Review of Sleepy Hollow (1999) by Spangle — 01 Mar 2015

This one's negatives do outweigh its positives, but its strengths are really stupendous. Where some things falter, the main consistencies here would have to be the costume design, production design, and the cinematography.

All add together to make this a visually striking and beautiful film. I may not have loved the film, but I really wanted to, if only for those elements being so strong. In addition, this one is very good at mood setting, as it feels dark, disturbing, and creepy throughout.

However, this mood does get upset by one of the main negatives of this film; the acting. The acting from everyone is poor at best. I expected a lot better from Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci, but their performances felt entirely wooden and emotionless, even worse when they did put in emotion, it felt entirely over the top.

The added in demonic elements were also entirely off-putting and came off as forced. Finally, the special effects lacked at times. A lot of the time, the special effects were extremely cool and well done (everything with the tree), but a lot of the time, they fell flat and just looked overly stylized and fake.

As a whole, Sleepy Hollow rides on its visual splendor, but is nothing more than eye candy unfortunately.