Tremendous fun with more than a hint of gore...

Rating: Null/10 (20 April 2002)

Could this have been played more tongue-in-cheek? It's taken me a long time to get around to finally viewing this, and it was well worth the wait. Starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci, Sleepy Hollow is about a town haunted by a headless horseman who is on a rampage, killing, by decapitation, various members of the village's community. Ultimately, it's not particularly deep, and serves as little more than a gothically gorey whodunnit, but it's the panache it's carried out with which excels this above the norm. Depp plays it for laughs wherever he gets the opportunity, positively thriving on the b-movie concept and hamming it up where possible. He really is outstanding in this. Ricci plays a more serious role, and while she performs more than adequately, she still looks very young. She's supposed to be in a role befitting a young woman, where she appears to be a teenager. But suspending your disbelief helps in these cases. The movie is thoroughly entertaining, at times very funny, and occasionally gorey, but never off-puttingly so.
Great stuff.