Wonderful character development!

Absolutely Brilliant!

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

What works in this sleepy hollow adaptation by Tim Burton? The haunting atmosphere and the fantastic production design. I feel like I was transported to Sleepy Hollow of the past centuries. Johnny Depp as the milquetoast constable Ichabod Crane is more than competent and frankly I could not have envisioned anyone in this role. Supporting cast are Christina Ricci and Casper Van Dien and of course Christopher Walken as the scary headless horseman. The pacing is excellent although I feel this is a niche film and you need to watch it with a certain mindset.

Detective Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) is sent from New York to Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of murders and bring the culprit back to New York to face justice. Using advanced forensic techniques, Crane believes that the task that he has been given shouldn't prove too difficult, but his world is soon turned upside down when he learns that the man that he's pursuing is not quite of this world...Sleepy Hollow is another dark and somewhat macabre offering from Tim Burton and Johnny Depp (whom have both collaborated many times together over the years). I've never read Washington Irving's novel (upon which this film was based), but was interested in this film when I read the plot summary. If I'm honest I didn't find the film to be consistently thrilling, but in fairness the basic story was fairly good and had enough about it to keep me involved (particularly in respect of the Horseman and how and why he selects his victims). Due to the very fact that everyone was a bit wacky I was never quite sure who to suspect and I found it entertaining trying to piece everything together.The screenplay is pretty good, but Director Tim Burton and star Johnny Depp are both on top form as well; having worked together on a number of occasions you do get the feeling that both men understand each other fairly well. Although the film has a dark plot and overall dark feel about it, the film does still have some amusing moments and a few gentle winks from time to time which made the film slightly more enjoyable overall.Depp gives a very impassioned performance here and does make the film a lot of fun to watch. It was interesting watching him getting swept up into the mad world of the inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow. The supporting cast all do fine with what they have to work with, but this is definitely Depp's film and he carries it well.Whilst overall the film has more hits than misses I didn't find it to be entirely successful; it does have its slow stretches (particularly in the first half of the film) and character development is quite poor, but I suppose part of Burton's problem is that he does sometimes get more swept up in the style of his products at the expense of substance. It's also fair to say that the film also suffers slightly when the headless horseman isn't around.FINAL VERDICT; Worthy of your time, but with the odd miss here and there.

Gnarled trees drip blood, Christoper Walken with sharpened teeth, and more decapitations than you can shake a stick at! Easily Tim Burton's grizzliest film and one of his most underrated. Burton consistently makes excellent films, but "Sleepy Hollow" typically isn't the first film people think of when asked what's your favorite Burton film? However, "Sleepy Hollow" really does deserve to be right up there as one of his best. It's deliciously bloody homage to 1960s Gothic Hammer Horror films and Italian horror pictures, ALA Mario Bava. Very loosely based upon the Washington Irving short story, this version has Ichabod Crane as a big city police detective sent into the small hamlet of Sleepy Hollow to solve a mystery surrounding a string of murders, beheadings to be precise. The film was written by Andrew Kevin Walker, the man behind the equally good, and grizzly, murder mystery "Se7en" and he does the same solid job of crafting a respectable who-done-it. However, just as with "Se7en," this film's success is really thanks to a strong director and strong cast and less so the script. Johnny Depp plays a very smug and uptight Ichabod Crane who looks down his nose at the rubes populating Sleepy Hollow, with the exception of a blond haired Christina Ricci, who has him completely befuddled. While Crane is sophisticated and intelligent, he's completely lost when it comes to women, social interactions, and, in general, the ways of the world, which is where this film version falls in line with the Irving tale. There's also Bram Bones, the headless horseman, and a few other trappings from the original story, but for the most part, this film strikes out on it's own, but it does feature some very fun nods to the classic Disney version of the Irvings story. Besides Depp and Ricci, there's a strong supporting cast that includes Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Jeffrey Jones, Richard Griffiths, Ian McDiarmid, Martin Landau, Ray Park doing the fighting scene for the headless horseman, Christopher Walken as the Hessian Horseman, and Hammer Horror veterans Michael Gough and Christopher Lee. Overall, Burton's one foray into a hard R-rated horror film is a real treat for fans of 60s Gothic horror films and more in general anyone who just wants to fun, scary, bloody good time.

Its been a while since I have seen a Tim Burton film that I have really liked, I don't think his newer films are as bad as everyone says they are, but I will admit that they aren't as captivating as his older works. "Sleepy Hollow" its definitely one of my new favorites from him, such a perfect film for this time of year, the atmosphere and the elements this film contains just speaks Halloween or October to me. I had a really good time watching this, even if its a bit flawed I would still say that this is one of the best horror films from the 90'sA bit dull at times and the exposition scenes can be too long, however, these minor flaws do not ruin the whole experience. I would complain about the special effects at times, but I know they are cheesy on purpose, besides, most of the special effects are pretty great.A really good tribute to Hammer and Bava, it has some really good performances, a great mood, fantastic atmosphere, some fun gore scenes and stunning cinematography.A great horror gem.