In 1799, New York City police constable Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) is deployed 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 apparition of a headless Hessian mercenary from the American Revolutionary War who rides a black steed in search of his missing head.

Crane begins his investigation, remaining skeptical about the paranormal 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 witch. She reveals the location of the Tree of the Dead, which marks the Horseman’s grave, as well as his portal into the natural, living world.

Crane discovers that the ground is freshly disturbed and the Horseman’s skull is missing. That night, the family of the village midwife is killed by the Horseman and Katrina’s suitor, Brom van Brunt (Casper Van Dien) is also 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 hypothesizes 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 secret new bride, Emily Winship, whom Crane discovers was pregnant with Van Garrett’s child. Crane deduces that all who knew about the new will, the marriage and the pregnancy were the victims of the 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 all 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 ground. A fight breaks out between the village elders in the church resulting in the deaths of Reverend Steenwyck and Doctor Lancaster, only ending 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 later becomes suspicious when he realizes the diagram made by Katrina he thought summoned the Horseman is really one of protection, and also that 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 Van Garrett, his new wife and unborn child and every villager who knew about the new will. She then sends the Horseman after Katrina to remove the last obstacle to inheriting Van Garrett’s land.

Following a fight and a stagecoach chase, Crane eventually thwarts Lady Van Tassel by throwing the skull to the Horseman, who reattaches his head to his body and breaks Lady Van Tassel’s curse. The Horseman, no longer under her 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 City with Katrina and Young Masbath, just in time for the new century.

1999

15

5011531898658

Movie

16:9

101

~$20.00

2025-06-26

2018-02-07 17:59:44