Sleepy Hollow

               In the previous journal review which is about the movie In the Mood for Love, the movie do applied one of the major concepts of filming: French Impressionism. As for today’s journal, I would like to discuss about another concept along with a movie film as an example, which is German Expressionism. In this concept theory, there are a few semantic and syntax approaches that help to differentiate themselves from other concepts, along with genres applied and also themes. With various distinguished characteristics, it helps to determine the German Expressionism elements in the movie film.

:::GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM:::

                German Expressionism is a concept theory of filming that is emerged in Germany from the year 1919 until 1926. This concept is influenced by the Expressionist movement in modern art of early 1900s. Due to German Expressionism’s uniqueness in transmitting the gothic yet horror story to audiences, most of the filmmakers had migrated from Germany to the United States, in order to influence the horror films and film noir in the Hollywood. As for showing this type of film in the cinema, the movie film is usually spread in cinema in terms of narrative, set, and the mise-en-scene in the scenes of the film. Another than that, it is mostly apparent with chiaroscuro lighting and set designs that show the expression of this concept. Themes used in German Expressionism include primitive, revolt, self-analysis, madness and sexual savagery; visuals used are mostly gothic settings and dramatic shadows, along with unnatural acts. To show an example that applied German Expressionism theory, I would like to brief about the film Sleepy Hollow, which is a 1999 American gothic horror movie film. Sleepy Hollow is directed by a famous director, Tim Burton, and it is a film adaption inspired by the 1820 short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving.

:::SYNOPSIS:::

                In the beginning of Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod Crane was deployed to the Westchester County hamlet of Sleepy Hollow, New York, which has been plagued with the serial killing case from a headless mercenary from the American Revolutionary War who rides a black steed in search of his head through the place. With the aid of his investigation and experiments, in terms of meeting the witches and dealing with all the death cases. When he realized that the horseman only killed certain people, which is all controlled by Lady Van Tassel, he was determined to solve the mystery of this headless man and ended up returning the head to Van Tassel, along with bringing Lady Van Tassel down to heal for fulfilling her end of the deal with the Devil.

:::RECAPPED SCENES:::

                Through Sleepy Hollow, the characteristics of German Expressionism is shown. In the movie, high contrast lighting is used in the scene where Ichabod tried to cut the roots of the Tree of Dead while the weather is full of thunders. When Ichabod cut the roots deeply, heads of victims appeared under the tree, which they are “chopped” by Van Tassel. In this scene, high contrast lighting is used when the heads suddenly “popped” out from the tree’s roots, in order to show the scariness of the whole movie. Another than that, the distorted bodies in the movie film is also a part of showing the visual depiction that represents German Expressionism. The distorted bodies shown in the film are all the victims of Van Tassel killing cases. With these, it does shows the creepy side of the movie.

                Moreover, themes like revolt, self-analysis and madness make up the whole gothic, horror, German-expressed movie. Firstly, revolt is shown in the film when Ichabod used scientific method to deduce the crimes, for claiming the truth of five victims instead of four. Regardless of protecting his life, he managed to discover the mystery by meeting up the witches, revealed the Tree of Dead, and even try to meet Van Tassel. Luckily, he was safe enough to save his own life. The witchcraft in this film also represents as a revolt against the legal system. Secondly, self-analysis is shown in the throughout experiment and analysis of both Ichabod and young Masbath. Despite the guilt of the others and with the aid of Katrina and Masbath, Ichabod managed to reveal the truth behind Van Tassel’s serial killing cases which are related to the evil head, Lady Van Tassel. As for young Masbath, he discovered the evil eye under the bed of the room. Thirdly, madness is also shown in the film when Ichabod’s father killed Ichabod’s mother. This is due to his madness of knowing that his wife is a witch, and it does show shame to the family in the past. The revenge of the stepmother, Lady Van Tassel also show madness, as she tried to killed all the people who know about the new will, marriage and child, in order to claim everything that she deemed to be rightfully under her hands. The climax of the scene is one of the example of showing madness, in which Lady Van Tassel tend to kill Katrina, as she is the last obstacle for the stepmother to inheriting the combined Van Garett and Van Tassel estates.

:::CONCLUSION:::

                As a conclusion, Sleepy Hollow is a very interesting horror film, as it brings not just horror, but also scenes where you have to discover and take analysis. Through this film, the elements of German Expressionism is nicely defined without confusing. While the movie is filled with mystery and frightening cases, it also shows myth such as witches and headless Van Tassel. In my opinion, I found it startled no just in terms of scariness, but also the defined facts in every scenes.