Almost as funny as The Mikado

Rating: Null/10 (24 March 2003)

Spoilers herein
Taking Johnny Depp (together with the audience) into Sleepy Hollow, the mysterious village haunted by three murders by decapitation, Tim Burton retained his favorite gothic atmosphere in Batman. Then, as we follow the horse-drawn carriage into the desolate landscape, we also get the feeling that we are going into Baskerville for a lethal encounter with the hell-hound. Finally, we notice that Depp's final destination, the house perched on a low mound, looks uncannily like Norman Bates' house in Psycho. All such collective memories seem to point to a gothic horror.
Actually, right from the very beginning, Burton has served notice that he is going to play tricks with us. In other words, things are not as we see. Recall the very first shot of two drops of red liquid which, while obviously suggesting blood, are in fact sealing wax for a will. Then, Burton has us believed for a minute that the entire affair is about Depp using scientific equipments to dispel the myth of a supernatural being the agent of the murder. No so. These scientific equipments and methods are soon discarded, and we learn that there is indeed a supernatural force. Depp's first sight of the headless horsement, however, again turn out to be another trick, a prank by his rival. Finally, the evil eye drawn by the girl, contrary to what has been suggested, is not for cursing him but rather to protect him. Throughout the film, Burton is playing David Copperfield, feeding (and hugely entertaining, I must admit) the audience with optical illusions.
Despite the packaging, Sleepy Hollow is not a horror movie. Decapitation is the least horrible among numerous choices of gory scene, on which pardon me for not elaborating. Repeated, and repeated, and repeated decapitation very soon becomes a bore. The excessive use of blood becomes a bit of a nuisance, but is far from being scary. As the movie rolls on, I become less and less frightened and more and more amused.
Sleepy Hollow is a funny movie, with a good plot, a good story and good acting. It is not even black humour, such as The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, in which you see a dead body oven-roasted and served as main course. That is black humour. Sleepy Hollow is just plain good old comedy, and the comic element of Depp dominates the film, in his repeated fainting, among other things. The fun gets more hilarious as the mad chase by the headless horseman becomes a reminder of similar scenes in The Three Stoogers. At the climax of the chase, in the height of the excitment when the intended victims escape into the windmill, we get the ultimate funny line "watch your head". This sort of throwing in a comic quip at the tensest moment is a favorite of great masters like Hitchcock and Kurosawa.
The only other piece of performing art I can think of that uses decapitation as extensively is Gilbert and Sullivan's celebrated comedy The Mikado. Sleepy Hollow is almost as funny, and I mean this as a compliment.