Sleepy Hollow is an American gothic horror film in 1999, directed by Tim Burton. Stars Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci. It is actually a film adaptation inspired by a short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving in 1820. By the way, it is so obvious to see the gothic elements in the film – the lighting, the costume, and the makeup. There is a filmic style called German Expressionism. What we will have in this blog post is analysing the German Expressionism in the film.

What is German Expressionism? It refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin from 1919 to 1926. These developments in Germany were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central European culture in fields. The filmic style was influenced by the Expressionist movement in modern art of early 1900s. The themes included revolt (to break away constituted authority), self-analysis (where am I? Who I am? ), madness and sexual savagery. Expressionism is not limited to painting but was manifest in literature, theatre and architecture of Scandinavian and German-speaking countries. When spread into the cinema, it influenced the terms of narrative, set and mise-en-scene. The style includes oblique camera angles; distorted bodies and shapes. German Expressionist painters rejected the naturalistic depiction of objective reality, they portraying distorted figures, buildings and landscapes.  The bizarre and incongruous settings that is usually gothic in look and framing. Number of artists and craftsmen working in the Berlin theatre brought in Expressionist visual style to the design of stage sets. This turns out the influence on films – dealing with fantasy and horror. Apart from that, the lighting is always in high contrast – to create dramatic shadows. The content is usually surreal and gothic, about unnatural art or realities. This filmic style was paralleled Expressionist painting in rejecting realism.

Here we have the plot of Sleepy Hollow. A New York City police constable Crane deployed to the Westchester County hamlet of Sleepy Hollow. The place has been plagued by a series of brutal slayings in which the victims are found decapitated. The locals believed that the killer is a headless un-dead apparition who searching his missing head. Crane begins the investigation with his paranormal elements until he encounters the headless horseman. Regard to a witch, he also found out the Tree of the Dead, which was marked as the horseman’s grave, and his living world. After that, Crane also discovers the horseman doesn’t attempt to interact with or harm others – Crane hypothesized the horseman only attack the selected targets, and the one who stole the skull is actually controlling the horseman. Finally, he found out the controller with the suspicious and evidence.

Here we come with analysis German Expressionism in Sleepy Hollow. Firstly, we have the high contrast visuals. In the whole film, there is only black and white tone. Even when it comes to flashback, the colour tone is more saturated, but the tone is still high contrast. The filmic style is characterized by highly stylized sets and acting, they used a new visual style which embodied high contrast and simple editing. It combined with jagged, stylized shapes and harsh and unnatural colour used.

Next, the distorted bodies. There are a lot distorted shapes in the background setting. As I mentioned before, the painters in that period are rejected the naturalistic depiction of objective reality. The distorted figures are in a disorientating manner that disregarded the conventions of perspective and proportion. Combined with the lighting, it emphasized some particular affect, which are fear and horror. The Tree of the Dead is very obvious for the distorted body. It has been twisted. The horseman, his teeth is also one of the “distorted”.

Third, revolt. Sleepy Hollow is actually a genre of crime film. Crane is a police constable in New York City in 1799. From the beginning of film, we can see that Crane couldn’t stand with their “simply deduction” that are just based on the way of death. He remained sceptical about paranormal elements. He also cast off allegiance or subjection to those in authority. This might be the reason he deployed to the Sleepy Hollow. When he investigates about the first case in Sleep Hollow, he uses scientism method to deduce crimes. Revolt is more showed on Crane.

Fourth, the madness. There is madness on Crane’s father, the witches, and Mrs. Van Tassel. Crane’s father is only showed when flashback of Crane, his mother was a gentle and kind woman. Crane always seems to be happy as his mother is the one who always accompany him. While his father, always seems to be in mad mood. He always shows his madness toward Crane’s mother and killed her. 

The witches – when she reveals the location of The Tree of the Dead, she get erupted all of a sudden – like wants to kill Crane, as she rushed toward Crane. 

Lastly, we have the controller of the horseman, and the killer of the whole series cases. She is stepmother of Katrina Van Tassel, seems to be nice person. Yet, she actually consumed by revenge against Van Garrett and The Van Tassel Family as they torture her and her family in a way, leaves them to starve and stole her home. Her life time of scheming is just for revenging. After the revenge, she still aim for the Mr. Van Tassel’s will as he is the richest family in the town, and also claim for everything that she deemed to be rightfully hers uncontested.

In conclusion, Sleepy Hollow is one of my favourite film, not only because of Johnny Depp, but also it is a crime film. The Gothic style of costume, the architecture and the lighting is also my style. Lastly, attach with my most favourite scene.