Tim Burton’s horror movies have his unique narrative and visual style, and in his take on the tale ofSleepy Hollow, he broke one of the most controversial horror traditions, but it was for the better. After exploring the genre of sci-fi and comedy withMars Attacks!, Tim Burton returned to horror in his own style withSleepy Hollow. Loosely based on the 1820 short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, by Washington Irving,Sleepy Hollowtakes viewers to 1799 and to the title town that has been plagued by a series of brutal and mysterious murders.
In each of the murders, the victims had their heads cut off, and so the insular town elders hire eccentric police constable Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) to investigate the murders. Ichabod teams up with Young Masbath, the son of one of the victims, and Katrina Van Tassel (Christina Ricci), and together discover that the killer is none other than the legendary Headless Horseman.Sleepy Hollowis one of Burton’s most graphic horror movies, and it went as far as to break a controversial horror tradition, but it fits the movie perfectly.
Sleepy Hollow Broke Horror’s Controversial “No Children’s Deaths” Rule (Twice)
Sleepy Hollow Killed A Kid & An Unborn Child
The Headless Horseman inSleepy Hollowseemed to kill at random, but Ichabod found a connection between the victims. Among the first victims of the Headless Horseman (at least within the events of the movie) was a widow, who Ichabod later learned thanks to magistrate Samuel Philipse that she was pregnant. Ichabod, with the help of Young Masbath, exhumed the bodies of a father, his son, and the widow, confirming that she was pregnant. Later on,the Headless Horseman went after the village’s midwife, killing her, her husband, and their young son.
Sleepy Hollow, then, broke the controversial horror tradition of not killing children. Many horror movies and famous villains, particularly those in the slasher genre, have stayed away from killing children. Reasons for this vary, as they could be creative decisions by the writers, not necessary to the plot, or something deeper and linked to morality. In the DVD commentary ofSleepy Hollow, Tim Burton revealed his reason for deciding to break this horror tradition and kill children (and an unborn one) inSleepy Hollow, and it was a very personal one.
Burton decided to treat children like the rest inSleepy Hollow.
Burton shared his dislike towards children always being spared from danger in horror movies, recalling that, as a child, he hated how children were treated differently in these movies. With this in mind, Burton decided to treat them like the rest inSleepy Hollow, and so the Headless Horseman can count a young boy and an unborn child among his victims.
Sleepy Hollow’s Most Controversial Deaths Are Necessary For The Story
Sleepy Hollow’s Deaths Are Justified
The big twist inSleepy Hollowis that the Headless Horseman wasn’t killing because he wanted to, andhe was being manipulated by none other than Lady Van Tassel(Miranda Richardson), Katrina’s stepmother. Lady Van Tassel was a vengeful witch who provoked the Horseman’s death years before and stole his skull so she could control him. Lady Van Tassel wanted revenge against Peter Van Garrett for evicting her family and favoring the Van Tassels, so, through the Headless Horseman, she killed Van Garrett, his beneficiaries, witnesses, and others who got in her way.
Lady Van Tassel was cruel, evil, and lacked empathy, so ordering the Headless Horseman to kill children and pregnant women was no problem for her.
Lady Van Tassel didn’t care who she had to get rid of as long as she got what she wanted, and she even killed her sister, who ended up becoming a crone witch. Lady Van Tassel was cruel, evil, and lacked empathy, so ordering the Headless Horseman to kill children and pregnant women was no problem for her.The deaths of children inSleepy Hollowonly show how evil Lady Van Tassel was, as well as how far the Headless Horseman would go, even though he was under Lady Van Tassel’s control.
The Headless Horseman Sparing Children In Sleepy Hollow Wouldn’t Have Made Sense
Sleepy Hollow Couldn’t Have Followed That Specific Horror Tradition
In many horror movies, the killer sparing children makes sense, either in terms of narrative or because killing children wouldn’t fit with their modus operandi and mission, but that isn’t the case for the Headless Horseman. Even before his death and Lady Van Tassel manipulating him, the Horseman was an evil and sadistic Hessian mercenary. Unlike other horror characters in Burton’s movies, like Edward Scissorhands,the Headless Horseman has no redeeming qualities, and neither does Lady Van Tassel.
Is Sleepy Hollow A Real Place? Tim Burton’s Movie Location Explained
Sleepy Hollow is the title and setting of Tim Burton’s version of the legend of the Headless Horseman, but is it a real place? Let’s take a look.
Lady Van Tassel acted from a place of resentment and revenge, but the flashback to the death of the Horseman showed that she had always had some evil in her. It was she who broke the branch that alerted the Horseman’s enemies, leading to his death, and she witnessed his burial so she could return and take his head.Sparing children wouldn’t have fit with the evil of the Headless Horseman and Lady Van Tassel, so Tim Burton made the right decision in breaking this controversial horror tradition inSleepy Hollow.
Sleepy Hollow
Sleepy Hollow is a supernatural horror thriller by director Tim Burton and Starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci. Based on the original tale by Washington Irving, Sleepy Hollow follows constable Ichabod Crane as he is sent to the titular northern New York town to investigate a series of beheadings. However, the scholarly Crane’s foe is a supernatural being that cannot be explained - The Headless Horseman.
