Washington Irving's classic tale has been retooled to the sensibilities of Burton and screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker (of Se7en). Schoolteacher Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) is now a New York City police constable sent upstate with his wild detecting contraptions (he's a pioneer of forensics) to investigate a series of decapitations in the community of Sleepy Hollow. The town's magistrates have pegged The Headless Horseman, a vengeful ghost, as the killer, but Crane, whose spell-dabbling mother (Lisa Marie) was tortured to death by Puritans, prefers to put his faith in logic over the supernatural.

With "Murder, She Wrote" or "Scooby-Doo Mysteries" instead of Irving's text serving as its template, the remainder of the plot feels like filler. Crane flirts with Katrina (Christina Ricci in a yellow wig--Burton shares that blonde hair fetish with Hitchcock), the winsome daughter of landlord Baltus Van Tassel (Michael Gambon). Katrina's hand has already been promised to Brom Van Brunt (Casper Van Dien, given a role that thankfully doesn't tax his limited range), which, according to the principles of gothic literature, means that one third of the triangle will have to be dispatched. Then there's the orphan (Marc Pickering) who tags along with Crane as a sort of junior Watson, squashing spiders for his foppish mentor and shielding him from harm.

Burton and his cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki have concocted some psychotically pretty images that visually distinguish this interpretation of ...Sleepy Hollow from all the others, especially in scenes featuring Christopher Walken, who leaves a lasting impression as the Horseman. (Don't worry, I haven't ruined anything.) The actor's unearthly physical presence has been noted in the past, but here, with snarls for dialogue and a mouthful of pointy Richard Keel teeth, he achieves heretofore unexplored levels of camp. His performance lacks the tragic elements of the most memorable movie monsters, but the very sight of him defibrilates a movie mired in would-be homages to Hammer and (with one exception, involving a duel) derivative action sequences.

Yes, yes, I know: those unmotivated bolts of lightning, shots of people darting awake from a nightmare in a cold sweat, melodramatic line readings, and fog-drenched, minimalist sets are Burton's way of paying tribute to the horror pictures he loved as a youth (Hammer mainstay Christopher Lee even has a cameo), but the effect is muffled by a script as clunky as any by John Elder but that does not feel deliberately so, not to mention a budget that could've funded fifty or sixty Vincent Price flicks. Ichabod and Katrina's cursory romance has been spared the imagination that went into the special effects (which are spectacular), while the resolution--which follows a carriage race climax that falls well short of thrilling (too few complications)--is a real head-scratcher.

I referred to some of Burton's other work in the opening paragraph--in order: Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and Beetlejuice; Frankenweenie (a short); his entire catalogue; and Beetlejuice and Ed Wood. Burton's Sleepy Hollow is stitched together from spare parts like some cinematic Frankenstein, and the sum is unwieldy. This is the third time that he and Depp have collaborated on a project (after Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands), annihilating that old adage about charm. Depp really disappoints; he emasculates Ichabod in a jokey way that ultimately renders him a cipher. The problem is not that we wind up rooting for the Headless Horseman, it's that we never root for Crane more than perfunctorily.

Burton's career is on a downswing--his last effort, Mars Attacks, was another unsuccessful tribute to misspent youth. His work of late is most signifcantly characterized by its thematic emptiness--if only, in fishing through his old bag of tricks, he had pulled up the emotional grandeur of Edward Scissorhands or Ed Wood, films that spoke volumes about alienation and passion. It is Burton who loses his head in the dark, dull Sleepy Hollow. Or, at least, his knack.

Rarely less than aesthetic ecstacy, Lubezki's cinematography is done justice by Paramount's DVD release of Sleepy Hollow. Purists will appreciate that the film's bleached colour scheme and well-deep blacks have been preserved; detail is so jaw-dropping that it calls into question the necessity of HDTV, particularly during Ichabod's flashbacks to childhood. (But, because the transfer is inherently dark, I beg thee to watch this movie with the lights off.) The 16x9-enhanced image, letterboxed at 1.85:1, is barely compromised by downconversion for 4:3 sets.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is as good as it was in cinemas. (That is to say, terrific.) The sound designers were very attentive when it came to outdoor scenes, where dialogue has a still quality that's downright creepy and isolating (and not merely indicative of the fact that most of the exteriors were shot on a soundstage). The surrounds and sub mainly get a workout from Danny Elfman's score and the horseman's nightly visits, respectively. A somewhat less immersive Dolby Surround track is also included.

Tim Burton contributes a fairly lifeless film-length commentary that confirms his fanboy side, rather than his artistic side, is responsible for Sleepy Hollow--he seems to compare everybody who appears on screen to Peter Cushing or Vincent Price. (I prefer his rap session with Paul Reubens on the Pee-Wee's Big Adventure disc.) Burton is more animate in a section of cast and crew interviews (eleven minutes' worth; also features Depp, Ricci, Gambon, Richardson, and Denise Richards' male equivalent, Casper Van Dien, who calls Burton's vision "unbelievably believable").

A separate, half-hour long making-of also contains interviews. This featurette was produced before, not after, the film's theatrical release, and therefore comes off as a self-congratulatory promo more than anything else, though a demonstration of how certain F/X were accomplished is riveting. Capping things off: a photo gallery (disappointing in that it only contains stills from the film, no candid snapshots or storyboards or the like); cast and crew bios; a teaser trailer; and a theatrical trailer.-Bill Chambers