Sleepy Hollow
New York City hasn't looked so gloomy and dismal since Burton's last industrial blackened city, Gotham that loomed menacingly in the original Batman. Using some of the same techniques, you get the impression of the film being black and white, but in reality the colors are so muted as to add only a hint of life to the pale that is the existence of the characters and the scenery that surrounds them.
Johnny Depp is perfectly cast as Ichabod Crane (a constable of New York City in this version), a man who has pushed his higher-ups to their limits with his obsession with wanting to solve crimes instead of allowing them to be passed off as accidents or natural causes. Depp as Crane, is at once obsessed with autopsies that further his cause and repelled by the very sight of the end product. One moment showing great bravery in the face of the most frightening of the soulless, the next passing out cold over something far less striking. Sent to winter-weary Sleepy Hollow in the Hudson Isles by his superiors to solve the mystery of several beheadings, he finds no one to welcome him save pale faces pressed against windows that are closed as he passes. When he finally locates the town leaders, they tell him a most bizarre story.
It would seem there was a vicious British soldier (played with consummate skill by Christopher Walken) in the western woods who was something of a mercenary. Teeth ground to sharp points, he was a sort of human guillotine, rushing happily into bloody battle with glee, sending heads to fly in every direction. Only when he himself was killed and beheaded did the carnage stop. Or so they thought.
Depp sets out to investigate the murders, sure there can be no such thing as a headless demon that rides a steed black as pitch through the night, lopping off the heads of everyone from the richest man in town to a mere messenger. Of course he finds the specter does exist in all-too-human form, but on further examination of the case, he finds that not only is the horseman not killing at random, he is possibly being called from his frozen grave by someone who stands to benefit from the deaths. Everyone becomes suspect, including Katrina Van Tassel (played by a blond-tressed Christina Ricci), a beautiful young woman to whom Ichabod is quickly losing his heart. However, he soon realizes he may lose his head as well if he continues his inquiry.
While I wouldn't recommend taking small children to see Sleepy Hollow (the beheadings are plenty and gruesome), it is a definite must see for anyone who loves scary stories and legends. As I said, it doesn't strictly follow the literary version, but you'll forget that almost from the first scene and find yourself immediately immersed in this Gothic thriller. Tim Burton has taken one of the few impressive legends that we Americans can call our own and made it even scarier. And I, for one, loved it.