Burke & Hare

Burke & hare, a black comedy, is, as the film states from the off ‘..a true story, except for the parts that are not’. Based on the real life serial murders committed by William Burke and William Hare, for the purpose of selling the cadavers to Dr. Robert Knox an anatomy lecturer to dissect for his class of medical students. Featuring Simon Pegg, as Burke, and Andy Serkis, as Hare, with support from Jessica Hynes and Isla Fisher, and appearances from Tom Wilkinson, Tim Curry, and cameos from Christopher Lee, Paul Whitehouse, Stephan Merchant, Bill Bailey, Reece Shearsmith and British comedy legend Ronnie Corbett. I think the stand out performance for me, was from Serkis, you couldn’t help but love is charming confidence man.
The film is directed by John Landis, his first in 12 years, and who is best known for his comedy collaborations with Dan Aykroyd (The Blues Brothers, which he co-wrote with Aykroyd, as well as directed, Trading Places, Spies Like Us and Blue Brothers 2000), Eddie Murphy (Trading Places, Coming to America, and Beverly Hills cop III), and John Belushi (Animal House, The Blues Brothers). As well as comedy horror An American Werewolf in London, which he both wrote and directed, and the video for Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which completely revolutionised both MTV and the music video in general. Burke & Hare follows in the Landis tradition of humour and horrors, the giggles and the grotesque , and like many of the Landis stable the heart lies in the classic buddy movie.
Burke & Hare is also the latest release from the revitalised British film institution that is Ealing Studios, following success with Shaun of the Dead, The Descent, Dorian Gray, and the resurrected St. Trinian’s franchise.
Ealing Studios are best known for films produced between 1947 and 1957 dubbed ‘Ealing comedies’ most notably The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), and the two Alec Guinness starring turns Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), in which Guinness plays eight different members of the same family, and which appears in BFI’s top 100 British Films and voted number seven in Total film’s best British films poll, and The Ladykillers (1955) also starring Peter Sellers.