A beggar women solicits sex with a sailor (She grabs at his groin and uses unnatural metaphors.) A woman is drugged and raped. Mrs. Lovett implies she wants to have sex with Sweeney.

Fake blood used frequently. A corpse comes out of a chute covered in blood. Many throats slit with some blood. The film has a cannibalism theme.

The equivalent language to a british "12"

A young boy is given gin. Sweeney promises him that if he does what he tells him, he can have some gin. He is later seen passed out with a bottle of gin in his hand. A woman is drugged and raped, and then commits suicide with arsenic.

The throat slittings are disturbing and further enhanced by the incidental music.