5 Tim Burton Films That Wasted Their Potential

4. Sleepy Hollow

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow allowed for Burton to shine in an area he unquestionably understands - the horror film. However, this rather loose adaptation attempts a little more than that.

On the positive side, Burton treats us to some of his finest dark imagery: including the formidable headless horseman; vague, ethereal dream sequences; and best of all, the strangely picturesque tree of the dead.

Yet once again it’s the story that suffers. Getting bogged down in a needlessly heavy plot involving the town’s government and somebody’s last will and testament, it eventually evolves into a kind of tame whodunit/revenge story. By spelling almost everything out for us, it unfortunately lacks the ambiguity and eeriness of the original short story, and also deflates the stronger first half of the film.

Sleepy Hollow was also a sad indication of Burton’s occasional over-reliance on computer tech. Along with some bursts of cartoony (and dated) CGI, the general look of the film appears too digitally “corrected”, and is distractingly at odds with the traditional, old-world setting it is trying to present.

It would have been interesting to see Burton turn Sleepy Hollow into a minimalist horror piece. With the gothic visuals, a dark tone, atmosphere and scarce story could have made for a nightmarish horror tale; something similar to 2015’s The Witch. Being such a horror fan with a naturally dark aesthetic, it’s unfortunate that Burton himself has only ever flirted with the genre.