A wonderfully atmospheric film

Rating: 7/10 (28 December 1999)

I have never seen some of the so-called classics that The Hammer films produced, nor have I seen many of the classic horror films that Lugosi and Lee and Price have made. But from what I have read and heard, those films were very atmospheric and had many shots of murky graveyards, dark streets with only dimly lit lights and monsters that seemed unstoppable to the average human being. And it may be true that it has been about 40 years since those kinds of films graced our screens, but I think Tim Burton has produced a film that is a throw back to those types of films. I have never been a huge fan of Burton's work but I must say that this film is as atmospheric and entertaining as I could imagine it to be.
What makes this film so well done is the fact that the time frame allows for many of the abnormal shots and situations. The year is 1899 and this is before electricity and cars and automatic weapons. This is a time when light is shed by candle, people get around on horses and the weapon of choice for most is still the sword. Thus the possibilities are endless with what you can do. Tim Burton wisely gives us much to marvel at. The opening sequence that has one of the townfolk decapitated is so well done that you are almost afraid that the rest of the film can't possibly follow in the footsteps of the brilliant first ten minutes. But it does and it does it consistently. There are many scenes with dense fog and dark nights, and that is the real strength of the film.
The film also contains some rather humorous parts with Depp, as Ichabod Crane, using his new scientific methods of detective work much to the awe and sometimes chagrin of the town folk. In one rather funny scene, Crane arrives at the scene of a decapitated body. He inspects it and as he does so, he knows the body has been moved. "Have you moved the body?" he asks the confused man. "Yes, I did." he replies. "You should never move the body at the scene of a murder." Crane tells him angrily. And then with a confused tone and bewildered eyes, the man responds, "Why not?" And then Crane pauses for a minute and then says hesitantly, "Because, you just shouldn't." It is a perfect scene. Crane is just discovering many of his scientific theories and he knows that you shouldn't do something but not really why. His confusion is humorous to us, the audience and many other scenes are played for laughs in the same way.
But let's face it, we didn't go to this film to be humoured, we went to be at least mildly frightened. And I have to say that fright was not something that I experienced watching the film. The headless horseman is a vicious villian and he is relentless in his pursuit of heads, but he is not really scary. That is not to say that the film is poor because of this, it is just to say that scares are few and far between in the film. The rest of the experience is a positive one and I honestly have to say that the decapitation scenes are a wonder. I understand that they can do much with computer animation now, but the cut from live action to computer animation is so subtle that you cannot even remotely tell what is real and what is a CGI. Similarily, if anyone remembers the first Friday the 13th film when Kevin Bacon dies, he gets a spear through the throat and they had to do that by cutting from one angle to the next and then put a replica of his body under the covers. As the spear came through the bedsprings and the mattress and into his throat it had the appearance that it was really going through his body when in reality his head was nowhere near the fake body. They then added some coloured chocolate syrup to make it look real. But you can tell that there was a deliberate cut in angles to complete the affect. In Sleepy Hollow there is no change in camera angles, it really is quite impressive.
Sleepy Hollow is a fun film, it is not great but it is worth the ten dollars that you will spend at the theater to watch it. Christopher Walken is priceless as the Horseman and even though he has no spoken dialogue he is one of the more entertaining actors and charcters in the film. Depp is good and so is Ricci. Principal Ed Rooney is also quite good in his small role. And some of the British actors are perfect in creating the atmosphere that you need to pull a film off like this. One in particular I think I recognize from Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, he was Duncan, the man who gets his eyes removed. At least he looks like the same actor.

All around, this is a good film and anyone who likes atmosphere will surely enjoy it. It is also nice to see Francis Coppola in the producers chair again.
7 out of 10