SLEEPY HOLLOW Pt. 2

                             SLEEPY HOLLOW PT. 2

  Well, things got a little hectic there for a bit but, finally, here's the second part to Sleepy Hollow.

  Ok, when we last left off Ichabod had found the Horseman's resting place. The Horseman and his HellHorse burst out of the Tree of the Dead and was in a hurry to be somewhere. Ichabod was following.

  We see a nice, cozy, family scene between a husband, his wife and their small son. I'm sure this will end well. And actually, they ate so damn cute that it makes me mad they get Horseman'd. Speaking of whom, he kicks the door down. The husband tries to fight him off and the mother runs to hide the little boy under the floorboards. Then he comes for her. She knows she's pretty much screwed. The boy is hiding and the Horseman seems about to leave then...
  I'm sorry, I can't even wrote it. Knowing what a Bitch the villain is it makes sense that they sent the Horseman after the entire family but still. What a Bitch! And actually here is where some filmmakers should take note. We don't actually see the Horseman decapitate the boy. We get all the information we need from the floorboards being torn up and the Horseman stuffing something in his bag on the way out the door. Let the imagination do the rest.
  As the Horseman is leaving Brom attacks him but the Horseman appears to have no interest in him. The h horseman just fends off the attacks and keeps walking. Ichabod tries to stop Brom from going after him but brim keeps up the attack and Ichabod helps, getting a sword through the shoulder for his troubles. He fares much better than Brom, however, who gets cut in half.

  Back at the Van Tassel house Ichabod is ill from the sword strike. For some reason. It's a clean, cauterized stab wound so there shouldn't be an infection at all. Of course, it is a Hell blade so maybe there's that.

  Anywho, he tells the people gathered that the Horseman does not kill at random, that his targets are chosen by whomever holds his head. Katrina's downstairs doing witchy things and brings him a broth to drink. While he's out he finishes his memories of his mother. As a small boy he follows where his father took his mother and finds her in an iron maiden. He stumbles backward into a spiky chair thing, leaving the strange scars on his hand.

  Back in the present he tells Katrina what happened to his mother and questions his decision to come there. There follows some cheese about kisses, witching, being bewitched blah blah blah.

  Ichabod wakes up to find Lady Van Tassel waiting on him and she tells him that the servant girl, Sarah had run off.

  Young Masbeth comes in and Ichabod does some deducting and ends up at the notaries, after scribbling a bit in his book. The end result being that he suspects Baltus Van Tassel because with the Van Garret's out of the way the fortune now goes to Van Tassel.

  Ichabod returns to his room to find Katrina sitting at his desk looking at what he wrote. A terse exchange follows and she leaves but not before she sees where he hid the evidence against her father. Ichabod freaks out over a spider and makes young Masbeth move the bed to kill it. Under the bed they find a pentagram which Masbeth says is the evil eye and that someone is trying to harm Ichabod.

  That night Ichabod sees a hooded figure mysteriously walking to somewhere. He stumbles upon Lady Van Tassel having some kinky-ish sex with the local minister. He watches as she cuts her hand and rubs it on the preachers back.

  Cut to the next morning? I'm not sure. The movie is so gloomy it's hard to tell what time of the day it is. Ichabod find that his evidence is missing and do deduces that Katrina has taken it and goes to the rundown cottage. He finds her there, burning the evidence. A while bunch of melodrama ensues ending with her saying, "Farewell Ichabod Crane, I curse the day you came to Sleepy Hollow!"
And takes off on her horse.

  Later he's talking to Lady Van Tassel. I just noticed this. Her hand is hurt (from her slicing it with a knife during the holy sexy-times) and she's struggling to take a hot, cast iron pot from the stove. And he makes no offer to help her at all. It cracks me up.

  Anywhat, they chat a bit about Katrina then she says that she knows he followed her that night and saw her and asks him not to tell her husband. She also practically shoves her cut in his face which is a little gross. Speaking of which, her husband pops in sees the cut and she says that she'll bind it with arrowroot flowers that she'll gather before the town meeting.

  Which, in the next scene, we see her doing. With the Horseman behind her.

  We're now at the church where everyone is gathering for the big town meeting and Baltus Van Tassel comes running up on his house telling Katrina that the Horseman killed her stepmother. Ok, this is an itty bitty gripe. And I'm sure it was probably done to keep it straight that the current Lady Van Tassel is not Katrina's birth mother. BUT! At that time they did not use the phrase step-mother much. Since family bonds were considered unbreakable she would have just been called Katrina's mother or, if clarification were needed, mother-in-law. I'm done, carry on.

  Soon after the Horseman appears and everyone rushes into the church. The Horseman cannot enter hallowed ground. So he's pacing outside while they shoot at him, because, you know, that's so effective.
  Meanwhile, inside, there's drama brewing. It looks like one of the conspirators is going to confess when the reverend beans him on the head with a cross. Baltus shoots the reverend.
  Outside the Horseman has figured if Baltus won't come to him willingly then a fence post spear through the heart will bring him. He pulls Baltus outside and, mission accomplished, leaves with his prize.
  Katrina faints, dropping a piece of chalk, the same color in which the sign under his bed was drawn and also which Katrina was drawing inside the church.
 This shot is very pretty. It's an overhead of Katrina in a pulpit but it looks like a shrine or funeral bier. It pan's slowly over the stunned crowd to show what she was drawing on the floor. Which leads Ichabod to conclude that it was her summoning the Horseman (forgetting I guess that he had the same sign under his bed and the Horseman never came for him).
  He leaves the next day while she is either still unconscious or asleep. Masbeth tells him that he's an idiot to think that it was Katrina. Ichabod doesn't want to believe it but thinks that's the only conclusion. He burns his notes but cannot bring himself to burn the spellbook she gave him.

  In the carriage he looks in the book and realizes that the symbol was one of protection, not evil. He also sees the body of 'Lady Van Tassel' being loaded into a coffin. He realizes that something is amiss and at that same moment, back at the Van Tassel house the very alive and well Lady Van Tassel steps from the shadows. Katrina faints, yet again. Well, that was easy for her.

  Lady takes Katrina to a crappy windmill to do her monologuing and summon the Horseman to come for Katrina. She had cut off the servant girls head and cut her hand to make it look like her body and Baltus took off as soon as he saw the Horseman so he didn't actually see her get killed.

  It turns out that Lady had lived in the rundown cottage with her mother, sister, and father until the fathers death. Then Van Garret kicked them out and no one would take them in because her mother was accused of witchcraft. Which is a little weird because Katrina does witchy things the whole movie. Whatever.
  Anywhere, she, her mother and sister lives in the woods. Her mother died within a year. When she and her sister came upon the Horseman that day in the woods she promised her soul to Satan if she could call up the Horseman for revenge.

  After this there's a lot of running from the Horseman and excitement and whatnot.

  Ichabod gives the Horseman his head back. What's really funny is that he's getting his ass totally kicked by Lady Van Tassel and it isn't until Katrina clubs her with a branch that he's able to grab the skull.

  The Horseman, knowing who had summoned him decides to take Lady Van Tassel back with him to hell.

  Ichabod returns to New York, along with Masbeth. A happy ending for all.

  Since its no longer October :( . I'll be staying a mystery series with chapter by chapter recaps. The book will be Dead Dancing Women by Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli. It's written about the area I live in so how could I not? Especially since it's ripe for being picked on!

  As always, any suggestions or comments ate always welcome!