Sleepy Hollow [MA]

In the small town of Sleepy Hollow, there is terror. Murders are being committed and the townsfolk live in fear. A detective is sent to help. But as he delves deeper into these mysterious murders, heads will roll.

From director Tim Burton (my favourite director) comes a beautifully crafted horror that wraps up the audience in a dreamy and bloody nightmare. A horror filled with great beauty, this film won the Academy Award for Art Direction in 1999.

I don't usually watch horror movies, I tend to get scared very easily. As I've said to customers when they ask about horror films, "I'm fragile." Believe me, I am trying to get into horror films now (I mean, I'll kind of have to in order to review them.)

So for those of you who are, like me, a little anxious about watching horrors, but would like to start, Sleepy Hollow is probably the best one to start with.

In the town of Sleepy Hollow there have been 3 murders, each victim's corpse found decapitated. Constable Ichabod Crane has been sent from New york to investigate these murders and bring the culprit to justice. Constable Crane believes that the case can be cracked scientifically and that one of the villagers is the culprit, however the townsfolk believe that the murderer is a hellish creature not of this world. As Constable Crane delves deeper into the mystery, he discovers that, to take a supernatural view on the case, may be his only hope of solving it once and for all.

Johnny Depp stars as Ichabod Crane. A modern detective who is stuck in the dark ages of justice, is there any role that Johnny can't play? In this film Johnny is a very interesting character. He is intellectual, romantic and very excitable, yet he is not as brave or strong-stomached as all this suggests. I'm sure Tim Burton simply loved having Johnny's face constantly covered in fake blood, it seems at every possible opportunity, blood is spewing from some opening into poor Johnny's face. And yet he still continues to work with Tim. That's loyalty right there people.

Christina Ricci is Katrina Van Tassle and she is too beautiful. Any girl would watch this film and immediately by intimidated by Christina's grace and charm, not to mention her enchanting performance. In a film where grey seems to the be dominating shade, Christina brings a balanced helping of colour and light onto the screen. She is completely and utterly bewitching.

Joining Johnny and Christina in the quest to solve the mystery of Sleepy Hollow is Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Michael Gough, Jeffrey Jones, Richard Griffiths, Casper Van Dien, Christopher Lee, Martin Landau, Ian McDiarmid, Lisa Marie, and Christopher Walken.

With the beautiful costume designs by Colleen Atwood and the hauntingly enchanting score by Danny Elfman, Sleepy Hollow is a wonderful movie balanced with humour, suspense, action, and just the right amount of gore.

A truly beautiful horror movie, Sleepy Hollow is the perfect flick for first-time horror-watchers and is a film that I could watch again and again and again.