There’s nothing hollow about Sleepy Hollow. Based loosely, and I mean **very** loosely on Washington Irving’s The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow the film tells the tale of Ichabod Crane who, in the movie, is a New York police constable who abhors the brutal methods of that era’s police for solving crimes. Crane advocates a more scientific approach and is assigned by an irate Judge, under threat of contempt of court, to prove his theories by solving the beheadings of several citizens in a small town called Sleepy Hollow. Only when Crane arrives in Sleepy Hollow he finds himself immersed in a conspiracy of silence, more beheadings and, possibly, a supernatural demon committing random murders. Or are they random?
While not director Tim Burton’s best work Sleepy Hollow is still a very good movie. Other then Johnny Dep none of the actors, including talented individuals such as Christina Ricci, are given roles that tend to stretch their talents very much. However Dep makes the movie by playing Crane as a high strung investigator struggling with, and overcoming with obvious effort, his own cowardice in order to do the right thing. At one moment Crane will either be fainting or almost cowering behind women and children in fear while in the next he may instinctively grab up a scythe to help a man he doesn’t even like in his battle with the Horseman. I found this duality refreshing and thought it made Crane a more believable and likeable character.
There is a mystery to this film, and a good one at that though the film is a horror movie as well. One small problem with the film is that whenever Crane loses consciousness, which is quite often, the film flashes back to surrealistic dream sequences involving Crane’s mother who was killed as a witch when Crane was a child. I never felt that these flashbacks had much to actually do with the film’s main story and believe the movie would have been stronger without them. The camera work and atmosphere are dead on and helped to make Sleepy Hollow visually impressive.
You won’t get sleepy watching Sleepy Hollow so if you enjoy horror films, murder mysteries or both I suggest you give it a try.
Average Grade: B+
