Adult Horror Film

Rating: Null/10 (9 January 2001)

Tim Burton's macabre and lyrical movie-making style are put to use in `Sleepy Hollow,' a fine horror film for adults.
Burton says that he grew up fascinated by the "beautiful horror" (as he calls it) of Britain's Hammer Films (Hammer star Christopher Lee has a cameo in this film), and he tried to replicate that style in `Sleepy Hollow,' which is loosely based on the Washington Irving classic.
Johnny Depp plays Icabod Crane, who in this incarnation of the legend is a New York City constable/crime scene investigator circa 1800 who is sent up state to look into several murders in the small town of Sleepy Hollow. The murderer not only decapitates his victims; he also takes their heads. Crane soon learns he is dealing with a supernatural foe, a headless horseman.
Depp says he modeled his performance on Roddy McDowall (particularly in `Fright Night') and Basil Rathbone. He does well, although he struggles with a British accent. But the film seems to have a problem with accents, anyway. It is set in a colony populated by Dutch immigrants, but almost everyone speaks with a British accent (the movie was filmed in England) except Miranda Richardson, who is English! The film also has a problem with fainting. There are almost as many faintings as decapitations.
I won't give away who the headless horseman is. Let's just say he is perfectly cast.