Burton's 'Sleepy Hollow' a gleefully gruesome flick

By Oren Murphy

JAKARTA (JP): Anyone going to see director Tim Burton's latest endeavor, Sleepy Hollow, with hopes of viewing a careful enactment of the Washington Irving classic, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, will be disappointed.

However, I suspect that there are few out there, myself included, who remember much of the original story other than a Headless Horseman and a gangly schoolteacher with a grapefruit- sized Adam's apple named Ichabod Crane. Burton retains almost nothing from the original story other than character names, the terrifying Headless Horseman and part of the title. What he creates in its place is a visually striking film, if a bit conventional in its plot.

Set in 1799, the story centers on a New York City detective/ pathologist Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) who is sent up the Hudson to investigate a series of beheadings in the small town of Sleepy Hollow. Crane, a man of reason, is determined to uncover scientific explanations for all of the mysterious killings. He reaches Sleepy Hollow with a bagful of the latest forensic technology of his own design, but meets more than he bargained for.

He arrives in a town where even the buildings seem cloistered together in a protective huddle against the terrors beyond its borders. Crane stays at the residence of Sleepy Hollow's number one citizen, Baltus Van Tassel (Michael Gambon), where he meets the dour-looking group which constitutes the town elders. The elders gravely tell him of the Hessian mercenary whose bloodlust was legendary in their area, but who ultimately met a grizzly end himself. They are convinced that the Hessian mercenary has returned from hell, and is riding again, headless, through their fair community.

Crane becomes increasingly ensconced in the intrigues of the small town and also meets his love interest, Baltus Van Tassel's daughter, Katrina (Christina Ricci). Although he is convinced that a human is responsible for the deaths of the town's citizens, his conviction falters when he himself witnesses the Headless Horseman decapitate the town magistrate. Forced to reevaluate his earlier conclusions, he is confronted with his own struggle between superstition and reason.

Burton, who directed Batman and Edward Scissorhands, has put an incredible amount of effort into the atmospherics of the film, creating an eerie landscape that perpetually hovers between day and night, between fall and winter. What is perhaps most surprising is how successful the atmospherics are in carrying the film. Although the plot follows a fairly standard framework of serial killer thrillers, it does not seem to matter much. The film is more about the journey taken than the destination, and Burton works hard to ensure that we are thoroughly enjoying our trip through his sallow, gothic landscape. The film was largely shot on sets, and at times the landscape is happily contrived. We are meant to know we are in a fairy-tale land, where trees bleed and mists extinguish torches.

Depp, who in no way resembles the character of Irving's story, gives an outstanding performance as Ichabod Crane and has remade Crane into a high-strung, faint-hearted but carefully poised detective. Depp's comic timing is precise, giving well-controlled expressions of mortification as the internal fluids of the cadavers he probes repeatedly squirt him in the face. Indeed, the entire cast gives strong performances, right up to the moment of their decapitations.

Burton's eccentric eye for detail is particularly present in his fastidious portrayals of the decapitations. He is so devoted to showing us heads rolling and spinning like tops on their spinal cords, in fact, that he gives a huge hint as to who controls the horseman by not showing one character's alleged decapitation. Despite the numerous beheadings, the violence is not graphic in the same way as a film like, Seven, for example. Much of the gore and horror is tongue-in-cheek and has the campy feel of old Hammer horror films.

The film goes a bit flat in the end, where all loose ends are neatly tied up and justice is predictably meted out to the film's evildoers. The film also stalls somewhat in the flashbacks to Crane's childhood, where we are given the mandatory psychological profile to explain his current struggle against superstition. Although visually stunning, these scenes feel somewhat superfluous and lack the wit of the rest of the film.

Sleepy Hollow, like many fairytales, is enjoyable although not particularly substantial. It's worth losing yourself in its moody environs for a couple of hours, provided you do not mind watching a few heads roll in the process.