Sleepy Hollow (Tim Burton, 1999)

There is something mysterious and deeply compelling in Sleepy Hollow. That village with its dark roads and small houses and the headless horseman, they all make a strange combination. It's like you are been transferred to another world, another earth. There is something deeply eerie in that movie. There is something deeply dark, insecure and morbid in that film. And after that is this subterranean humour, that humour that comes in the most dark and heinous moments. And that combination, of the dark and the humorous make a film that balances between the absolutely astonishing horror movie with its stylish production design and the absolute farce. But fact is that Sleepy Hollow is neither of the two above. Sleepy Hollow is a gothic horror movie with an attitude. It has that character, that spirit that brakes bones. It's like all the beauty of the visuals are here to make the ride through the film a little bit more atmospheric. It's like the whole film dances a sleepy and ominous dance that is here to make people lose their minds and souls. It's like Sleepy Hollow came here to hypnotize the audience. It's like it came here to make you say that "I can't stand so much atmosphere. I want to go there. I want to be one of them. I want to see the headless horseman." Sleepy Hollow moves silently and with a heavy breath. Sleepy Hollow is the movie that you will see at midnight in order to bring the ghosts in your house.

This is a movie that you feel and you don't watch. The tree, the girl, the forest, the murders, the constable and his fears, all come together and take your soul to a place that there is no light, only darkness. But you know I am talking about that darkness that is better than the light. That highly atmospheric darkness that comes and brings shadows to everything. It comes and paints reality in its own gloomy way. Sleepy Hollow is a movie that you inhale deep in your lungs, it's a movie that you take to your stomach. There is that feeling in that film that you are watching a real revelation of emotions, images, moments and places. Because even the scarecrow in the beginning of the movie plays such an important role, like he is a character. So everything in there from the most tiny object, to the biggest house play such a crucial role to the movie that you fall in love with them. You fall in love with the air of that film. You fall in love with everything in that film. Because Sleepy Hollow is an achievement of cinema art. Sleepy Hollow is the story that you will show to your children for Christmas present. And they will love it.