31 Days of Horror Movies - Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Of all the movies Tim Burton has made, Sleepy Hollow (1999) is perhaps the one I like the best.  In the original story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, Ichabod Crane was a schoolteacher from Connecticut who was made to disappear by some headless Hessian from the Revolutionary War.  Burton’s Crane [Johnny Depp] is an unorthodox detective/constable from New York City.  He’s unorthodox because he tries to apply scientific methods to police work, which the NYPD is not ready to embrace.  He is sent by the local magistrate [Christopher Lee] to a little dreary, gray hamlet in in upstate New York called Sleepy Hollow.  There he will be allowed to put all of his “unorthodox” tools to use in solving a mysterious string of murders that have taken place there.  All of the murders resulted in decapitated corpses, with the heads nowhere to be found. 

At the movie’s beginning, we see a will being drawn up by a guy named Peter Van Garrett.    He left all of his possessions to his new bride, Emily Winship.  But on that same night, he’s killed [decapitated], as was his son Dirk and Emily Winship.  When Crane arrived in Sleepy Hollow, he was met by town leaders who tell him that the culprit of the murders was an undead headless Hessian mercenary [Christopher Walken, who for once doesn’t play himself] who rides at night in search of his head.  Ichabod Crane, being the logical, scientific type, dismisses any thought of there being anything supernatural involved in the murders.  Although he’s the scientific type, he was scared shitless by the tale of the Horseman.  Crane stayed at the house of the richest family in Sleepy Hollow, that of Baltus Van Tassel [Michael Gambon].  He met Katrina [Christina Ricci, who looks great as a blonde], to whom he became instantly attracted.  Her fiancé, Brom Van Brunt, wasn’t pleased in the slightest.

After Jonathan Masbath was murdered, Magistrate Philipse told Crane there were five victims up to that time instead of four.  He said “five victims, four graves.”  Crane has the Widow Winship exhumed and he performs an autopsy.  He discovered she was pregnant when she was murdered.  He also remembered [from the Van Tassel family Bible] that the Van Garretts and the Van Tassels were related.  He saw Philipse trying to flee Sleepy Hollow.  Crane and Philipse discussed the widow Winship’s pregnancy.  Crane still didn’t believe there was a Horseman until he saw Philipse decapitated by the Horseman.  He was perplexed because the Horseman didn’t kill him when he had the chance.  He realized that somehow all the deaths were connected. 

Whoa! Moments

Whoa! Moment #1 - The Sorceress.  Crane and the young Masbeth found a cave where a sorceress lives.  She told Crane about the Horseman’s grave - the Tree of the Dead.  She told Crane the tree was not only the Horseman’s grave, but also the Horseman’s portal to Hell.  The “Whoa!” part came when her face was revealed - no skin, eyes popping out, and snakes too.

Whoa! Moment #2 - The Tree of the Dead.  Soon after encountering the sorceress, Crane, Katrina and young Masbath found the Tree of the Dead.  When Crane touched the tree, it bled.  Then he cut at the tree with a hatchet.  The tree spewed more blood.  When he pulled apart some of the tree, he found the missing heads from the murder victims.  Crane began to dig out the Horseman’s grave, and when he found the Horseman’s skeleton, the skull was missing [his severed head was originally buried with him 20 years prior].  Suddenly the Horseman and his horse appeared from inside the tree. 

Whoa! Moment #3 - Brom Van Brunt’s death.  When the Horseman and Van Brunt fought, I was pretty sure Van Brunt was going to die.  I figured he would be decapitated, but no.  The Horseman used his sword and an axe to cut him in half in one fell swoop.  But Van Brunt wasn’t an intended target.  The Horseman killed him only because Van Brunt attacked him.

Once Crane realized all the deaths were connected, he deduced that the Horseman didn’t kill randomly.  He killed by someone who controlled him.  The person who controlled the Horseman also possessed his skull.  That someone turned out to be Mary Van Tassel [Miranda Richardson], Katrina’s step-mother.  It turns out that when she was a little girl, Mary was thrown out of her home, which sat on Van Garrett property.  She controlled the Horseman to get rid of everybody between her and inheriting her husband’s riches.  This was a tale of revenge and greed.  She even tried to kill Katrina, but ultimately failed.  In the end, Crane got possession of the Horseman’s skull.  After Crane gave the skull back to the Horseman, The Horseman took Mary Van Tassel away with him to Hell.  Crane, Katrina and young Masbath returned to New York, and Sleepy Hollow was colorful, no longer gray and dreary.

The Horseman’s Victims -

-          Peter Van Garrett, his son  Dirk, his new bride Emily Winship and her unborn child

-          Jonathan Masbath - he witnessed Van Garrett’s new will

-          Samuel Philipse - he made sure all of Van Garrett’s affairs were legal in the eyes of the law

-          Beth Killian, her husband, and their son - She was Emily Winship’s midwife, and her husband and  son were collateral damage because they knew of the pregnancy, too.

-          Brom Van Brunt - he got in the Horseman’s way

-          Baltus Van Tassel - he inherited everything from Van Garrett once Van Garrett died

-          Six American soldiers killed during the capture of the Horseman

Joe Bob Briggs rating - I counted 25 dead bodies, 17 decapitations, 20 gallons of blood, windmill-fu, church-fu, and 1 psycho hose beast step-mother.