Sleepy Hollow-Arceneaux

Sleepy Hollow marked Burton's first attempt at making a true horror film by taking a well known folktale and molding it to fit his own personal style of macabre. Although he uses a folktale he does not keep many things constant. He does use the names of the characters and the names of the town but the story is very different in many ways. In the story Bones uses the identity of the horsemen to frighten Ichabod away from Katrina whereas in the movie the horsemen is indeed an actual entity. Ichabod's job is different as well. He is no longer a school teacher but rather a constable for the city of New York. This leaves many things for Burton to work with as he is not confined to the same parameters that he would have been had he stuck with the original story. Would I say that Burton took advantage of this tale to make a movie? Both yes and no. To be honest Burton could not have made a movie like this without changing a few things around and making it a little more interesting. I don't necessarily think that he made it worse but he definitely made it different than the Washington Irving tale. Many directors take a certain creative freedom with movies that have already been made in another medium. I do like the casting however but do not consider Katrina Van Tassel to be very pretty in the film. Johnny Depp does a fantastic job as always though. Burton seems like like playing with the idea of Depp being very dark and strange. I have always viewed Depp as being more comical and always having a less-than-serious attitude about him. Helena Bonham-Carter makes an appearance as well, marking her inevitable permanent seat next to Burton as the maker of macabre.