Week 4 of Inktober 2022 spotlights Oscar’s “Best Art Direction” award for Tim Burton’s 1999 twist on the classic Washington Irving tale “Sleepy Hollow.”
Burton cast his favorite muse Johnny Depp in the lead role of “Ichabod Crane.” This time Crane is a New York police constable instead of a squirrelly schoolteacher. He visits the appropriately named Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of grisly murders, in which each victim has been decapitated. While the film could have been a bit scarier for my tastes, the art direction is spot on, with its bleak, washed-out colors and dark forboding settings.