularly Burke. Sadly, the dramatic attempts are flawed and the laughs few and far between, more often courtesy of the nearly endless cameos from the likes of Ronnie Corbet and Stephen Merchant. Thriller was scarier. Funnier too.