The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a ghost story I heard as a small child and for YEARS it terrified me. I don't even think I knew the details of the story aside from the Headless Horseman. So this story was a bit of a personal fear to overcome for the #OctoberMovieMarathon
Night 24
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
5/10
Detective Ichabod Crane is sent to the rural town of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of murders.
I don't know what story I heard as a child, but even though I was primed for a terrifying experience- this movie didn't deliver. It is a twist on your typical Sleepy Hollow- with Ichabod being a detective instead of a teacher, and there being more of a focus on the mystery of what's happening and who's behind it.
But, to be honest, it doesn't hold your attention. Everything is is muted grey tones (with the exception of red) and the characters are all pretty flat. There's some attempt at a backstory with Ichabod himself and hints that the whole town knows something, but it doesn't go anywhere. And though the movie does feature Christina Ricci- they don't do anything with her or give her anything to do. Which is a shame.
I'll also say that I kept being brought out of the story because Katrina (Ricci's character) and Ichabod (Depp's character) are supposed to be love interests- but look at this poster and tell me it doesn't read as an adult man and a child. This tracks, since at the time of filming Depp was 36 and Ricci was 19- but it really reads like a huge age gap even in the movie with the costumes. *shudders* I swear for the opening bit I could have read the awkward relationship as a father figure thing, but nope.
This one you can probably skip. There's a bit of the Burton charm in it, but not nearly as much as some of his other films. Though the scenes with the horseman are fun- the stunt work for him in particular was really cool. But I don't think that's quite enough to sit through the movie.
SPOILERS START BELOW THE POSTER!
SPOILERS START HERE!
As I said earlier, the main "romantic" subplot just didn't feel like a real romance to me. Aside from the obvious age gap which makes it feel gross, there's no chemistry between the characters. The love triangle that's such a big part of the original story isn't here at all. There's also quite a few women in the story that just look incredibly young, even when they are supposed to be adult women with children. You can probably chalk that up to typical Hollywood casting choices, but I always find that to be a big turn off. Especially when the men have a wider range of ages and body types. A perfect example of this is the flashbacks with young Ichabod- where he's with his mother (we learn this later, at first it's just a boy being called Ichabod by a lady). His mother has a dress with so much cleavage the overhead shots felt like they were riding on a prayer that her boobs wouldn't pop out. This is a very odd choice when the flashback is between a child and his mother- why is she so boobalicious?
One of the main issues I have with this retelling of Sleepy Hollow is it feels confused. We start up with Ichabod saying that the current justice system is corrupt and needs to adapt to the new century and move away from the medieval torture they currently use. This was set up well with a man who has, very clearly, been beaten up by the cops bringing him in- who are asked "what happened to him?" "Nothing, arrested for robbery" and they throw him into a pit covered by iron bars. It's a great way to start off the movie by showing an issue and also giving us a clue that things will be overexaggerated for effect.
We don't keep this slightly theatrical style though, and in Sleepy Hollow everything is dull and grey and people are getting their heads chopped off and it's just... boring? The four heads of the town know instantly that it's the Headless Horseman, which Ichabod doesn't believe because "science and reason". We drift into a bit of a magic vs science ideas, where Ichabod is using new-fangled items to solve the crime- like saying the body shouldn't be moved, using chemicals to produce a reaction to prove something, etc. But this also isn't explored. In fact, from the flashbacks with his Mom, we learn that she was a witch of some sort- so if anything Ichabod should be totally on board with the idea of magic, since his mother was condemned by the justice system. Plus when Ichabod gets advice from a witch and later we see Katrina doing witchy things- he's nonplussed. I don't know why they set up this idea of "science vs magic" and then don't do anything with it.
Perhaps it's because they were going for the mystery aspect- of someone controlling the horseman and purposefully going after people. But they don't introduce that idea until maybe halfway through? And I feel like there weren't any actual clues that would allow you to guess who the real culprit was before the reveal, and I am a firm believer in that mysteries should have enough clues for sharp-eyed viewers to figure out the solution instead of a bait and switch that no one could figure out.
So yeah... all in all, a let down, and for sure not one of Burton's better films. Watch a different movie instead.
