The Hollow (2004)
Coming some five years after Sleepy Hollow this had to be something a bit different to stand any chance of being remembered. Using the general ideas from Washington Irvine's story and bringing them kicking and screaming into the modern day works well, sort of.
The story involves a high school student (Kevin Zegers) and his discovery that he's a descendant of the legendary Ichabod Crane from Irvine's story and the newly resurrected Headless Horseman has come back from the dead once more to collect his head.
A teen high school movie was never going to grab me like Tim Burton's Gothic classic did but thanks to some likable characters - Zegers does really well in the lead role and Kaley Cuoco always seems like someone you could talk to (If anyone's interested she suits her cheerleader outfit quite nicely) meaning you have a couple of leads to root for rather than wish dead from the opening minutes. The film also benefits from a couple of veteran stars namely Stacy Keach and Judge Reinhold who both have significant screen time, especially Keach.
The Hollow is probably too much of a teen movie early doors to be viewed as any sort of classic but as it progresses and we go on a haunted hay ride things take a turn for the creepy and Halloween traditions and Irvine's story are carefully examined.
As for the headless horseman? Well he's no Ray Park and the film lacks the thunderous galloping hooves from Burton's film but it's probably as good as you could hope for. There's not much in the way of gore as the film was originally made for ABC's Family Channel (It was cut when shown) but everything has been re-inserted for this dvd including heads getting lopped off, brief nudity (with a literal idea of 'giving head') and gory remains.
The Hollow isn't an essential Halloween film by any means but enjoyable despite it's high school roots.
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