Entertaining modern slasher

Rating: 10/10 (28 October 2016)

After a series of strange deaths, a constable sent to the tiny town of Sleepy Hollow to investigate where he finds the townspeople claim an undead headless horseman is the culprit and that there's a sinister reason for the rampage, putting him and the rest of the town in severe danger.
There was a lot of stuff to enjoy with this one. One of the film's best features is that there's an incredible look to the film which makes it incredibly fun to watch. The town here looks incredible, from being completely enveloped in darkness that gives it an eerie, claustrophobic feeling of evil surrounding everything, the muddy landscapes and weather-beaten surroundings and the woods surrounding the town add immensely to that feeling which are just incredibly spectacular and worthwhile in creating an impressive atmosphere. From the look of death on the trees to the thick, heavy fog bank that overhangs the ground constantly throughout the entire film, this adds an extra dimension to it all with it's atmosphere while even more visual prowess comes from it's locations. The different areas in the forest being represented, from the Tree of the Dead to the witch's cave and the burned out shack are just fantastic-looking places that work wonders here. The fact that the killer here manages to get a lot of good stuff about it works quite well, from the imposing appearance to the fantastic back-story to the proclivity to decapitation and the different rules about his behavior, it has a lot going for the killer here. The fact that there's a lot more action scenes here than expected is another great aspect, and really helps the movie hugely. From the first scene, where he attacks a couple on a carriage without being seen, a later scene where he is confronted by a couple of swordsmen after performing a task resulting in a rather well-done and exciting fight, the chase through the woods with the two horses and the great finale that gets the great showdown at the windmill that results in some really explosive action to the fantastic, full-on carriage chase and brawl atop it as it's moving along, this one has some fantastic action scenes and works really well. The last good plus here is the film's body count, which provides plenty of good stuff about it. This one is mostly built around tons of gags for decapitations, which mostly work well, but there's also other great deaths in here that give a fantastic body count. These here are the film's good points while there's hardly anything not to like about this one. One of it's only flaws is the fact that there's a rather convoluted and really more in-depth than required back-story here. There's a point where having too much doesn't really help a film because spelling everything out either contradicts something known previously or it seems thrown in for a twist when there's no reason to add one. This one here works so much as a film about a horseman killing townspeople in a remote village, but everything with the village elders and the secret- keeping and the twist and betrayal at the end just overly complicates the film for no reason and really could've been simplified. That, coupled with the fact that some might be put off by the fantastical elements that creep in during the finale, are the film's real flaws.
Rated R: Graphic Violence, Brief Nudity and a mild sex scene.