“Their heads were not found severed. Their heads were not found at all.”
Tim Burton used to be so much fun. Off the heels of his B-movie splatterfest Mars Attacks!, Burton directed Sleepy Hollow, a charmingly retro interpretation of Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” While not perfect, Sleepy Hollow is like a glimpse into the workings of Burton’s mind. This was before his aesthetic was completely co-opted by CGI and omnipresent spirals and stripes; no, here, not only does the titular town feel real, it feels alive. Maybe it’s not as scary as it was in 1999, but Sleepy Hollow is a delight to look at and experience.
The tale of the Headless Horseman is well-trodden ground by now, so Burton had to make a few drastic changes. Among them is the character of Ichabod Crane, no longer a stooped-back schoolteacher, but an unorthodox detective in New York. Canonically, Ichabod is an ugly character, and although Johnny Depp was game to wear makeup and prosthetics to achieve this, Burton chose to instead highlight Ichabod’s many oddities and eccentricities. Depp’s performance is not only fun, but also layered. Ichabod might be a talented detective, but he’s also pompous, squeamish, and easily cowed.
Ichabod is sent to the small town of Sleepy Hollow to investigate the murders of three people, all of whom were beheaded. He doesn’t bother, or even try, to hide his trepidations, and his fear of what he’s walking into make him a relatable protagonist. The town itself is a visual marvel. Shot by the great Emmanuel Lubezki (who won three Oscars in a row, for Gravity, Birdman, and The Revenant), the film is all towering edifices and pools of light. Fog seems to permeate every shot. As Ichabod enters the town, shutters are drawn and people look at him askance.
Sleepy Hollow has a murderer’s row of talent, a testament to Burton’s stature in the late ’90s. Beyond Depp, we have Christina Ricci, Christopher Lee, Michael Gambon, Michael Gough (who came out of retirement to work with Burton), and Ian McDiarmid, in a rare non-Star Wars role. These classically trained, mostly British, actors lend an air of gravitas to the proceedings. Every time one of them looks at Ichabod skeptically, we get the sense that a conspiracy is underfoot.
The film, to its credit, doesn’t try to be very scary. It also doesn’t try to be a mystery; early on, Ichabod is told that the Horseman is responsible for the killings, and this is not kept a secret from the audience. It’s kind of a Gothic fever dream, the kind of landscape that a repressed kid from the suburbs of Burbank would create if given the means. The killings are tastefully presented, but one wishes the film would go even further in its gore and viscera. There’s a sense of Grand Guignol showmanship; even the blood is a bright, lurid red, the kind you’d see in a film by Dario Argento.
Like all mysteries, the plot is dense; unlike all mysteries, this one involves blood magic and witchcraft. It’s one of the most enjoyable parts of the film. Ricci does fine work as Katrina van Tassel, who quickly becomes a romantic interest for Ichabod. She is guileless and cunning in equal measure. Witchcraft is a running theme throughout Sleepy Hollow, especially in Ichabod’s flashbacks to his traumatic childhood, during which his Puritanical father locked his mother in an iron maiden because she was a witch. The flashbacks are one of the film’s weak points, however; they do little to inform Ichabod’s character, but they are very pretty to look at.
This is Burton at his most over the top, but also at his most controlled. Some of the effects are dated, sure, but the sumptuous cinematography and beautiful costumes (by Colleen Atwood) help everything feel grounded. The performances are mostly mannered, except when they need to be; the main exception being Christopher Walken, playing the Headless Horseman back when he was the Headed Horseman. Without saying a word, Walken – with his sharpened teeth and shining blue eyes – conveys a real sense of chaotic malice, which dovetails nicely into his final act, when he kills the person who has been controlling him. This is someone who loves carnage and battle, not someone who likes taking orders. Sleepy Hollow manages to make an actual character out of its iconic villain.
Sleepy Hollow might not be perfect, but it holds up well. Tim Burton in the 1990s gave us an undiluted look into how his mind works, and this is as good an example as Mars Attacks! or Ed Wood or Batman Returns. That Burton has since vanished, but with the recent, slyly subversive Dumbo, there is proof that he’s still in here. If he ever gets the chance again to make a big-budget, gleeful horror film, I’ll be there opening day.
10/1: Hellraiser / The Invitation
10/2: Splice / Banshee Chapter
10/3: Jennifer’s Body / Raw
10/4: Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist / Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
10/5: Kill List / A Field in England
10/6: Halloween II / Halloween III: Season of the Witch
10/7: A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge / A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
10/8: Ginger Snaps / Creep
10/9: Cube / Creep 2
10/10: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) / The Ritual
10/11: Hell House LLC / The Taking of Deborah Logan
10/12: Re-Animator / From Beyond
10/13: Beetlejuice / Sleepy Hollow
10/14: Idle Hands / The Lords of Salem
10/15: The Ring / Noroi: The Curse
10/16: I Know What You Did Last Summer / The Monster
10/17: Night of the Living Dead / Train to Busan
10/18: The Devil’s Backbone / Southbound
10/19: Event Horizon / Dreamcatcher
10/20: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari / The Bad Seed
10/21: Eyes Without a Face / Goodnight Mommy
10/22: The Strangers / The Strangers: Prey at Night
10/23: In the Mouth of Madness / The Void
10/24: The Amityville Horror / Honeymoon
10/25: Gerald’s Game / Emelie
10/26: The Monster Squad / Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
10/27: Veronica / Jacob’s Ladder
10/28: High Tension / You’re Next
10/29: The Innkeepers / Bug
10/30: The People Under the Stairs / Vampires
10/31: Saw / Saw II
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