SLEEPY HOLLOW
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
CAPSULE: This is much more a tribute to than
an adaptation of the Washington Irving story that
has become a children's Halloween classic. SLEEPY
HOLLOW is an exquisitely sepulchral horror
adventure involving witchcraft and a head-hunting
Hessian headless horseman from hell. This poetic
and beautifully realized film surpasses all of
director Tim Burton's earlier work but THE
NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Rating: 8 (0 to 10),
high +2 (-4 to +4) Spoiler warning: the review is
followed by some comments on the film intended for
people who have already seen the film, one of which
could be a serious spoiler.
One of the greatest horror films ever made is Edgar Ulmer's 1934 THE BLACK CAT. It is a delightful black comedy, an exercise in mordant horror starring both Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi in their first film together. It claims to be based on the classic story by Edgar Allan Poe, but one can search for hours through the film and not find anything that Poe would recognize. One could hardly call it a retelling of the Poe. It is a little easier to find elements of Washington Irving's "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" in Tim Burton's new SLEEPY HOLLOW, but it is amazing to see how many people are calling this a retelling of the Irving. It most certainly is not. Instead the story has been disassembled and many of the pieces have been used in telling the story of what might be a supernatural killer bringing sleepless nights to the little New York State village of Sleepy Hollow in 1799.
Ichabod Crane (played by Johnny Depp) is an enlightened police detective and reformer from New York City. He is excited about the coming of the new century. (He calls it a new "millennium," indicating that there must have been a bunch of people working on this film who did not realize that new centuries and new millennia do not always come at the same time. So not everything scary about this film is intentional.) Though Crane himself is afraid of the sight of blood-- and seemingly even his own shadow--he believes that new scientific methods will revolutionize police detective work. He even has invented for examining evidence a set of instruments that would do David Cronenberg proud. However, his methods are not welcomed by the local constable and burgomaster (cameos by Alun Armstrong and Christopher Lee). Crane is sent by carriage upstate to investigate some recent mysterious killings in Sleepy Hollow. Three decapitation murders have taken place in the little village and Crane is to report to prominent citizen Baltus Van Tassel (Michael Gambon) and begin his investigation. And if scientific methods can be employed, so much the better.
Physically, Depp is all wrong to play the gangly Ichabod Crane. However the queasy detective shows great internal dissonance when the strength of his enlightened ideas push against his physical and psychological weaknesses. And he tries to hide his distress, not very successfully, with his cold-fish demeanor. The strain of this police case eventually is really too much for him and he finds he is cracking under the strain. It is a delightful change to have a vulnerable hero who has self-doubts and weaknesses. Perfectly matching the spirit of the film is a terrific Michael Gambon. He must have spent hours in front of a mirror achieving just the perfect facial expression for each of his scenes, frequently conveying at the same time disdain, disgust, and fear. His daughter, Katrina Van Tassel, is Christina Ricci who in spite of her buxom appearance still looks a lot like Little Wednesday from THE ADDAMS FAMILY. Perhaps that is a mold she will take a long time breaking. Miranda Richardson quietly plays Van Tassel's wife, but is clearly the source of most of Van Tassel's strength. When the Hessian is given his head he is played by Christopher Walken who appears to be having a grand time of it. Rumor has it that Tim Burton is so introverted that he wants to deal with as few new actors per film as possible. As a result many of his actors get used over and over. Familiar faces include Depp, of course, but also Jeffrey Jones and Lisa Marie, all from Ed Woods's entourage. There are more familiar faces including Michael Gough, Ian McDiarmid, and Casper Van Dien.
Tim Burton is as much a visual stylist as a director. His particular visual style is recognizable and goes back to his amateur film FRANKENWEENIE. In this film he uses that style a little less, but it is still recognizable. The visual aspects of this film are, in fact, its greatest attraction. This is a nice film to look at. Frequently large mattes are used to create scenes, but in a departure, they are not intended to be realistic. Instead they are either obvious paintings of idealized nature or of smoke-filled scenes of villages setting a tone for the film. Sleepy Hollow is an area of mists and darkness. The few sunny scenes are memories of the past and again at the end of the film when normality returns. Burton intentionally lifts images from classic horror films. The film opens with an image of dripping blood spattering borrowed from the Hammer film (THE HORROR OF) DRACULA. Later an image is borrowed from THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM.
Washington Irving might not have thought much of SLEEPY HOLLOW. But for a horror film, it is poetic and surprisingly pleasurable. As it rarely does when I am watching a film it occurred to me at about the halfway point that I was really enjoying the film. Even with all its faults, this film is fun. I give it 8 on the 0 to 10 scale and a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
SPOILER WARNING... SPOILER WARNING... SPOILER WARNING...
There are several points I would fine-tune with this film including: 1) The birdcage on the disk is always filmed as if it is right side up including at the end when it is filmed from both front and back. Seen from the front the cage and bird should be upside-down if the user sees it right side up. 2) The ending of the film is completely given away much too soon by the voice of the witch in the woods. Anyone who saw the very good TV-movie MERLIN will have heard the same false voice used extensively. 3) Toward the end of the film a clue is presented and interpreted. Crane says that a dead body will not bleed. And starting a short time after the death of the body that is true. But if the filmmakers were aware of that fact, why did they have the earlier pregnant victim's body bleed when it was dug up? They should have known it could not do that.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 1999 Mark R. Leeper
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