Tim Burton's take on the classic Washington Irving story

Rating: 10/10 (25 June 2008)

I get a nack for literary movies. Even films based on the classic horror novels with literature's famous monsters: Count Dracula, The Frankenstien Monster, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde; The Phantom of The Opera, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and...The Headless Horseman. Also I love Tim Burton's films, I have a few of them actually. Out of the two versions of this classic Washington Irving story, I love both the Disney animated version narrated (and sang) by Bing Crosby and this gruesome, Gothic film version starring two of my favorite actors - Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci.
In this version, Ichabod Crane is a constable from New York in 1799, who is most concerned with all the new scientific gadgets that will allow him to do his job better. However, he is quite squeamish about his latest assignment: traveling to the town of Sleepy Hollow, where there have been a series of murders involving people whose heads have been cut off. Upon his arrival, the four town elders informs him that the three victims were killed in open ground, and the heads had disappeared - taken by a headless ghost that is supposedly responsible. Ichabod is unconvinced of this, but learns more about the ghostly horseman. It is the ghost of a vicious Hessian sent to aid the British during the Revolutionary War, and he was caught by revolutionaries and decapitated with his own sword. When Ichabod sees the ghost kill one of the town council members, his skepticism evaporates. And then, he soon discovers that the horseman's ghost has an unholy connection to Baltus Van Tassel a wealthy farmer, and whose daughter (Katrina) he is falling in love with.
Overall, this is an awesome film. Johnny gives it wit, humour and charm. This film is also great for the October month close to Halloween; or any month.