Eerie Gothic Entertainment

Rating: 9/10 (25 September 2016)

Sleepy Hollow manages to impressively balance out a brutally graphic premise with an interesting mystery and decidedly timely humor. It's easily one of Tim Burton's most entertaining adventures to date.
Period pieces are ripe for great horror flicks. To me, the creepiest film of 2016 has been The Witch, and that's large part due to the eerie 17th century setting on a secluded farm. Sleepy Hollow is a much more habited town, but the same eerie tone is set brilliantly by cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki. I love the way he and Burton used the town itself as a character which is a part of the mystery.
Speaking of the mystery, It's nice to see Burton tackle a mystery, which I believe is the only time he's ever ventured into that genre. And he handles it well for the most part. A good portion of the film focuses on why exactly a headless horseman is taking out certain members of the Sleepy Hollow community, with Johnny Depp's Ichabod Crane at the center of the investigation. Crane, in typical Burton fashion, is a bit of an eccentric and unpredictable twist to his detective style. But the real issue with some of the mystery is that the third act reveals come at a rapid pace and the story gets a little convoluted.
With that said, once we get caught up as an audience, Burton gives us a juicy climatic showdown with the infamous horseman, and it doesn't disappoint. He's done a few horror films, but Sleepy Hollow ranks up there with some of his best overall features. It has his distinguished tone and style with plenty of colorful kills by one of the great horror villains of all time, the headless horseman. An awkward romance and a somewhat convoluted third act prevent it from being flawless, but it's more than just your average horror entertainment.
+Lubezki
+Burton hits all the right beats
+Amazing climax
+Well-crafted
-Iffy romance
-Somewhat confusing reveals
9.0/10