No one creates a bleak, wintry, and gothic mood like Tim Burton, the director of this spooky film somewhat loosely based on Washington Irving’s classic story about a headless horseman lopping off heads in the upstate New York village of Sleepy Hollow. We were not as frightened as we were enthralled in wonderment while watching Ichabod Crane try to make sense out of a hostile, isolated world of superstition and intrigue.

Johnny Depp plays Ichabod Crane as a young sleuth, a cross between Sherlock Holmes and a modern forensics investigator. Ichabod begins the murder investigation with rationalistic conviction, expressed in an almost geeky prissiness, that the murders were perpetrated by someone living. We were amused to watch the breakdown of those convictions as Johnny Depp’s portrayal slips into almost girlish freight. In the end, Ichabod ventures where no man would to fight the ghost rider from hell.

Though he has no speaking lines, Christopher Walken was a load of fun in this near cameo of the Hessian soldier with flashing, sharpened teeth and unkempt hair. Most of the time, the horseman is only seen with cape draped over what would have been a head.

Christina Ricci plays the supernaturally inclined Katrina van Tassel with sweetness, though perhaps insufficient passion. Katrina doesn’t resort to stereotypical ranting and screaming, but her character requires more emotional boiling under the surface, especially when Ichabod and Katrina begin to fall in love and must learn to respect each other’s conflicting perspectives.

As one might expect, Ichabod’s investigation uncovers a festering infection of hypocrisy, intrigue, and evil in the lives of the town elders. The hidden darkness of the undercurrents of these people is emphasized through the dilapidated houses against the backdrop of the muddy, gray, and rainy winter.

The story carefully sets up the question of rationality versus superstitious spirituality. Ichabod Crane hopes to wipe out superstition with the light of reason, but he ends up using his rational scrutiny to understand and disarm the supernatural and human forces that control the acts of the headless horseman. That is a powerful statement against going astray through the blind following of either excessive rationality or occultism.

In addition to the polarity between rational doubt and superstitious spirituality, we found ourselves enthralled in a discussion of the hell that women wreck when their lives are suppressed and unfulfilled, and they feel forced to use guile and greed to claw to the top. In contrast, we also see how women may teach men to accept and understand spiritual aspects of reality. These mysteries of feminine nature prompt Ichabod to take courageous steps to save his beloved and a trusted young assistant.

Those with a weak stomach should be forewarned of the graphic autopsies and investigation of decapitated bodies. The severed necks and spines are clearly visible in several scenes.

We were somewhat disappointed that the mood and style of Sleepy Hollow did not support stronger story development, but this is a far cry better than either the Haunting or Blair Witch Project, which rely respectively on empty special effects or nearly plotless yelling and camera shaking.