Sleepy Hollow (1999)

The films of Tim Burton shine through the muck like a jack-o-lantern on a foggy October night. After such successes as The Nightmare Before Christmas and Edward Scissorhands, it should come as no surprise that Sleepy Hollow is a dazzling film, a delicious reworking of Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Dark and moody, the film is a thrilling ride back to the turn of the 19th century. Johnny Depp stars as Ichabod Crane, a seemingly hapless constable from New York City who is sent to the small town of Sleepy Hollow to solve the mystery of the decapitations that are plaguing the town. Crane is a bumbling sort, with a tremendous faith in science over mysticism, and he comes up against town secrets, bewitching women, and a number of bodies missing heads. Christina Ricci, as beautiful as ever, is Katrina Van Tassel, the offbeat love interest who alternately charms and frightens Crane.

The film, while occasionally gory (as one should expect from a movie about a headless horseman), is not terribly frightening, although it is suspenseful. Both Depp and Ricci are convincing, and the art direction and production values give the village its harsh feel. Toward the end, once the secrets are revealed, the film does slow down; however, this stylistic horror film provides many tricks and even more treats. --Jenny Brown Amazon.com

Creepy Wallow

There's always a preliminary question for each of these review formats that asks if the reviewer is over 13. In the case of "Sleepy Hollow" I suspect that being under 13 would lead to a much better review. I can imagine a certain percentage of adults would enjoy the sets, the horror, the technology, and the special effects. However, those were the only criteria worthwhile in "Sleepy Hollow" that I found (and they weren't all that much to brag about).

What's wrong with "Sleepy Hollow"? Well, to begin with, the plot is so far removed from reality that it is absurd. There is a note that the movie is based on a story by Washington Irving. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what story that could have been. There were aspects of the story that I might have missed that could have made a dumb plot merely unintelligent. The way people were dropping like flies (or at least their heads were), left me bored with the repetition. I'm glad that it wasn't any more gory that it was but, even so, I lost track of how many decapitations took place (keeping count might have created a certain amount of interest so try it if you plan to watch this movie). There actually was a sort of "List of Adrian Messenger" plot that emerged but, by then, my reaction was, "So what". The acting was overdone and most of the characters were too eccentric or weird to be believable. The nature of horror movies all too often leads to the unnecessary "willing suspension of disbelief". "Sleepy Hollow" is one of those movies; the bad guy could do anything and a few of the good guys could merely survive to live another day.

I have made it a policy of mine to eventually see every full-length Academy Award winner. That's the only reason I watched "Sleepy Hollow". I'm not sure anymore that that is a worthy enough purpose (or perhaps I just need to drop some of the categories). Anyway, lets just hope there's no sequel. July 15, 2008

The legend brought to life.

Johnny Depp delivers his usual quirky, awe inspiring performance.
Tim Burton gives us his dark vision of the fairy tale and succeeds brilliantly.
The script, the fx, the acting, pretty much everything is first rate.
A tad bloody but it's not that bad.
The music is good too.
What's bad about this movie?
Absolutely NOTHING!!!!!!!
A brilliant masterpiece that deserves to be seen.
Another Burton must have/must see.
June 25, 2008

One of the scariest movies I've ever seen.

It's one of the scariest movies I've ever seen. The scenes look scary. The acting and action are good. It's suspenseful from the beginning till the end. June 8, 2008

Just ok.

The transfer to HD DVD on this is just ok. My advice would be to buy the regular dvd. I know that its the way it was shot its suppose to look grainy. But when it comes to HD its just not worth it for Grainy movies unless you just buy it for the sound.
Best bet, Go find the dvd for 4.99 June 7, 2008

Not for those looking for Irving's classic

If you're just looking to watch a Johnny Depp movie and don't really care whether it's made up or supposedly based on something then this movie is fine to watch. Unfortunately, if you're looking to watch a movie based on Washington Irving's classic story then this movie isn't really for you. Yes, it can claim to be based on Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" but only very loosely. Only the names of less than a handful main characters and where the story takes place comes from Irving's story. The rest of Sleepy Hollow is so extremely far from "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" that if it were not for the Galloping Hessian of the Hollow (in otherwords the Headless Horseman) the names of the characters and location could be changed and still tell the same exact story without anyone suspecting any link to Washington Irving.

I saw this expecting the usual Hollywood adaptation of a book (or in this case short story), which is to say it's based on the book but things are altered. I was more than extremely disappointed to find out it really couldn't claim much in the way of being based on a story I love. Ichabod Crane is a school teacher from Connecticut, not some constable from New York City sent out to investigate things. Katrinia van Tassel doesn't practice witchcraft. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" isn't some kind of horror laden murder mystery. It's more about Ichabod's intrest in winning the heart of the young Katrina as much out of greed for inheirting her father's fortune (Baltus van Tassel was, after all, a wealthy farmer) as his actual genuine intrest in her. And as much as it was a bit of a love story it was also a ghost story. Those who have never read "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" won't know that Brom Bones (Abraham van Brunt) is suspected to know to much about what happened the night the Horseman chased his rival for Katrina's affections away (nor will they know Katrina turned down Ichabod's affections with her and may have actually been toying with him all along), Irving seems to suggest the horseman that night was Bones at one moment then at the next reveals that the good Dutch housewives of that part of New York know it was really the ghost of the Hessian soldier. They won't know how Ichabod delighted in reading a book by Cotton Mather on Witchcraft in New England even though it terrified him so at night. They'll be likely to believe that if they watch "Sleepy Hollow" they'll know what "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is about.

This movie isn't for those looking for "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Disney's animated classic is much closer to Irving's story than this. I've seen a couple others, one starring Jeff Goldblum from around the early eighties and one more recently aired on Halmark Channel that are more closely based on the story than this movie should even be allowed to claim. If you don't care about it, then this movie may appeal to you. But if you really want to see a half-way decent adaptation, then do yourself a favor and steer clear of this movie. June 5, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...