Building Sleepy Hollow
Burton initially hoped to shoot around New York's Hudson Valley, but the real locations felt too historically authentic for the expressionistic world he wanted, so the production moved to England and built its own village.
Movie
Sleepy Hollow
Heads will roll.
Skeptical young detective Ichabod Crane gets transferred to the hamlet of Sleepy Hollow, New York, where he is tasked with investigating the decapitations of three people – murders the townsfolk attribute to a legendary specter, The Headless Horseman.
Why it's in the Vault
Sleepy Hollow is Tim Burton working in almost perfect conditions: fog, crooked trees, candlelight, blood and a village where everyone looks vaguely guilty. Beneath the murder mystery is a loving resurrection of old Hammer horror, photographed like a macabre storybook and played with just enough wit to keep the gloom delicious rather than oppressive. Few films make decapitation look this beautiful.
— Matty, Curator of the Vault
Atmosphere
Gothic, fog-drenched, macabre, romantic, fairytale-like
Gothic dread
Mystery
Macabre beauty
Dark fairytale
Contains frequent decapitations, bloody violence, corpses, disturbing imagery and supernatural menace.
Dans les coulisses
Ce qu'on ne voit pas à l'écran
Fog at a price
Much of the film was shot under tightly controlled studio lighting with enormous quantities of artificial smoke; cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki later developed a pulmonary infection during the production.
Making the Horseman
Christopher Walken portrays the Horseman with his head intact, while stunt performer Ray Park handled much of the character's physical and horseback action.
An Oscar-winning village
Rick Heinrichs and set decorator Peter Young's elaborate artificial world won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction.
Aux origines
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Burton's film takes Irving's Headless Horseman, Ichabod Crane and Hudson Valley setting as its foundation, but transforms the brief supernatural tale into an elaborate murder mystery with a radically reinvented Crane.
Palette
Les couleurs du film
Graveyard Black#18191A
Corpse Grey#777B79
Fog Silver#B8BBB5
Blood Crimson#741E20
Dead Forest Brown#4B4036
Candle Ivory#D7C7A4
Images
Photogrammes
Collection
