Sleepy Hollow

From Tim Burton, the director of Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and soon, Alice in Wonderland, Sleepy Hollow was another one in the long list of Burton-Depp collaborations. Yes, Johnny Depp, the man who has pretty much come to possess the role of Captain Jack Sparrow.

Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow has provided with the fodder and our director has taken it from there, in true blue Burton style. The film is practically all grey and makes the story of the Headless Horseman seem more grizzly than it has ever been before. Ichabod Crane (Depp) was the pebble in the shoe of New York City's police department. He was too enthusiastic about science and reason and made himself a 'pain' to the city administration. So he was packed off to the little hamlet of Sleepy Hollow in 1799.

He is to deal with the mysterious, multiple murders of some of the most prominent citizens of this self-important, little place. The man is a sceptic when the town elders tell him of a Headless Hessian horseman (Christopher Walken) who is exacting painful revenge on the innocents of the town and makes it all sound like a joke. Yet, some time later, he witnesses a murder with his own eyes and finally yields that there is an evil at work that is not from the world he knows and cannot be anything but supernatural. And yet, his rational mind looks for explanations. He falls in love with the town's little princess Katarina Von Tassel (Christina Ricci) and the two become consumed with the search for the Headless Horseman.

When people start dropping like leaves in autumn, the urgency of finding an answer becomes crushing. Who is the power behind this revenge? Will the Tree of the Dead in the haunted Western Woods yield any answers?

Intertwining witchcraft and folklore into this fabric of mystery and murder, Sleepy Hollow likes to call itself a 'period horror' film. And maybe it's terrifying for some people to watch. But really, it's quite amusing in both, concept and final product. The people i should have mentioned earlier (cast members) are:

Sir Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore of Harry Potters 3 to 7)

Michael Gough (Alfred in a lot of Batman movies, though not The Dark Knight)

Jeffrey Jones (another man who plays a Harry Potter character, this time its Uncle Dursley)

Ray Park, Christopher Lee and Ian McDairmid (all previously sith lords in the Star Wars series)

among others. And that's not the end of everything. There is the tone of the film and the manner in which it was shot; the greys and the mists, the seriously brilliant costumes and the fantastic twists and turns.

This is a great movie to watch with screamy people. There's a lot of entertainment to be derived from the terror that some might feel at certain moments in the film and as the story unfolds the 'ooh's, 'aah's will be the icing on the cake.

Watch it for Burton's style and the chemistry that he has with Depp from behind the lens of the camera. It's great to see a great director at work.

KarishmaModi

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