Sleepy Hollow

14th September, 2019

Hmmm …

Well, I must confess, it’s not often I write about a film I’ve seen, this far after the fact.

Not usually, anyway.

But one happy accident, about Fridge Freezer Weekend, is that not running the usual Movie Night meant me and Allison managed to catch a film ITV2 was showing, over the weekend.

The 1999 Tim Burton film, Sleepy Hollow.

And my word, isn’t that a film?

It’s certainly a treat for the eyes; something I know I’ve come to expect from Master Craftsman, Tim Burton.

Very much a visual treat!

I don’t know whether it’s the lighting, the film stock, or something Burton’s crew managed to pull off in post-production, but …

Well, I’m gonna try for a metaphor, here …

Imagine a very well drawn comic.

A well drawn, 19th Century comic.

One that’s been printed on very good quality, slightly cream coloured, paper-stock.

By someone like Basildon Bond.

Rather than on the usual pulp.

Hmmm …

Possibly, that’s not the best metaphor, is it? Calling it a sepia photo-comic book is maybe a better comparison.

But you get my point; Sleepy Hollow is rather unusual looking!

It definitely doesn’t look like anything I’ve seen before, I know that much!

I’d also say Sleepy Hollow is a very watchable movie, outside of the look of it!

Now I’ve never read the original Washington Irving short story, so I can’t actually tell you how different the two are.

But the Tim Burton movie is an entertaining ghost story, that follows Constable Ichabod Crane (Jommhy Depp*), sent to investigate some gruesome decapitations in the small town of Sleepy Hollow.

Which — according to the locals — are being committed by the headless ghost of a Hessian mercenary.

Seen, in the flashbacks before the ghost’s death, played by Christopher Walken, and, in headless ghost form, by Ray Parkesº.

Sleepy Hollow follows Crane’s very forensic efforts to catch what he thinks is a ‘normal’ murderer: finding that his assumptions are very wrong!

It looks like the locals are right: the killer isn’t exactly normal.

Or alive, for that matter … !

You know, it just occurred that Sleepy Hollow is Tim Burton’s take on the kind of small town American first tackled by David Lynch, in Twin Peaks.

Full of secrets, lies and unseen things.

But with more blood.

And less llamas.

But can I be honest, here?

Can I?

I loved this film!

To the point that, when I found out that ITV were repeating, the next day, I happily watched it, again!

Which sounds sad, I know, but there we go!

Sleepy Hollow is a bloody riveting watch!

Strange, emotional, gore-soaked …

But riveting …






*  Actually, this is possibly worth mentioning.   It strikes me that Johnny Depp must have been at the Sherlock Holmes novels: at least the way he played Crane seemed very much in the Scientific Detective mould.   Maybe I’m wrong there, but I’m willing to bet he did.   (There’s all sorts of rumours, about some of his other characterisations; Willy Wonka was supposed to be his take on Michael Jackson, for example.   As for a certain Captain Jack Sparrow, and a blues guitarist equally famed for falling out of coconut trees … Weeeeellllll …)

º  Yes, that Ray Parkes.   You know, Ray PARKES?   Darth Maul?   He of Big Red Double Ender fame?   Yes.   Him!