Sleepy Hollow (1999 film)

Sleepy Hollow is a American-style horror film released in 1999 and directed by Tim Burton. It is based on Washington Irving's 1820 short story, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".

Plot[]

( paragraph one )

#1. In 1799, New York City police constable Ichabod Crane is dispatched to the upstate Dutch hamlet of Sleepy Hollow, which has been plagued by a series of brutal decapitations: a wealthy father and son, Peter and Dirk Van Garrett, and a widow, Emily Winship.

( paragraph two )

#2. Received by the insular town elders—wealthy businessman Baltus Van Tassel; town doctor Thomas Lancaster; the Reverend Steenwyck; notary James Hardenbrook; and magistrate Samuel Philipse—Ichabod learns that locals will believe that the killer is the undead apparition of a headless Hessian mercenary from the American Revolutionary War who rides a black steed in search of his missing head.

( paragraph three )

#3. Ichabod begins his investigation, skeptical of the paranormal story. Boarding at the home of Baltus Van Tassel and his second wife, Lady Van Tassel, he is taken with Baltus' spiritual daughter, Katrina. When a fourth victim, Jonathan Masbath, a servant in the Van Garrett household, is killed, Ichabod takes the victim's son, Young Masbath, under his wing. Ichabod and Masbath shall exhume the victims on a tip from Philipse, learning that the widow died pregnant.

( paragraph four )

#4. After Philipse tells this to Ichabod, the horseman comes and decapitates Philipse, before absconding with his head. Ichabod, Young Masbath and Katrina, must venture into the Western Woods, where a witch living in a cave reveals the location of the Horseman's grave at the "Tree of the Dead." He cuts the tree open spewing out blood and revealing several dead heads which the three of them can find disturbing.

( paragraph five )

#5. Next Ichabod digs up the Horseman's grave and discovers that the skull has been taken, deducing that it has been stolen by someone who now controls him and that the tree is his portal into the living world, seconds later the tree opens up and the horseman comes out.

( paragraph six )

#6. That night, the Horseman kills village midwife Beth Killian and her family, as well as Katrina's suitor, Brom Van Brunt, when he attempts to intervene; Ichabod hypothesizes that the Horseman is attacking select targets linked by a conspiracy.

( paragraph seven )

#7. He and Masbath visit Hardenbrook, who reveals that the first victim, Peter Van Garrett, had secretly married the widow, writing a new will that left his estate to her and her unborn child. Ichabod deduces that all the victims, which is except Brom, are either beneficiaries or witnesses to this new will, and that the Horseman's master is the person who would have otherwise inherited the estate: Baltus, a Van Garrett relative.

( paragraph eight )

#8. Upon discovering the accusation, Katrina burns the evidence. Hardenbrook commits suicide, and Steenwyck convenes a town meeting to discredit Ichabod, but Baltus bursts into the assembly at the church, announcing that the Horseman has killed his wife.

( paragraph nine )

#9. The Horseman attacks the church, but is unable to enter. In the chaos, the remaining elders turn on each other. Steenwyck kills Lancaster, and he is in turn killed by Baltus, who is then suddenly harpooned by the Horseman who drags him through a window and out of the church, and acquires his head.

( paragraph ten )

#10. Initially concluding that Katrina controls the Horseman, Ichabod discovers that the diagram she drew beneath his bed and in the church during the meeting, which he believed summoned the Horseman, is really one of protection, and additionally finds a post-mortem wound on "Lady Van Tassel's" decapitated body.

( paragraph eleven )

#11. Lady Van Tassel, alive and well, emerges from the shadows and reveals herself to Katrina as the master of the Horseman.

( paragraph twelve )

#12. She faked her death and used the planted headless body of the Van Tassel's servant girl, Sarah, whom she had killed previously. She takes Katrina to a local windmill and explains her true heritage from an impoverished family evicted years ago by Peter Van Garrett, when he favored Baltus and his family instead.

( paragraph thirteen )

#13. While her married name is Van Tassel, her family's name is Archer, just like the Archer of Katrina's favorite spot. As it turns out, Lady Van Tassel and her sister were witnesses to the horseman as children and had him killed.

( paragraph fourteen )

#14. She swore revenge against Van Garrett and all who had wronged her family, pledging herself to Satan if he would raise the Horseman to avenge her by killing them, which would also allow her to claim the Van Garrett and Van Tassel estates uncontested.

( paragraph fifteen )

#15. Manipulating her way into the Van Tassel household, she used fear, blackmail, and lust to manipulate the other elders into her plot. Having eliminated all other heirs and witnesses, as well as her sister – the crone witch – for aiding Ichabod, she summons the Horseman to finish Katrina.

( paragraph sixteen )

#16. She doesn't understand why her stepmother wants to kill her as she now inherits the house as the widow, but Lady Van Tassel says that Katrina gets the house in her father's death as she's his daughter, but if Katrina dies, she gets everything.

( paragraph seventeen )

#17. Ichabod and Masbath must rush to the windmill as the Horseman arrives saving Katrina. After an escape that destroys the windmill and a subsequent carriage chase to the Tree of the Dead, Ichabod retrieves the Horseman's skull from Lady Van Tassel and returns it to him, breaking the curse, and setting the Horseman free from Lady Van Tassel's control.

( paragraph eighteen )

#18. With his head restored, the Horseman spares Katrina and abducts Lady Van Tassel, giving her a bloody kiss and returning to Hell with her in tow, fulfilling her end of the deal. Ichabod returns to New York with Katrina and Young Masbath, just in time for the new century.

Cast[]

#1. Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane

#2. Christina Ricci as Katrina Van Tassel

#3. Miranda Richardson as Lady Van Tassel and her sister, Crone witch

#4. Marc Pickering as Young Masbath

#5. Casper Van Dien as Brom Van Brunt

#6. Sam Fior as Young Ichabod Crane

#7. Ray Park as Headless horseman

#8. Michael Gambon as Baltus Van Tassel

#9. Steven Waddington as Mr. Killian

10. Claire Skinner as Mrs. Beth Killian

#11. Sean Stephens as Thomas Killian

#12. Martin Landau as Peter Van Garrett

#13. Michael Gough as James Hardenbrook

#14. Ian Mcdiarmid as Thomas Lancasters

#15. Jeffrey Jones as Rev. Steenwyck

#16. Mark Spalding as Jonathan Masbath

#17. Richard Griffiths as Samuel Philipse

#18. Lisa Marie as Lady Crane

#19. Peter Guinness as Lord Crane

#20. Keeley O'Hara as Emily Winship

#21. Robert Sella as Dirk Van Garrett

#22. Tessa Allen Ridge as Young Lady Van Tassel Archer

#23. Jessica Oyelowo as Sarah

#24. Cassandra Farndale as Young Crone witch

#25. Tony Maudsley as Van Ripper

#26. Alun Armstrong as High constable

#27. Philip M. Brown as Constable

#28. Jamie Foreman as Thuggish constable

#29. Michael Feast as Spotty

#30. Christopher Lee as Mr. Burgomaster

#31. Christopher Walken as Mr. Hessian a.k.a Headless Horseman

#32. Gabrielle Lloyd as Mrs. Lancasters

#33. Orlando Seale as Theodore

#34. Nicholas Hewetson as Glenn

#35. John Shearer as Court Spectater

#36. Lily Phillips as girl #2

#37. Bianca Nicholas as girl #1

#38. Sean Cronin as Mr. Prisoner

#39. Kelley Costigen as townwoman #1

#40. Tracy Gardener as townwoman #2

#41. Mark Gregory as rifleman #1

#42. Paul Brighwell as rifleman #2

#43. Layla Alexander as Widow

#44. Allen Woodman as Mr. Grave digger

#45. Henry Allan as Market boy #1

#46. Nathanel Hopkins Smith as Market boy #2

#47. Annelise Webb as Dutch immigrant girl

#48. Craig Shaw as Beggar

#49. Stuart Walker as townman

#50. Russell Greening as Mr. Woodland soldier

#51. Nic Main as Red Coat

#52. Kevin Hudson as Mr. New Yorker

#53. João Costa Menezes as Aristrocrat

#

Characters: Ichabod Crane, Mr. Killian, Beth Killian, Thomas Killian, Jonathan Masbath, Lady Van Tassel a.k.a Archer and her sister, Crone Witch, Lady Crane, Sarah, Emily Winship, Dirk Van Garrett, Rev. Steenwyck, Peter Van Garrett, Young Lady Van Tassel and her twin sister, Lord Crane, Baltus Van Tassel, Young Masbath, James Hardenbrook, Thomas Lancasters, Brom Van Brunt a.k.a Brom Bones, Samuel Philipse, Katrina Van Tassel, Young Ichabod Crane, townmen, market boys, townwomen, New Yorkers, Grave diggers, Widow, riflemen, woodland soldiers, girls, prisoners, Court Spectator, constables, Spotty, high constables, thuggish constables, red coats, Glenn, Dutch immigrant girls, Theodore, Van Ripper, Daredevil, Aristocrat, and Gunpowder