Hello again, and Happy Halloween, everybody!
For this, the second to last review in my monster- fest (Sorry I’ve been running so late, I have lots of things to do), I’ll be serving up a heapin’ helpin’ of the Headless Horseman!
He’s always fascinated me as far as ghosts go, even when I was a kid. I can’t have been much older than 10 or 11 when I first read Washington Irving’s story about him. He’s always so creepy, and so dark in every story that concerns him. For this review, I will be looking at three stories concerning the Headless Horseman, two that are short, and then the feature- length film ‘Sleepy Hollow.’
The first of these is the Disney animated version, ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.’ Made in 1948 as part of a double- feature called ‘The Adventures of Ichabod Crane and Mr. Toad’ and narrated by none other than Bing Crosby, this is a mostly quite faithful adaptation of the original story. The odd- looking schoolmaster Ichabod Crane comes to the New York town of Sleepy Hollow, and soon begins attempting to court the beautiful and rich young heiress Katrina Van Tassel (Who here bears a bit of a resemblance to Disney’s Cinderella). Then, at the Van Tassels’ big Halloween party, Brom Bones (Local bully and Ichabod’s #1 rival for Katrina’s affections) terrifies the superstitious Ichabod with a tale of the Headless Horseman, a ghost always on the lookout for a new head. Later that night, as Ichabod is on his way home, he’s chased by the ghoul and never seen in Sleepy Hollow again. It’s left up in the air whether it was just Brom playing a prank on him or if he actually was spirited away by the real Horseman, though this version seems to lean a little more towards the latter.
I hadn’t seen this short in years, but I found I loved it more now than I did then. Much like when I discussed ‘The Monster Squad,’ this short is very funny and easygoing for the first half of it (Especially the parts concerning Ichabod and Brom’s rivalry for Katrina, which definitely made me grin), then abruptly switches to intense and terrifying in its climax. We hear Bing Crosby sing three different songs in it that all work well; One in the beginning about Ichabod, one a little later on about Katrina, and my favorite of the bunch, Brom at the Halloween party singing about the Horseman. In addition to the sung parts, Crosby’s spoken narration is absolutely wonderful (And employing the same fascinating vocabulary that the story did, with words like “Pedagogue,†“Melancholy,†and “Apparition,†words that you’d never hear in any of the dumbed- down TV shows Disney puts out today), varying a lot in terms of the tones he uses; He’s friendly and cheerful- sounding for most of the light- hearted first half or so of it, then grim and somber for the scary ending.
Speaking of scary, this is amazingly scary for a Disney animated short. Even before the Horseman shows up, the suspense leading up to it as Ichabod rides through the woods is awesome, from dark visuals (i.e. The creepy array of trees in the forest, the moon is slowly blotted out by two clouds that look like gigantic hands), to the sound effects of animals seeming to be warning Ichabod of the evil that lies ahead (i.e. A frog’s croaking sounds like “Ichabod,†and “Headless Horseman,†a crow caws that sounds like “Beware,†another bird flying overhead at one point gives a call that sounds like “Here he comes!â€), to Crosby’s narration sounding like he’s deeply frightened. The Horseman himself is incredibly scary here. He has a huge flowing cape, a very long and sharp sword, and his horse looks almost demonic. He also has a quite frightening laugh (Sort of like “YAAH HA HA HA HA!â€), even though he doesn’t have a mouth.
Disney’s ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ remains a wonderful animated short, as enjoyable and scary now as it was over 60 years ago. It’s on Youtube, check it out if you never have before.
The next Headless Horseman related piece I’ll be looking at is an episode of the Nickelodeon anthology show ‘Are You Afraid of the Dark?’ I talked about the episode ‘The Tale of the Midnight Madness’ from that show in my ‘Nosferatu’ review, but now I’ll be looking at a similarly- titled but otherwise completely different episode, ‘The Tale of the Midnight Ride.’
This story takes place in modern times in Sleepy Hollow, and tweaks the legend just a bit; Now, every Halloween, the ghosts of both the Headless Horseman and Ichabod Crane return to reenact their chase from long ago. In this story, our hero is kind of a modern- day Ichabod Crane, a goofy but likable boy named Ian who’s new to Sleepy Hollow. At the school’s Halloween dance, he begins hitting it off pretty well with the charming Katie, earning the anger of her boorish ex- boyfriend Brad, who humiliates Ian by posing as the Headless Horseman to scare him (much like Brom may have in the original story).
As Ian and Katie are on their way home, they encounter the ghost of Ichabod Crane, and unwittingly change the story by having him go on a different path from the one he’s supposed to take. This causes the real Headless Horseman to go after them instead. Ultimately, Ian finds his courage, faces and defeats the Horseman, and gets the girl.
The Horseman isn’t quite as creepy here as he is in the Disney version, but close enough. He has a laugh that’s almost as creepy as the Disney one’s. Unlike the Disney version, this one actually explains a bit of the Horseman’s backstory (He was a mercenary in the American Revolution who was decapitated by a stray cannonball). In the end, when Ian defeats the Horseman by leading him across the Bridge of Souls (An enchanted bridge that’s sort of the Horseman’s weakness in most versions of the story), there’s a pretty cool visual effect of the Horseman bursting into flames and exploding. The music (Other than the rather dated music heard during the scenes at the school dance) is pretty good, especially the Horseman’s theme, which kind of evokes the colonial era that his legend came from.
So, ‘Are You Afraid of the Dark- The Tale of the Midnight Ride’ is a nice enough version of the story, worth a watch. It too is available to watch on Youtube, check it out.
Finally, we get on to the main event: The movie ‘Sleepy Hollow.’ Made in 1999 and directed by Tim Burton, it stars Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Michael Gambon, Miranda Richardson, and Christopher Walken.
Basically, the only things it has in common with the original story are the Headless Horseman, the location in Sleepy Hollow, and the names of the characters. Ichabod Crane (Depp) is now a 1799 New York constable whose more modernized ideas of deduction and crime fighting put him at odds with his more traditional peers, who send him to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the deaths of three people who were apparently beheaded by the Headless Horseman. The Horseman’s backstory is on the one hand shown in more detail (Played well by Christopher Walken for the scenes when he has a head, even though his only lines are screams and growls), but on the other hand, how he actually lost his head is changed, as now he was chased down by American soldiers and beheaded with his own sword. Ichabod at first remains firmly convinced that it’s just a human psycho committing the murders. He conducts scientific (For that time, anyway) investigation into the murders, discovers a possible conspiracy afoot relating to an inheritance, takes on the now- orphaned son of one of the Horseman’s victims as his assistant, and begins falling in love with young Katrina Van Tassel (Ricci).
Soon, however, as the bodies continue piling up and the townspeople’s trust in him begins fading, Ichabod learns that not only is the Headless Horseman real, but that its victims are being deliberately selected by some outside party with control over it, leading to a surprise revelation about who the puppet- master behind it was all along and a thrilling climax.
One of the only problems I had with ‘Sleepy Hollow’ is that the blood is a bit oddly excessive. Although the decapitations have little blood (The Horseman’s sword is ultra- hot, so the wounds are instantly cauterized), other scenes have gallons of the stuff everywhere. In particular, one scene in which Ichabod hacks his way into an enchanted tree associated with the Horseman leaves Ichabod looking as though he just finished making love to a box of jelly donuts.
Now, for what I liked. ‘Sleepy Hollow’ is basically the ultimate epitome of a Tim Burton movie. It has pretty much every element expected in his films: A creepy yet quite beautiful score by Danny Elfman, Johnny Depp starring, Christopher Lee making a cameo, dark and spooky imagery, and in the beginning you see a scarecrow which looks like it was right out of ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ (Though Burton actually didn’t direct that movie). About the only thing missing was a Helena Bonham- Carter role, but that’s not surprising, it wouldn’t be for another couple years before she’d start appearing in his films. The costumes are spot- on, perfect for the time and location. The set designs are absolutely beautiful, you can see why it won the Oscar for Best Art Direction. The town of Sleepy Hollow really looks like a rustic colonial village. The Western Woods in particular look great, with a ground coated in old leaves and dead trees scattered everywhere, like the sort of scary forest that kids in fairy tales get lost in.
The Horseman in this one is a cold, silent, methodical, unstoppable killer, all in black with a tattered cape and always charging his horse at full speed. He is also an amazing hand- to- hand fighter with a sword or axe (For the scenes when the Horseman’s on the ground fighting, he’s played by the actor who played Darth Maul in ‘Star Wars Episode 1’).
As far as performances go, Johnny Depp completely dominates as Ichabod Crane. He makes Crane funny (As in the original story, Crane’s a coward, terrified of spiders and constantly fainting, as well as being a bit of a klutz), sympathetic (His sad backstory gets me every time), brilliant (When investigating and deducing, he rather resembles Sherlock Holmes), and heroic all the way. It’s easily one of my favorite Depp roles. Christina Ricci is mysterious and enchanting as Katrina, a character you’re eager to learn more about, and she also has a great “Horror scream.†As Young Masbath (The boy who becomes Ichabod’s assistant after losing his father to the Horseman), Marc Pickering brings a quiet dignity and courage to the role. Lastly, when the person behind everything is revealed, the actor in question gives a wonderful performance, making for a very effective villain.
And, there you have ‘Sleepy Hollow.’ A must- see for Burton fans, Depp fans, and horror fans in general.
So, you might be wondering what I have in store for the grand finale of my monster- fest? What could there possibly be left to do? Well, just you wait and see, moviegoers, MUAHAHAHAHA!
