Burke and Hare is About the Darker Side of Medical History
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Burke and Hare is a purposely over-the-top spin on a true story from medicine’s grisly early days. Who better to tackle this than John Landis?
Written by James “Crypticpsych” Lasome
September 21, 2011
Movie Trailer
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Release: 2010-2011 (Festivals), September 9, 2011 (US Limited and VOD)
Directed by: John Landis
Written by: Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft
Starring:
Simon Pegg as William Burke
Andy Serkis as William Hare
Jessica Hynes as Lucky
Isla Fisher as Ginny Hawkins
Tom Wilkinson as Dr. Robert Knox
In 19th Century Edinburgh, William Burke and William Hare (Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis) are desperate to come up with a brilliant plan to make them fabulously wealthy. One night, the group hears from other such “businessmen” that Dr. Robert Knox (Tom Wilkinson) is willing to pay top dollar in secret for corpses he can use in medical demonstrations with his students and to further his research. Knox is feeling the crunch because of bureaucratic red tape from rival surgeon, Dr. Monro (Tim Curry), who is guaranteed the bodies of dead criminals and other social undesirables. One night the duo are informed that one of the tenants of the building Hare’s wife (Jessica Hynes) owns has passed in the night, depriving them of a rent. Struck by inspiration, Burke and Hare pack the man’s remains into a wine barrel and roll him off to Wilkinson, selling him for a tidy profit. Hare thinks he may have finally found the plan that will make them all rich while Burke has fallen for a young prostitute/actress named Ginny (Isla Fisher) and plans to help fund her dream production. But what lengths will they go to to get their supply, and how will they deal with the guilt over their actions and the danger of the authorities who are beginning to wonder just why there’s a sudden increase in missing people?
Burke and Hare, John Landis’s new black comedy about the fate of the dead in the early days of anatomy, may not be strictly horror but has dark enough subject matter to be appealing to that audience. It’s also loosely based on the real-life Burke and Hare who actually did sell corpses to a Dr. Knox for research around the time period portrayed in the movie. While Landis didn’t write the script as he had with his classic An American Werewolf in London, it’s easy to see why he would be attracted to this above-average remake of an obscure 1972 movie’s dark humor and macabre underpinnings.
The biggest strength of Burke and Hare is that the script, while very funny, is being handled by a group of actors more than well-versed in comedy. This doesn’t end with the title duo or with Jessica Hynes’ “Lucky”, who actually slightly outshines them both. There’s also a bunch of star-studded cameos including some names lesser-known on these shores, like Bill Bailey and Michael Smiley, and interesting genre names like Christopher Lee, Ray Harryhausen, and the aforementioned Tim Curry. There’s even a quick appearance by Jenny Agutter, “Nurse Price” from American Werewolf!
Combining a cast like this with a script that manages to get humor from many areas of comedy is a pretty safe bet for a success. The jokes are generally effective and cover a wide-range of styles. Some of the humor is very “smart”, such as a joke about the origin of the word “burking” that references the actual origin or the subtle comedy of Dr. Monro’s apparent obsession with feet as a statement on the flaws of medicine at that time. Some is brilliantly physical, including Burke and Hare’s various misadventures obtaining and transporting bodies. Some is based almost purely in chemistry between characters, such as the interplays between Burke and Hare, Hare and Lucky, and Burke and Ginny. All of these combine to make a final film that is undeniably fun and whimsical… while simultaneously about death, autopsies, and black-market corpse trading.
While the humor is generally very accessible, however, there is a
sense that if a bit is known about the basis of the real story the
experience of 
watching the film may be better – as if some of
the
details are taken for granted. Humor revolving around death and corpses
may not be everyone’s cup of tea, and those who aren’t fans of
stereotypically “British” humor may not appreciate the decidedly dry
nature of the comedy. Finally, the chemistry between Wilkinson and
Curry, while often funny, does feel a bit weaker than the interplay
between other cast members.
Overall, Burke and Hare may not be strictly horror or written by Landis, but its irreverent spin on a macabre piece of history fits well both on the outskirts of the genre and in his filmography. Hopefully this isn’t the last time we see him bringing his comedic eye to darker stories.
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