Sleepy Hollow

1999. USA/Great Britain. Directed by Tim Burton. Screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker, based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. With Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Christopher Walken. Burton’s film transforms Irving’s folktale into a supernatural whodunit, and the original meek schoolteacher, Ichabod Crane, into a priggish New York City constable who is sent up the Hudson River to investigate a series of bizarre murders. The film’s macabre humor melds perfectly with the “stylized naturalism” of Burton’s sumptuous production and the addition of Expressionist flourishes to the Dutch Colonial setting. 105 min.