Sleepy Hollow Film Review

‘Sleepy Hollow’ film Review

Blood and murder usually go down a treat for the people who love gore but this is not the case in the movie ‘Sleepy Hollow’. Repetition is the key to an ultimately predictable film. Just as in any other film we see a substance with a resemblance to blood fall onto a piece of paper. This tells our minds the movie will have elements of horror. Then two hands, male and female, clasp. A headless horseman then appears decapitating an innocent man on the run in the woods. This all sets the rest of the film as a romantic horror. There is still one element that is left to be seen but not to worry. While the ghoulish headless horseman is out decapitation people Ichabod Crane, a detective from New York, is having a hard time keeping a straight face. The expression of utter disgust as he finds a body in the river is comical enough as it stands. Now as he is sent to Sleepy Hollow (a near by village where the headless horseman lies) to try and get his head around the gruesome decapitations of the people. His fear of bugs makes him an easy target and often means this film becomes comedy

Johnny Depp is the actor who plays Ichabod Crane, the New York detective. When he arrives in the little village Sleepy Hollow he meets the beautiful Katrina Van Tassel. Played by Christina Ricci, Katrina is a local teenager who is starting to really like Ichabod. She wants to protect him; I guess every film needs a beauty. But where’s the beast? Most films nowadays consist of a beast that whenever they show their face on screen frightens the socks off the audience. This is not the case in the film ‘Sleepy Hollow’ seeing as Christopher Walker’s (the actor who plays the headless horseman) head is never shown on screen. Although this film consists mainly of tacky fog and bad graphics, the acting is not to blame. Maybe the fact that the main characters were played by American actors but yet tried to speak with English accents made the film seem very cheap. If you are going to hire American actors to play the main parts don’t try and pass them off as English actors.

Some people might think that by making the entire movie dull, dark, and devoid of colour makes the blood stand out much more. This is true but are you really motivated to watch a movie which starts of in black and white? This movie was aimed at younger people but younger people change the channel when they see a movie in black and white. However, if they are patient they will be rewarded as this soon changes and soon the deep red blood colour appear on the screen. Only to their disappointment it is only candle wax. Also the black and white faces of the characters make the people seem cold. This ensures that you do not feel anything for the characters even if one of them was brutally decapitated. Another problem I had with this movie was setting. ‘The Nightmare before Christmas’, ‘The Corpse Bride’, ‘Ed Wood’, ‘Sleepy Hollow’, and ‘Planet of the Apes’ are all movies directed by Tim Burton. They are all set mostly in the woods and are all mostly seen as creepy horror movies. In ‘Sleepy Hollow’ Tim Burton again uses ideas from his old movies to try and pin point the audiences needs. Only this backfires and makes his movie seem repetitive and very ordinary. You start to predict what will happen as soon as you have seen the headless horseman appear time and time again from the tacky fog that surrounds the woods.

Camera Shots also make the movie repetitive and tacky. When the director wants you to feel fear for the character he will use a point of view shot. So when the headless horseman is crossing the bridge to fight Ichabod Crane we see him: a tall, dark figure walking towards us. Yet, we cannot see Ichabod Crane’s face. How do