Pulpmovies Reviews

In 1799, Constable Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) is sent from New York to the rural village of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of murders in which all of the victims are beheaded – and the heads are missing.

Ichabod Crane is a man of science and a proponent of pathology. It is this obsession with new-fangled methods that led to his being sent to Sleepy Hollow – it gets him out of his superiors’ hair. Of course, he fails to fit in straight away – his otherworldly manner and insistence that out of hand dismissal of any possible supernatural origin immediately alienates him from the local community and leaves him at a huge disadvantage when he finds himself entangled in the deadly conspiracy that makes up the politics of the town.

But once the true nature of the murderer becomes apparent, Crane throws himself into the new mystery with gusto, determined to apply the same logical methods to resolve the unanswered questions.

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is a classic ghost story and Tim Burton’s darkly comic take is both richly in atmospheric and visually stunning with colours so washed out as to be almost black and white, giving the film a feel reminiscent of early the Hammer films.

In fact, if Sleepy Hollow had been relocated to some unspecified Central European country, Burton could have been accused of re-imaging the Hammer oeuvre before the word had gained any currency.

Gothic sets, superstitious peasants, restrained passion – it’s all here. And not only are there tropes aplenty, they are treated with a respect and understanding that reveal a deep affection for the studio and the sub-genre it spawned.

In this light, Ichabod Crane can be seen as the Hammeresque wealthy (English) traveller, dismissing the locals’ warnings as superstitious nonsense until he is no longer able to avoid the truth. And then, pausing only to stiffen his upper lip, he makes it his mission to fully understand the nature of the menace terrorising the community.

The supporting cast is uniformly superb – I’d probably be labouring the Hammer comparison a bit to point out the sizable British contingent in this film, so I won’t. My only gripe is that I would have liked to have seen more of them.

Miranda Richardson, as the stepmother and the town’s conspirators could have made a lot of enjoyable use of some extra screen time, as could Christopher Walken as the superbly deranged Hessian horseman although I imagine it would have been quite difficult to justify showing more of him.

Kudos too, to Danny Elfman whose score perfectly complements the gothic atmosphere of the film.

Planet of the Apes notwithstanding, Tim Burton is a superbly visual director and Sleepy Hollow is a wonderful tribute to the Hammer films that so warped me in my youth.

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