CUSTOMERS at a Droitwich barbers have been on the edge of their seats since staff started showing clips from horror film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street.

The film, which is about a barber who slits his clients' throats during shaves and turns them into pies, is currently showing at cinemas and the excerpts downloaded from the internet have proved a hit with customers of Kents Hairdressers and UK barbers.

Owner Antony Kent has been showing the clips in his Gurneys Lane salon and has also offered to pay for his staff to go and watch the film as a "training video".

He said: "Customers thought it was really funny to be watching a film like that while sitting in a barber's chair." Mr Kent said most of his staff from salons in Droitwich, Worcester, Malvern, Bromsgrove, Pershore and Evesham had taken him up on his offer to watch the film.

He said: "They've gone and enjoyed it. It's a good laugh.

"What I'm hoping is that it will remind staff that whenever customers walk through our doors they are not only coming to us for a haircut. Many also want to have a chat about what is happening in the world and many more want to have a laugh and a joke."

He said that there was no danger to customers because his salons do not currently offer shaves. The film, based on a musical, has won the 2008 Golden Globe for best picture, stars Johnny Depp at Sweeney Todd and Helena Bonham-Carter, Timothy Spall, Alan Rickman and Sacha Baron Cohen.

Kents Hairdressers was launched more than 70 years ago by Mr Kent's grandfather, Vic Kent, who introduced a walk-in service which still available today.