One of the best looking Tim Burton films, and also one of the better collaborations between him and frequent muse Johnny Depp, not to mention noted music man Danny Elfman, Sleepy Hollow continued Burton's fascination with gothic undertones, twisted characters, and sympathetic villains, played by none other than the granddaddy of them all - the inimitable Christopher Walken. Depp plays the awkward constable Ichabod Crane (changed from a schoolteacher in the original story by Washington Irving) in turn-of-the century New York City. He is called upstate to the film's titular town when there is a series of mysterious and gruesome murders, who some superstitious town folk claim are the handiwork of the Headless Horseman. The practical though frightened Crane is convinced they are the work of a man, nothing more, but he discovers there may be more to the world than what meets the eye. From this film onward, Depp's odd acting mannerisms were considered somewhat of an asset, when these same traits used to be perceived as handicapping him before. His increasingly eccentric characters with idiosyncratic behaviours picked up steam after this modern classic, which directly led to his star turn as Captain Jack Sparrow in the never ending Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Meanwhile, there's now a series on TV which not only borrows the film's title, but also steals its gothic visuals and eerie atmosphere.
Michael Perone has written for The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore City Paper, The Island Ear (now titled Long Island Press), and The Long Island Voice, a short-lived spinoff of The Village Voice. He currently works as an Editor in Manhattan. And he still thinks Michael Keaton was the best Batman.
