Opening Analysis - Sleepy Hollow (Burton, 1999)

Genre

Sleepy Hollow is from the movie genre horror, and starts off in a fairly typical manor which we would expect from a movie of this genre. It starts with some fairly alarming shots of headless people and blood splatters, both gory things, and gore being one of the conventions of a horror movie. Also enigma is quickly created, when we find the carriage drivers head missing and the odd black figure speed past the carriage window, we are immediately put into the same position as the character inside the carriage, we don’t know what’s going on and we are utterly “horrified”. Enigma is also created when we see the red liquid being dropped onto a piece of paper. At first, because it is a horror film, we generally expect it to be blood, so we wonder what is dripping blood onto this piece of paper, however we later find out it is only wax.
Generally, as we would expect from a horror movie, there will be death, usually in a very raw form. Very early on in the opening sequence we are given this, with the shot of the carriage driver without his head. Then fairly quickly after this, we see the man in the carriage have his own head cut off. So therefore our generic expectations of a horror movie having raw gore in it are fulfilled.
Mainly, the characteristics of the genre are confirmed, however there is one instance I have seen where they have been treated playfully. As the character from inside the carriage is rushing through the tall grass, he bumps into the scarecrow, which has a pumpkin as a head. He is immediately alarmed by this, because of its human like figure and his current state of mind. He then realises it is only the scarecrow he saw earlier from inside the carriage and relaxes a little. But oh no, we then hear the sound of a horse, much like the one from the part where the carriage drivers head is cut off; the man slowly turns around, only to have his head cut off – unlucky, maybe next time.
There is evidence of a stock location, being the remote country road they are riding down in the carriage. This is fairly common to the horror genre and we expect to see it as it conveys ideas of remoteness and desertedness.

Film Language

In the opening sequence, the name “Van Garrett” appears very frequently. This leads us to think a lot about the name Van Garrett and to watch out for it later in the movie, as the chances are that there is something going on, and the Van Garrets have something to do with it. The shots also have a washed effect to them, this helps convey the sort of period the movie is set in, 18th century America. The weather in the opening sequence is fairly bleak and black, and with the death of the carriage driver and the passenger inside, it seems fairly evident that this weather may be an example of pathetic fallacy. The titles at the start also appear out of a mist at the start, which helps convey a spooky mood, which is very relevant to the movie, as it is about headless horsemen and curses and the such. We also see a shot of some writing on a piece of paper saying “The Last Will and Testament” which gives us the idea of someone is either planning or expecting to die.
In the earlier shots in the opening sequence, there are regular close ups of hands doing things. These close ups are used well in effect to draw attention to certain details and actions which need to be noticed by the audience. For example the stamping of the seal into the hot wax, with the name “Van Garrett”, if this shot was done in long shot, we wouldn’t have noticed the name on the seal, and vital information about what the paperwork was done for and by is lost. In the shots when the character from the carriage is running through the long grass, steady cam is used to put us in the position of the man, better helping us feel his emotions of fright and agitation. Also the jerkier movement of steady cam gives us the impression of confusion and desperation because of the quick changes in movement. These feelings of confusion and desperation are very likely to be felt by the man in the scene, so it is therefore helping us again feel what the man in the scene is feeling. We also see a shot from under the veil of the executioner, which I think is really effective when showing the expression on the now headless mans face right before he gets his head cut off. And because we see the decapitation from underneath a veil, we now know that the executioner hides his or her identity, adding extra suspicion and enigma.
Sound is used very well in the opening sequence, both diagetic and non-diagetic. There is the sound of thunder, which is typical of scary horror movies. We find it scary because generally, we found the idea of thunder and lightning scary when we were children. This therefore brings us back into the mind set of a child, making us feel vulnerable and defenceless, which is just what the director wants us to feel so the horrifying features of the movie have a greater effect on us. There is also the creepy music, almost sinister, which has connotations of evil and ill-intent.
We learn very quickly that the driver of the carriage is very uncomfortable about making this journey in these conditions of night and storm. We know this because, when he hears the crack of thunder, he immediately looks around, worries and snaps the leads on the horses to hurry them up.

Narrative

The audience is regularly positioned in with the action; this almost puts the audience in the same position as the character in the shot, therefore helping us as the audience feel what the character in the shot feels.
The man in the carriage seems very alienated, as he sits in the middle of the seat in the carriage and looks around as if there no one else to talk to and nothing to do. He is then further alienated when his “driver” has his head cut off, and he therefore has no one with him in, what seems to be, the middle of no where. He then bails from the carriage and flees into some tall grass and arrives at a scarecrow. He then looks around and there is nothing else much in the way of civilization, so he is therefore even more alienated now, then get loses his head…literally.
We generally identify the man in the carriage as a fairly wealthy man, as he can afford to be chauffeured around, and he has a quite elegant carriage. However we cannot assume this to be fact; analysing his body language, the man in the carriage seems quite scared, and in deep thought (before the change in circumstances), so he may be on his way to an important meeting of some sort, and the carriage may be paid for by someone else. In fact, we can almost assume it isn’t his carriage, as we se previously, before the sequence involving the carriage, the stamp with the name “Van Garret” and on the back of the carriage, we see the same image as on the stamp, also with the name “Van Garrett” below. So unless the man in the carriage was at the signing of the will in the earlier part of the opening, we can almost assume it isn’t his carriage.
There is the use of pathetic fallacy, which has indirectly been used to create tension. We see the bad weather and dark scene and know something bad is going to happen, but we don’t know when, so it has us o the edge of our seats. Tension is also created with the creation of enigma, whereby there is a small amount of information given to the audience. However we are not told enough so that we know what’s going on, so we feel like there is something going on which they don’t know about. This then causes us to conjure up our own thoughts in our head about what is going on, and then we think all sorts of strange scary things.

Media Audiences

I believe the target audience will be in the range of 15-30. I think this because the main characters are, I recon to be, between 15 and 30, so I think the target audience will be around this age because it will be easier of people that age to relate to the characters in the movie.
I think the most probable audience reading will be intended reading, because it is a horror movie, people aren’t generally in search of a movie which is factual and representational, they are seeking a movie which is there to entertain, and this movie does just that. I don’t suspect that there will be much oppositional reading because no one can really say that they have experienced anything like the plot in the movie. However there may be some in the props and costumes used which are meant to represent the era the movie was set in.
I think that my personal audience reading is one of intended reading, because I am too young really to be a movie critique and comment on all the small things which aren’t right, at the moment, I watch movies for fun and entertainment. As I said, I am too young to comment on any of the ideological representation in the movie because I don’t know enough about the era the movie is set in, nor headless horsemen…

Institutional Context

Johnny Depp is a very famous actor and he takes the lead role in the movie. This may have been done to bring attention to the movie as a sort of marketing strategy; however I think this unlikely because of how good the movie is, it doesn’t need an actor like Johnny Depp to make it good. The movie was filmed in various locations around the UK including one in New York. The studios used to produce the film were Leavesden Studios and Shepperton Studios. I believe it to be an industrial film, as the budget was a whopping $80,000,000. This sum of money is far too much to have been the budget of an independent film. I also think it to be an industrial film because of the stars used in the film, some of which are associated with other successful movie blockbusters.
The movies distributers were Paramount Pictures, who are a very well known powerful company. I think it was a good move that Paramount were used to distribute the movie, because they re very powerful and would have many contacts and knowledge about the market of movie and film, so the movie will have been released at the best time and places possible.