Dark, Comic, Evil, Tense, Tim Burton...

Rating: 8/10 (4 January 2000)

I just saw Sleepy Hollow in an advanced Preview show in the UK. I went with a couple of mates, all of whom had seen some Tim Burton before but only I was a big fan. I simply love Tim Burton's surreal style of directing and of all the films I've seen of his (Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissor Hands, Ed Wood, Mars Attacks!, etc.) I thought only Mars Attacks! Was less than superb. ESH for example has a superbly innocent atmosphere to it but it extremely dark at times. So now, with the release of a new Tim Burton film (of a story I remember fondly from the old Disney Cartoon of the 50's) I was rather excited to see it! And so, I sat in the darkened cinema at my local Multiplex and was amazed. From the dark and mysterious opening to the more humour-spiked yet no less horrific end this is one of my favourite films ever! I'm a big horror film fan and was so looking forward to seeing what take Tim Burton would have a true horror film. My god, he did well. The look of the piece is both extremely dark and evil (the Horseman kills men, women and children with equal relish) but it retains scenes of beautiful, dreamlike states once again making good use of Mr. Burton's own thoughts and visions. It's a very funny film too. Depp is great as an Englishman (only slipping into American twang in one syllable early on in the movie) who will battle the horseman and inspect headless, beetle filled corpses with gusto but then leap onto a chair, screaming when he sees a spider! Christina Ricci was also very good. Usually, her parts are beautiful yet rather evil characters that look innocent and pure until you look into her eyesnot this time though. She just looks, well, sweet! She's softly spoken, and very caring and that's it, no daggers in the pupils, no sly frowns to the camera. Christopher Walken made the small role he had in the headless horseman (he played him on the few occasions he actually had a head) his own with his usual evil visage and a load of screaming! Plus nastily shaved down teeth. The real masterstroke of this film though, or at least its main bad guy is the use of Ray Park. For those of you who saw Episode One and enjoyed the lightsabre battle at the end, Ray Park was Darth Maul! He brings a very modern look to the fighting, most scenes are fought with a sword in one hand and an axe in the other! Its like a medieval John Woo! But almost every time that he gets hold of a weapon he does some kind of stylish one-handed flip to the sound of wonderfully over-the-top swish sounds! The deaths, most of which decapitations of course, are all seen onscreen in their full, gory glory. Not a single piece of blood escapes the cameras here! The film really does have a lot of blood in it but it's a kind of comic book redder than red blood, which adds to the whole films not quite real feel. The cinematography is once again, from Burton, superb. The vile smog0filled 18th century New York and the Scarecrow at the beginning. My god, the scarecrow, its so evil! Onscreen for a second but its image lasts But anyway, in short, this is a fantastic film. Burton has never done anything this visually eye-popping before (take a bow Industrial Light & Magic). The plot is both intriguing and whimsical, the acting excellent, it has a cameo from Hammer Horror master Christopher Lee and it boasts one of the most evil, most frightening, most superbly realized supernatural baddies I've ever seenand I've seen plenty! Go see this film if you like horror or you just want some fast-paced fun 9 out of 10