The Gothic Horror Blogathon – Sleepy Hollow (1999)

This post is the final of three reviews for The Gothic Horror Blogathon being hosted by Pale Writer

Tnx for letting me participate!

“Villainy wears many masks, none so dangerous as the mask of virtue. ” – Ichabod Crane

Number of Times Seen – Twice (25 Mar 2001 and 29 Oct 2019)

Brief Synopsis – Around the turn of the 18th Century, a young policeman is sent to a small town in order to solve the mystery of a three murders where the victims were decapitated.

My Take on it – This is a film that I recall seeing on DvD a few years after it came out.

In general, I’m not the biggest fan of films with a horror twist, so it has taken me quite a while to revisit this film.

As a kid, I recall hearing the story of Sleepy Hollow, but the besides the names of the main characters, I didn’t remember much about it.

This film takes an very interesting approach to the story and is the perfect vehicle in the hands of an expert in this genre like Tim Burton.

Once again, he adeptly creates a fascinating wold for these characters to inhabit which is a mix of both fantasy and fact which adds so much to things.

The story itself is filled with some great twists and turns along the way that allow for the story to remain fresh and original while staying unpredictable as things move forward.

The cast of this film is also great and not only includes Burton regulars like Johnny Depp, Christopher Walken, and  Martin Landau but also has Christina Ricci,  Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Jeffrey Jones, Christopher Lee and even Ian McDiarmid.

These performances add so much to the story and help enhance things to a great degree.

The choice to approach a supernatural thriller from a methodical and mystery approach works quite well in making things even more enjoyable to watch unfold.

Bottom Line – Interesting story that is the perfect vehicle in the hands of Burton. He is able to create such a fascinating world for these characters to inhabit that is a mix of fantasy and fact.  The story is filled with a lot of nice twists and turns along the way that help keep things intriguing and unpredictable.  The cast is filled with some great actors that include some of Burton’s regulars like Depp, but also some other stand out performances which help make this film so much more enjoyable.  Really liked the way that they approach this supernatural thriller from a more methodical and detective perspective which helps make things work on numerous levels as the story unfolds.  Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Historically, Ichabod Crane was a very unattractive man. Johnny Depp offered to add prosthetics to his face to make himself look ugly, but director Tim Burton wanted to base the character on Crane’s more unattractive personality traits, his reported squeamishness and eccentricity. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy (8/10)

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