Sleepy Hollow is a 1999 American horror film directed by Tim Burton. It is a film adaptation loosely inspired by the 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving 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 being demoted to prosthetic makeup designer, and Burton was hired to direct in June 1998. Filming took place from November 1998 to May 1999, and the film was released to generally favorable reviews from critics, and grossed approximately $206 million worldwide. Sleepy Hollow won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction.
Plot
In 1799, New York City police constable Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) is facing imprisonment for going against traditional methods. Ichabod submits to deployment to the Westchester County hamlet of Sleepy Hollow, New York, which has been plagued by a series of brutal slayings in which the victims are found decapitated: Peter Van Garrett (Martin Landau), a wealthy farmer; his son Dirk; and the widow Emily Winship. Crane learns that locals believe the killer is the undead apparation of an headless Hessian mercenaryfrom the American Revolutionary War who rides on a black steed in search of his missing head.
Crane begins his investigation, remaining skeptical about the supernatural elements until he actually encounters the Headless Horseman, who kills the town magistrate, Samuel Phillipse (Richard Griffiths). Boarding at the home of the town's richest family, the Van Tassels, Crane is taken with their daughter Katrina (Christina Ricci). Crane and Young Masbath, the son of one of the Horseman's victims, go to the cave dwelling of a reclusive sorceress. She reveals the location of the Tree of the Dead, which marks the Horseman's grave, as well as his portal into the natural world.
Crane discovers that the ground is freshly disturbed and the Horseman's skeleton has the skull missing. That night, the Killian family are killed, their son abducted, by the Horseman and Katrina's suitor Brom van Brunt (Casper Van Dien) is killed trying to stop the Horseman. The Horseman doesn't attempt to interact with or harm van Brunt until he has no choice; from this, Crane hypothesises that the Horseman is attacking select targets, and that whoever dug up and stole the skull is the person controlling the Horseman.
Crane starts to believe that a conspiracy links all the deaths together, so he looks into Van Garrett's Last Will. Van Garrett had made a new will just before he died, leaving all his possessions to his new bride, Emily Winship. Crane deduces that all who knew about the new will were the victims of Horseman and that Katrina's father Baltus Van Tassel (Michael Gambon), who would have inherited the fortune, is the person holding the skull. Katrina, finding out that Crane suspects her father, burns the evidence that Crane has accumulated.
A council is held in the church. The Horseman seemingly kills Katrina's stepmother, Lady Van Tassel, and heads off to the church to get Baltus. Crane realizes the Horseman can't enter the church due to it being holy. A fight breaks out between the village elders in the church and the chaos ends only when the Horseman harpoons Baltus through a window, dragging him out and acquiring his head. The next day, Crane believes Katrina to be the one who controls the Headless Horsemen.
Crane becomes suspicious when the corpse of Lady Van Tassel has a wound that seems to have been caused post-mortem. The corpse is revealed as that of a servant when Lady Van Tassel (Miranda Richardson) emerges alive to ambush Katrina. Lady Van Tassel tells Katrina that her family was driven from their ancestral home by the Van Garretts, and that she became a witch and summoned the Horseman to kill them off and make herself sole heir to the family fortune. She then sends the Horseman after Katrina to solidify her hold on what she considers her rightful property.
Following a fight and a stagecoach chase, Crane eventually thwarts Lady Van Tassel by throwing the skull to the Horseman, which causes his head to become reattached to his body and the curse broken. The Horseman, no longer under Lady Van Tassel's control, simultaneously kisses and bites her, and hoists her up on his horse. He then rides to Hell, taking her with him, fulfilling her end of the deal with the Devil. Crane returns home to New York with Katrina and Young Masbath, just in time for the new century.
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