An eccentric constable is sent to a village called Sleepy Hollow to investigate three mysterious murders, but he gets more than he bargained for when encountering The Headless Horseman.
Twenty years later, it’s still captivating. Tim Burton adapts the legendary Celtic and German folklore for the silver screen and creates one of the most atmospheric, period gothic fairytales you will have ever watched. Sleepy Hollow is purely a masterpiece. The perfect balance of horror, comedy, and fantasy with an equally “magical” and intense subplot. Like Shakespearean thespians, all actors deliver amazing performances that enhance the film’s genre. Danny Elfman’s eerie score gets your undivided attention from the opening scene, and Emmanuel Lubezki’s hauntingly beautiful cinematography may have lost the Oskar to American Beauty (1999), but this merely means anything as you will probably have never encountered anything like it in any other fairytale adaptation [Maybe, Edward Scissorhands (1991) or Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)]. The “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration” Oskar was well earned for building the Sleepy Hollow from scratch within three months. As the crew stated: “The feeling one had walking around Sleepy Hollow‘s sets, and in particular the town at Lime Tree, was almost as if you were walking around the inside of Tim Burton’s head.”
Sleepy Hollow is the best side of Hollywood. A side that is often forgotten by the studios but should be a reminder that quantity (the $100M budget) can be indeed spent wisely and increase the film’s quality. It is a reminder that visual effects are meant to be used to advance the story and not dominate the film, overshadowing its narrative. Words cannot beautify Tim Burton’s classic. A must-watch not only for the Halloween period but also for times of classical storytelling nostalgia.
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Oldie but a goodie I think.