Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

What has more atmosphere than I Know What You Did Last Summer, more style than Scream, a more fearsome ghostly villain than Friday the 13th, and a better story than all of them combined? It’s Sleepy Hollow. It is but it isn’t a horror movie. It is but isn’t a slasher flick. It is without a doubt the best campfire ghost story movie and thus among the best Halloween night movies in my collection.

Based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, it is already, in concept, an American classic. Whereas the short story leaves doubt in the mind of the reader about exactly what happens at the end, the movie expands greatly and wraps up neatly all lives and relationships. Ichabod Crane is now a revolutionary wanting to implement the science of forensic pathology to solve murder cases. The system frowns on cutting up bodies, but gives him the chance to prove his science by sending him to Sleepy Hollow to solve a series of perplexing decapitations. He learns of the headless horseman but doesn’t believe in such things until he sees for himself. He maintains that ghost or not there must be a human element at work and stumbles into a plot of intrigue and deception in the little town.

Katrina and Brom have similar roles as their literary counterparts, but the latter has less focus than I expected. He’s still something of an antagonist, but to a very small degree. Katrina’s father and other town leaders play prominent roles comprising the bulk of the new conspiracy plot. The horseman (played headless by Ray Park of Darth Maul fame, and with head attached by Christopher Walken in his creepiest role ever) now has a back story telling his life and death. There’s also a great scene that pays homage to the Disney telling of the same story.

The conspiracy plot is good and keeps the viewer guessing up to the end. The story is laid out well revealing the histories of Ichabod, the horseman, and others in an interesting way. Most of the acting is great with a few small exceptions here and there. Johnny Depp takes complete ownership of his role as he so often does. Christina Ricci has beauty and class. Michael Gambon made me forget his character wasn’t a real person. Emperor Palpatine, I mean Ian McDiarmid is particularly great when Ichabod barges into his office to perform an autopsy. And there are others that do a fine job. There are a few, though, such as Jeffrey Jones and the young boy, that could be better.

What makes this such a good Halloween movie is the style. It has a romantic, dream-like style that reminds me a lot of A Nightmare Before Christmas (tell me that first scarecrow doesn’t look like Jack Skellington!) which is one of my top 10 favorite movies of all time. The speech is not modern conversational but more like classic English literature. The style of dress matches the speech with full dresses for the ladies and suits for the men. It all feels proper and polite. It’s a little over the top at times, done more for theatrics rather than accuracy of the time period, which is why I say it’s romantic.

The colors fit that romantic image even more so. For the most part the colors are muted. There are a few points where it may even feel like a black and white movie. The most notable exception is the blood. Tim Burton loved splattering Johnny Depp with blood numerous times. While that sounds gruesome, the substance is not at all realistic – it’s always as bright as fresh arterial blood and as thick as paint, not to mention that it splatters unnaturally. I don’t view that as a weakness, though, on the contrary I think it fits with the dark fairy tale atmosphere. The movie is full of dark humor anyway, so the campy blood adds to it and offsets the violent beheadings a bit.

The scenery fits that image, as well. The graveyard, the Tree of the Dead, the old windmill, and other such sets, not to mention the constant fog, wouldn’t look realistic in any other movie, but are perfectly designed for the Hollow. The forest looks like the consummate country autumn thick with fallen leaves and bare branches. It looks like what I might see walking in the woods behind my house except for the constant fog and headless guy running around. The familiarity of that set made it easy to imagine myself in the scene.

The effects are good. The headless horseman is completely believable which adds a lot to the whole effect of the movie. If he had looked stupid then the rest wouldn’t have been as strong. He also gets a good bit of screen time making him seem more like a fearsome juggernaut than a wispy wraith. Plus the screen time he gets allows for plenty of time to scrutinize the effect, and it holds up. The decapitation effects don’t hold up if you pause and move frame by frame so they are quick, yet they play slow enough to give a clear view of what’s happening. A couple of shots of the horse coming out of the tree and a few other small things could look a little better perhaps, but most everything looks realistic.

Danny Elfman’s score is great. I’ve known people to not like the movie and still comment on the stirring score. It has a full, rich sound. It may not have as catchy a theme as Elfman’s Batman theme, but it enriches the visual style of the film better than most scores.

It’s a solid film, artistic and entertaining. I didn’t appreciate the glorification of witchcraft along with the “Christians” being portrayed as among the worst of the villains – not just misled or suffering from a lapse of judgment but downright evil. Still, I don’t take it personally and like the movie for what it is.

Content:
Numerous graphic decapitations and one guy getting cut in half (kind of like Darth Maul, ironic since it’s Ray delivering the blow this time). The most common complaint I hear by people that don’t like the movie is the violence. One thing I did appreciate is that none of the violence comes from the heroes, with the exception of some fights with the horseman, so the decapitations are portrayed as acts of evil, or, in one case, an extreme solution to a very lethal problem. There’s one scene of mild sexuality (the woman is clearly fully clothed), and that’s it. There is literally not one word that I consider to be a cuss word in the whole thing.

DVD:
I’m not particularly impressed with the DVD, but I see no signs of it being released again, so it will have to do. The case is plastic, and I really like the cover art. The menus are bland although I’ve definitely seen worse.

Audio and video are better than what you would get with VHS. You get a choice between 5.1 and 2.0 surround sound. The picture is a nice 1.85 anamorphic widescreen. If there is a pan & scan version I haven’t seen it. It’s a good thing the presentation is good quality or the DVD might not be worth buying.

Extras are low quantity and low quality. First there is a commentary by Tim Burton. It is one of the most dry and boring I’ve ever heard. Mostly he talks about how so-and-so did such-and-such and how great they were. We can watch the credits if we want to know all that. I can appreciate him wanting to give credit where credit is due, but it doesn’t make for a good commentary.

We get two behind the scenes features that are pretty good and the only extras worthy of note. One is a general making-of type feature that shows the creation of the severed heads and the process used to remove the horseman’s. It’s definitely worth seeing. The other one contains more interviews. It’s more candid than the first one and contains more details on the thoughts of the cast and crew.

The gallery is short and has small images. It’s nothing great.

There are 6 cast bios. They are extensive which should be pleasing to anyone with a particular interest in them, but they have no filmographies.

And finally, there are 2 trailers. I’m glad these companies go to the trouble to include the trailers with the movies, but they are nothing spectacular.

Final Thoughts:
Some people find the romantic style of this movie stupid while others can’t stand the graphic nature of many of the decapitation scenes. To enjoy this movie you really have to like or at least be able to tolerate both. Most people will be satisfied with a rental, but some will find it worth owning. I love movies that remind me of telling ghost stories around a campfire on a chilly Autumn evening, and few have created that feel for me as well as Sleepy Hollow does. In that respect it is most definitely above average, 4* all the way. However, the uncreative DVD deserves more like a 2. The whole package probably deserves a 3, but I round up to 4 since it is my favorite movie (along with Simpsons’ Threehouse of Horror episodes) to watch on Halloween.


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older