While horror movie watching is a year-round event, this is that time of year when all of us can flourish, embracing the weird.
So, come one, come all, beasties unite! It’s Haunt-Tober time!
A gray blanket of fog enveloping the frame. The starkness of a cheekbone, or the black collar of a shirt. Porcelain skin against a blue tinted forest.
When it comes to Tim Burton, there is more than a transformation. There’s a transportation. We live in his world. Each may seem similar, and there are unmistakable elements in common no doubt, but with each film he carves out his own unique place. A new world.
With Sleepy Hollow it feels as if it’s on the fringes of reality, between dream and nightmare.
As a detective story, Burton excels, in the sense of bringing this fictional tale to light, he glows. I think the reason that this doesn’t quite hit the heights of some of his others is mere circumstance. This isn’t his creation, wholly, but it’s a extension of him none the less.
Constable Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) is brought to Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of beheadings. The townspeople, including Katrina Anne Van Tassel (Christina Ricci) have their own theories, yet he’s interested in the facts.
But, give it some time.
As more information comes to light and Ichabod grows closer to the townspeople, the mystery of the headless horseman (played wickedly by Christopher Walken) is unveiled.
The costume and production design is stellar and the performances are aptly fit into the gothic aesthetic.
This isn’t Burton’s best but it’s far from his worst, and there is an innately charming chilliness to the picture that encompasses every scene. Depp brings humor and the silly yet seemingly serious antics he’s often up to with measurable charm and Ricci is delightfully enigmatic.
A supernatural splendor, gorgeously morose, Sleepy Hollow is a dark horse amid Burton’s filmography.
Today’s winners:
Wonderfully Weird & Horrifying 