The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

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     “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is one of America’s first fairy tales, told and retold for over two centuries. Everyone knows of the headless horseman. He’s a staple in American literature. How can something so simple (a headless body riding a horse) strike fear into so many generations of readers? And in his dead palm, a flaming jack-o-lantern no less! How odd, how dreadful, how spooky! Seriously, what would you do if you saw that image whilst alone in the woods? Can you blame Ichabod for abandoning his pupils in Sleepy Hollow? Surely not!

     Ichabod Crane, the lanky, beak-nosed schoolmaster of Sleepy Hollow, Connecticut, is also a legendary figure in American literature. From his desire for the lovely Katrina Van Tassel (only for her inheritance) to his famous encounter with the galloping Hessian, he’s the admirable underdog in all of us. Irving spends so much time in the story on description; some of it delightful (descriptions of characters) some of it tiresome (descriptions of landscapes).

     The ambiguity of the legend is what allows it to last. Ichabod’s tear through the forest with the headless horseman afoot is a scene of tension and horror. Although we know how it ends, we still feel Ichabod’s fright in coming face to face (err…face to shoulders?) with the legendary Hessian.

     The screenwriters of Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow were tasked with creating a genuine mystery around a mess of descriptions that lead up to one climactic scene. This could have gone horribly wrong (before Burton got involved, it was conceived as a slasher film) but it goes wonderfully right. In this case, although not a novel-to-film adaptation, the movie is better.

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     Sleepy Hollow could be Tim Burton’s best movie. Everything comes together to create a perfect atmosphere, dazzlingly dark imagery, and thoughtful characters. Never has a source material been so perfectly matched for a director’s style. Sleepy Hollow just screams Halloween. The score alone is makes your skin crawl, the cinematography is ghostly; something of nightmares. The art direction (for which an academy award was given) is wondrously twisted. Johnny Depp plays Ichabod only somewhat like he is in the story. He nails the scaredy-cat nature of Crane but everything else is made-up, but not uninspired. Depp’s Ichabod is a constable from New York sent upstate to investigate three murders, all by decapitation. He is not the choir-singing, money-loving, schoolteacher from the story. All the essential bits of the Irving’s tale are on display, but made to be bigger, bolder, and bloodier.  The violence is not mindless, rather it is stylish and gritty, some of the best gore gags in any movie. As the marketing campaign suggests: heads will roll.

     This is an unfair comparison, but so much fun to explore. Tim Burton has made some adaptations that are just rubbish, but Sleepy Hollow is a wonderfully horrifying movie that gets it right. We always say “That’s not how I imagined that character” or “it looked different in my head”. The imagination is more powerful than any special effects device Hollywood can create, but I’ll be damned if Burton’s headless horseman doesn't look exactly as he should barreling through the fog and the trees toward his next victim.