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Sleepy Hollow -- a review


This year marks the twentieth anniversary of Sleepy Hollow, dealing with the legend of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman, which was one of the few folk stories that actually managed to creep me out as a kid. The film takes place in 1799, and recasts Crane as a constable with the New York City Police Department. Crane is played to jittery perfection by Johnny Depp, who deftly plays the duality of a skittish, squeamish man who still bravely tries to get the job done by tirelessly seeking justice for the victims of senseless crimes. To this end, Crane constantly pushes a scientific approach to police investigation, about a century or so before scientific police investigations would finally take hold.



Endlessly tired of Crane’s crusading, a local judge (played by Hammer horror legend Christopher Lee in an effective cameo) orders him to the Hudson Highlands town of Sleepy Hollow, which has suffered a series of murders. Perhaps Crane’s reliance on newfangled science might solve these mysterious murders?



It was no coincidence that Christopher Lee was cast in this film, for Tim Burton directed Sleepy Hollow almost as if it was a Hammer Horror film from the 1960s. Michael Gough, another illustrious Hammer Film thespian (and who played Alfred the butler in the Burton-directed Batman films) came out of retirement to play Notary Hardenbrook, and his presence, along with Lee’s, really gives Sleepy Hollow an really strong Hammer vibe.



Several of the actors in Sleepy Hollow would go on to star in the Harry Potter films: Miranda Richardson, who plays the Lady Van Tassel, would play Rita Skeeter in The Goblet of Fire; Michael Gambon, who played her husband Baltus Van Tassel, would take over the role of Albus Dumbledore in the third Potter film, The Prisoner of Azkaban, and Richard Griffiths, who plays Magistrate Philipse, would go on to play Harry Potter’s Uncle Vernon.



And interestingly enough, there’s a fun connection between Sleepy Hollow and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (released the same year): Ian McDiarmid, who plays Doctor Lancaster in Sleepy Hollow, also plays the Emperor Palpatine, while Ray Park, who played the Headless Horseman in several fight scenes, was Darth Maul in Phantom Menace.



The Headless Horseman is an intimidating, scary threat who’s just as relentless as he is merciless. Christopher Walken was perfect casting for the Headless Horseman, back when he had a head. Walken makes him just as menacing when he was alive--which only adds to the Headless Horseman’s overall darkness and scare factor once he becomes supernaturally powered. Burton was really the perfect choice as a director to bring this ghastly fiend to cinematic life, for the Headless Horseman is always an impressively overwhelming threat in every scene that he’s in.



Sleepy Hollow holds up very well as a film. It effectively shows the journey that Ichabod Crane takes as a rational man being confronted with the irrationality of the supernatural--only to still triumph over it by not losing his head, both literally as well as figuratively. In the twenty years since its release, Sleepy Hollow has joined Hocus Pocus and the Addams Family movies as one of my go-to movies for the Halloween season. It's a tale that feels like a richly dark fever dream, and it's just the perfect film to watch in a chilly autumn day.--SF






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