Review of Sleepy Hollow (1999) by Ryan M — 29 May 2012

***1/2 out of ****.

Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is such a timeless classic of Gothic terror that just about everyone has tried to adapt it successfully. I have survived through various children's animations and "adult" adaptations that make claims larger than the accumulative talent behind them has the chops to fulfill; and all for one near-perfect re-telling of Irving's story. Tim Burton is the man behind the magic; a very loose adaptation of the material known simply as "Sleepy Hollow". He disregards the decision of most men - which would be to faithfully adapt the short story into a screenplay - and makes the vision his own. But that is precisely why the movie works. I think Burton sees what so many others did not; the dark fairy tale qualities, the unrelenting atmosphere, and the macabre artistry of Irving's tall tale. If you are familiar with the story, forget everything you know about it. Burton puts such a strange and utterly fascinating spin on "Sleepy Hollow" that all things Irving practically vanish. In place of the man's signature style and sensibilities, Burton offers up his own. And for many, his offerings are more than enough to satisfy the cinematic stomach's need for something completely different and frighteningly fresh.

Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp), a police officer based in New York, is sent to the small town of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a string of three murders linked by the gruesome decapitation of each victim (the heads were never found). The townsfolk - including the leader of the village (Michael Gambon) - warn Crane that the perpetrator is not a mortal being, but a headless horseman who was murdered years ago, back from the grave with a bloody vengeance. The legend tells of the horseman's head being chopped off - much like he did to the heads of his very own victims back in the day when he was a warrior - and his headless corpse being buried somewhere deep in the woods of Sleepy Hollow. For many, many years he seemed to rest in peace; but all was not well, and when somehow given the chance to return yet again, he took the world up on that offer. And now, Ichabod must try and stop (or at least stall) his brutal rampage. To help him, he takes up an assistant - a young boy named Young Masbath - as well as the village head's daughter Katrina (Christina Ricci), who becomes Ichabod's love interest.

If the film is not a triumph of storytelling, then it is surely a triumph of visual design and conception. In the original short story, there were implications towards the end that the horseman was not a ghost but rather one of the villagers in disguise. This is indeed how a lot of legends tend to go - with somebody merely trying to keep it alive -but Burton was convinced that the most effective way to tell his version of the story was to regard the horseman as a paranormal being. Played by a very vicious sharp-toothed Christopher Walken in flashback sequences, the horseman is otherwise a work of state-of-the-art visual effects. As are the many heads that he lops off from various bodies; the film is certainly worth its weight in prosthetic heads. This could have easily been one of Burton's "miss" flicks (since he's a hit-or-miss director), but he finds a way to involve the audience in the world that he and his team of skilled make-up/special effects artists have created. Surely, Burton has crafted better characters and upheld better plot structure in the past, but the film remains a flawless visual experience.

It also helps that "Sleepy Hollow" is insanely, off-the-charts creepy. From the record number of forest shots and imagery of the headless horseman riding once again; the whole thing is spectacularly envisioned from beginning to end. As the story progresses, more visual set pieces are added on; and it just keeps getting weirder and weirder. There's a tree that contains blood in its branches and acts as a gateway between hell and earth for the horseman, a broken down complex and fireplace located in the middle of nowhere, and then there's the town bridge; always engulfed by the fog that cleverly hides the horseman wherever he may ride. These elements help to create real tension within the plot, especially in scenes where the horseman comes to collect the night's heads, so it's not all for show. Burton actually does something with every tool he is given; from the elaborate production design to the impressive effects to the interesting costumes. It's the standard stuff you expect from the filmmaker, but with more of a pulse than usual. It's every so often that Burton really goes to town on the gross-and-grotesque factor; and "Sleepy Hollow" is certainly a gory contender for its year. It's not quite shock material, but it ain't no "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure". But even that had scary clowns.

I am perfectly aware that this movie is not perfect. But it is pleasing to the eyes and the mind. In every frame, Burton makes you think about and re-consider each and every one of his creations thus far, in this film alone. There are contraptions that intrigue and imagery that is phantasmagoric. It rightfully evokes what I consider a true re-imagining of a Gothic era. Not many movies of its kind get this far, but Burton is resourceful and knows what he's doing. In the end, it may not be Irving's "Sleepy Hollow", but it's still got that fairy tale aesthetic about it that draws me in. In this case, it's the thought that counts. Some will write it off as an exercise in style-over-substance, and some will be thoroughly immersed in the psychological and macabre aspects of its twisted world. Film is art and escapism alike. I see a lot of filmmakers and individual films that struggle to find balance between the two (hell, from time to time, even Burton does); but "Sleepy Hollow" knows that it is entertainment of the highest power. It has no false pretenses and achieves precisely what it sets out to do. Fear not my friends, for when you're in Burton's company, the heads always roll rather vigorously.