Sleepy Hollow (1999) Review

 

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Sleepy Hollow follows Ichibod Crane, a crime investigator from the city, who is thrust into a supernatural mystery involving a headless horseman in the small village town of Sleepy Hollow.

Going into this, I was pretty excited because I remember really loving this movie when I was kid, but I don’t know, it just didn’t feel right. I can’t say I’ve particularly ever been fond of Tim Burton’s distinct style, and this has it written all over it. Which in the case of this, it fits the tone of the movie really well, just not big on it at times; other times, it works wonders, I will admit. Story wise, it takes the classic tale of the headless horseman and after a few tweaks and exposition enhancing, it becomes S.H., which is overly dramatic, way too muddled with it’s reasoning on things, and adds weird backstory for Crane which goes nowhere and is completely unnecessary. That all being said, it’s not a bad movie by any stretch, just odd I guess.

Johnny Depp, pre-Pirates movies, gives another great performance, as him and Burton go hand-in-hand. His character progress from strong and outspoken, to frightened, to strong and intelligent again, developing well as a character, and setting the tone early. Sleepy Hollow is also bolstered by a star studded cast of Harry Potter veterans in Michael Gambon and Richard Griffiths, Star Wars’ Ian McDiarmid, and of course, Christina Ricci. They all add depth to the town, making it more than just a small village; it has it’s own secrets, lore, and witchcraft, which (HA!) plays a key role in the film.
I did like the reasoning they used for the horseman, portrayed menacingly by Christopher Walken, giving it more of a supernatural element to it, with it ultimately tying into the opening scenes. He was no doubt the selling point of this movie, and he delivers, chopping heads off left and right until his own is returned. 

In a messy movie that is plagued by trying to do too much, this is one of the biggest redeeming factors, bringing one of my favorite stories as a child to life, horrifyingly I might add. And while it has it’s faults, it’s still a spooky good movie, with Halloween right around the corner.

6.2/10