I recently watched the movie "Sleepy Hollow," directed by Tim Burton. To be honest I am a little biased, but this was not the best movie Tim Burton has directed. I did enjoy it, but it was very predictable. Ichabod Crane, who is a young detective, is sent to Sleepy Hollow to solve the murders of several of the townspeople. They have all been decapitated and their heads are nowhere to be found.
Johnny Depp plays Ichabod Crane, and does an amazing job. He showcases a brilliant representation of his character. Throughout the movie he plays off as a timid naive man who tries to stay to find only scientific explanations for the murders only to figure out that there are more supernatural forces around him than he could ever imagine.
He battles with several other forces, which include; himself, the townspeople, and Katrina (love interest). Ichabod struggles with trying to find scientific explanations for the murders while dealing with flashbacks about his past. In the end he figures it all out and realizes that there is more than meets the eye about Katrina and her step mother. He is thrown into a world of witches, evil spirits, and much more. The headless horseman is just one of many obstacles he must move around.
The movie is rated R, but I would say it’s not scary at all. I believe it was rated R for the gore scenes, but the blood looked very fake. Personally though, this spin off of the headless horseman legend was pretty good. The only thing that I personally could have been better was the character development.
I realize the story is mainly about Ichabod, but I think a lot of the characters should have had more detail put into them. During the film I could figure out which characters they where talking about because most of them were described similarly. The movie focused more on the murders and the headless horsemen unlike the actual story in which Ichabod tries to pursue Katrina more and the headless horseman is almost a background subject.
There isn’t much of a romantic connection in the movie, they do touch on it with Ichabod and Katrina, but don't go into depth. In the beginning they have a fondness for each other, but towards the end of the film Ichabod realizes that Katrina is bad news and needs to stay away from her and her witchcraft. Also Ichabod does not mysteriously disappear in the end like the legend. Even though it was predictable I really enjoyed the great acting. I definitely recommend it to anyone who loves Johnny Depp or murder mysteries. If you’re interested in finding it, it is a free play on Netflix.
