Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Directed by Tim Burton

Film Review

After the moderately disappointing Mars Attacks! (1996), Tim Burton showed a spectacular return to form with this sumptuously atmospheric adaptation of Washington Irving's famous short story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving.  Burton's love of classic horror films - tentatively revealed in Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Ed Wood (1994) - is more than evident in the film's strikingly expressionistic design, which somehow manages to combine the graveyard creepiness of Universal's 1930s horror films with the lurid elegance of Hammer's gothic fantasies of the 1960s.  The near-monochromatic palette chosen by Burton lends his film a particularly moody baroque feel, and makes the frequent bouts of blood letting all the more effective.  Sleepy Hollow is as much a sly parody on the modern slasher movie as it is a loving homage to the great horror films of the past.

Johnny Depp is a magnificent casting choice for the lead role of Ichabod Crane, a cross-between Peter Cushing's Van Helsing and Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes, albeit one with the squeamish temperament of a timid Victorian schoolgirl.  Depp's Ichabod is almost as endearing as his previous Burton creation, Edward Scissorhands - an unconventional hero who shrieks at the sight of a spider and struggles to avoid throwing up whenever he glimpses the tiniest drop of blood.   The supporting cast, predominantly made up of distinguished British character actors, are as admirably well chosen.  Miranda Richardson turns in her most wonderfully unhinged performance since her Elizabeth I in the television series Blackadder II and Michael Gambon positively revels in his ambiguous town elder role.  Christina Ricci turns in the most beguiling performance as Gambon's mysterious daughter, looking like Bette Davis's evil offspring one minute, a waiflike fairytale princess the next.

Sleepy Hollow is one of the more seductively stylish of Tim Burton's blockbusters, and certainly one of the most satisfying.  A pleasing undercurrent of dark comedy ripples through it like an electric current through a decomposing corpse, beautifully offsetting the grimmer aspects of the gory tale that Burton unfolds with his customary showman elan and warped sense of humour.  The action sequences become a little repetitive towards the end, but the perfectly judged performances from Depp and his cohorts keep us hooked right up until the heartstopping grand finale.  This is a film that promises one Hell of a ride - so be careful not to lose your head.

Film Synopsis

New York City, 1799.  Ichabod Crane is a young police officer whose new methods of forensic investigation have brought him into conflict with his superiors.  He finds himself banished to the nearby small town of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of mysterious killings, in which each of the victims has been decapitated.  At first, Ichabod is dismissive of reports from the town's elders that the killer is a headless horseman who has risen from the grave to avenge his brutal execution some years before.  To his rational mind, the murders must be the work of a deranged psychopath.  Icahbod hastily revises his opinions when he sees the headless horseman for himself.  When he discovers a connection between each of the victims, it suddenly dawns on him that someone must be controlling the murderous ghoul - but for what end..?