Sleepy Hollow

In a genre that is comprised of very different types of films, Horror seems to please the average movie-goer with its ability to both make you laugh and make you scream. Whether it’s watching a good B-horror film like The Evil Dead, or watching a Hollywood bone-chiller like The Haunting, Horror doesn’t seem to be losing its popularity in today’s culture. People love ghost stories, and probably always will. It seems that anyone may have soft spot for any film that reminds the viewer of those windy fall evenings with the tumbling leaves and wind running through the skeletal looking trees. Director Tim Burton, more than any Hollywood director, understands this atmosphere well. From such classics as Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Frankenweenie, Burton knows how to use classic gothic imagery to get his viewer’s to ‘feel’ the atmosphere. His best effort seems to be his recent retelling of the famous Washington Irving story, Sleepy Hollow. Irving’s version tells the story of a timid and unusual schoolteacher who comes to face to face with a Headless Horseman on Halloween night. Burton’s version on the other-hand greatly elaborates on this ghostly tale. The

Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow is a very dark movie, not just in much of its content and story, but in the pictures and shots themselves. Grays and dark colors dominate the screen, in everything from the clothes the characters wear, the fur color of the horses they ride, to the environment as a whole. There are a few exceptions to this plainness of color, however. When Ichabod dreams of his mother, especially when she and him are together in happy times, the bright colors make an appearance on the screen. Also, at the end of the movie, after the headless horseman has been sent back down to Hell, the color of the entire movie brightens. There is also a third patch of brightness that stands out. When Christina Ricci's character, Katrina Van Tassel, comes to the Western Woods to help Ichabod Crane, she and her horse are shown in a bright white, which contrasts significantly with the darkness of the rest of the screen. I believe this shows that Katrina will ultimately prove to not only be a good and noble character, even though doubt is later placed on her, but also the love of Ichabod's life.

As Ichabod and young Masbath ride their horses through the dark Western Woods in search of the Headless Horseman's resting spot, Ichabod hears movement. He investigates and sees the bright white blur of a galloping horse through the trees. When he gets closer, he finds a figure dressed in a white cloak sitting atop the horse. The rider and horse are brighter than almost anything we've yet seen in the movie. When the rider removes the hood of the cloak, we find she is Katrina Van Tassel. In addition to the bright white of the cloak that cuts through the movie's gloom, she also wears a yellow dress, much different from the drab blues and blacks of most of the character's clothes. Katrina seems to glow she is so much brighter than anything else in the scene. To Ichabod, she really does glow, as she is the object of his affection at that point in the film. She is glowing in his heart as well as on the screen. This proves that Burton cinematographic is more onto artistry than usual.

This bright white color of Katrina shows two things. The first is that she is a good and noble character, who opposes the evil in the film. She is, in sense, a heroine in the story. White is typically a color used to show what is pure and good, at least in American culture, and it sets up here that Katrina will ultimately be a force of this anti-evil goodness in the story. This, of course, is not overtly stated in the narration of the film, but left to the audience's emotions. Colors tend to be a subconscious element in film. It's strongly emotional in its appeal, expressive and impressive rather than intellectual. Because of this, people tend to accept color passively, permitting it to suggest moods rather than objects. (Giannetti 25) This means the audience is meant to feel the gloom of everything in the scene, but see the shining brightness of Katrina and realize, subconsciously at least, how she fits into the movie. The second thing the brightness of Katrina Van Tassel does in this scene is show Ichabod's feelings towards her. She is angelically white, pure, and lovely, especially in his eyes. This is firmly backed up by the dialogue in the scene, as well as the acting by Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci. After Ichabod realizes Katrina is there to help him because no one else would, he states, I am now twice the man. It is your white magic. (Burton).

A good contrast of this scene happens a bit later in the movie. Ichabod has found what he believes to be the evil eye under his bed, and he suspects that Katrina, if she does not control the Headless Horseman herself, at least has knowledge of who does. He still seems to hold a special place in his heart for her, but he does not trust her. The angelic quality she once held for him is now gone. He again travels out into the wilderness, but this time his destination is the old cottage where Katrina grew up. It is now but ruins, like his feelings for her. He finds her, and immediately the colors are nothing like they were in the Western Woods. Katrina is no longer so bright she glows. Instead, she wears a drab, dark blue dress, which does not command the attention of her bright white cloak and yellow dress. She had continued to wear the bright yellow dress in scenes prior to this, when Ichabod had no reason to suspect her. Now, however, her dress is dark. Even her horse, which is tied up over to the side of the ruined cottage, seems to have more of a gray tone to it. It is a far cry from the brilliant animal that commanded attention just a short time before. Their speech also turns the bright talk of their prior meeting into darker speech. Where Ichabod had described her magic as white before, he now calls them simply her magic spells. (Burton) Those words do not necessarily conjure up a color, be it light or dark, but it is most definitely not the bright description previously used. Katrina continues with this sort of speech when she tells Ichabod, I curse the day you came to Sleepy Hollow. (Burton) A curse is another magic term that is quite often thought of to be associated with black magic, a complete turnaround from the earlier meeting and conversation near the Tree of the Dead in the Western Woods. The portrayal of Western Wood and New York by Burton in this movie is beyond perfectionist. During 1990’s Burton is the only director that plays a very important role toward cinematography of art and the impact of the acceptance toward the great atmosphere is magnificent.

Burton also plays the lighting of the movie into contrast hence the difference of both place seems so realistic even back then it was in the 18th century, which reveal an uncompromised auteurist vision. Burton’s striking visuals and indelible characters make even his blockbuster studio films intimately personal. The darker conversation had taken place without the prior scene of light, we the audience might really doubt Katrina. The meeting in the Western Woods, however, happened first for a reason. Thanks to the brightness that surrounded Katrina and her horse, our emotions have already shown us that she is a heroine-type character, not a villain. This is proven true later in the film, as we learn Katrina's magic really is of the white variety. Her evil eye spell is not that at all, but instead a spell to keep loved ones safe from evil spirits. After Ichabod saves her from a beheading via the Headless Horseman, the love that was shown to blossom in the dark, gloomy Western Woods does come true. At this point in the movie, though, the gloom of Sleepy Hollow is gone thanks to the languishment of the evil, and the world, not just Katrina, is bright. It shows that purity has wins over the dark side in the movie.

White is a color that is often associated with goodness, purity, and nobility, and it is no different in Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow. The color white that surrounds Katrina Van Tassel in the Western Woods shows she is a good, noble character. It also shows her through the eyes of Ichabod Crane, and expresses his love for her to us, the audience. Even though guilt seems to be placed on her head in the course of the movie, we know that it will not be able to stick because of the visual color clue given to us in the Tree of the Dead scene in the Western Woods. It is a shining beacon of brightness in an otherwise grim and gloomily colored film. While Tim Burton is great artist and can masterfully paint a picture within a film, his films on a whole usually fall short of the mark, mostly because Burton tends to put ‘looks’ on a higher platform than story. He uses characters as visual props and visual superficiality. It seems that many of Burton’s so-called ‘horror’ films turn out to be not that horrific at all, and in turn tend to be less entertaining. What makes Sleepy Hollow an enjoyable horror movie is its appreciation of tragedy. Many of the classic horror movies use tragedy as a thematic element and to also relate the story to aspects of our own lives. Good horror monsters, if you can call them that, are usually victims, and their rampages come from common emotional fears. At first the viewer may think that Christopher Walken’s Headless Horseman is just some ‘spiffy’ special effect used for a good, cheap scare. But thankfully, this is not the case, and rather the Headless Horseman is only a terror to the town of Sleepy Hollow because he is suffering from injustice. The injustice being that his head is taken from its grave by Miranda Richardson’s character. The scenes with the Headless Horseman are shot and edited with such care. Unlike most horror films that use fast cuts and fast action, Burton shoots the Headless Horseman’s scenes in either Medium shots or wide angles. The adaptation of the wave horror is one of Burton specialties. He wants the viewer to get a full-on view of this frightening character, which makes the viewer identify the Headless Horseman as not just another ‘prop’ as some Hollywood creatures can be. The horseman is in fact one of the best horror figures to come out of this type of film. He’s the classic outlaw seeking justice. If it was to be compared to the culture of horror film now and Sleepy Hollow, there are a lot tribute that has to be focuses on but Sleepy Hollow by Tim Burton is one of ideal movie with perfect portrayal of the two contrasting world.