Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Sleepy Hollow is a 1999 American gothic supernatural horror film^[4] directed by Tim Burton. It is a film adaptation loosely based on Washington Irving's 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", and stars Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci, with Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Casper Van Dien, and Jeffrey Jones in supporting roles. The plot follows police constable Ichabod Crane (Depp) sent from New York City to investigate a series of murders in the village of Sleepy Hollow by a mysterious Headless Horseman.

Development began in 1993 at Paramount Pictures, with Kevin Yagher originally set to direct Andrew Kevin Walker's script as a low-budget slasher film. Disagreements with Paramount resulted in Yagher's being demoted to prosthetic makeup designer, and Burton was hired to direct in June 1998. Filming took place from November 1998 to May 1999.

The film had its world premiere at Mann's Chinese Theatre on November 17, 1999 and was released in the United States on November 19, 1999, by Paramount Pictures. It received generally positive reviews from critics, with many praising the performances, direction, screenplay and musical score, as well as its dark humor, visual effects and atmosphere. It grossed approximately $207 million worldwide. Sleepy Hollow won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction.

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: Peter and Dirk Van Garrett, a wealthy father and son, and a widow, Emily Winship. 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 believe 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.

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, is killed, Ichabod takes the victim's son, Young Masbath, under his wing. Ichabod and Masbath exhume the victims on a tip from Philipse, learning that the widow died pregnant; Ichabod witnesses the Horseman killing Philipse shortly after. He, Young Masbath and Katrina venture into the Western Woods, where a crone living in a cave reveals the location of the Horseman's grave at the "Tree of the Dead". He digs up the Horseman's grave and discovers 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.

That night, the Horseman kills Beth Killian, the village midwife, and her family, as well as Katrina's suitor Brom when he attempts to intervene. Judging by the Horseman's habit of murdering specific victims and leaving others in his path unharmed, Ichabod hypothesizes that he is attacking select targets linked by a conspiracy. 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 subsequent victims (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.

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, although he did not actually witness her death: he fled upon seeing the Horseman approach his wife with his sword in hand. The Horseman attacks the church, but is unable to enter. In the chaos, the remaining elders turn on and attack each other: Steenwyck and Lancaster are killed, and the Horseman harpoons Baltus through a window, dragging him out of the church and acquiring his head.

Initially concluding that Katrina controls the Horseman, Ichabod discovers that her diagram, which he believed summoned the Horseman, is really one of protection, and additionally finds a post-mortem wound on "Lady Van Tassel's" body. Lady Van Tassel, alive and well, then reveals herself to Katrina; the body assumed to be hers was in fact that of Sarah, a maidservant she had murdered and dressed in her clothes. Lady Van Tassel abducts Katrina and explains her true heritage from an impoverished family evicted years ago by Van Garrett when he favored Baltus and Katrina instead. She swore revenge against Van Garrett and all who had wronged her, pledging herself to Satan if he would raise the Horseman to avenge her, and also to claim the Van Garrett and Van Tassel estates uncontested. Manipulating her way into the Van Tassel household, she used fear, blackmail, and lust to draw the other elders into her plot. Having eliminated all other heirs and witnesses — and having killed her sister, the crone, for aiding Ichabod — she summons the Horseman to finish Katrina.

Ichabod and Masbath rush to the windmill as the Horseman arrives. After an escape that destroys the windmill and the subsequent 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. 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.