Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Johnny Depp spends half of Sleepy Hollow fainting, and honestly, fair. His Ichabod Crane is a detective who is scared of spiders, blood and the dark, shipped off to a village made almost entirely of those three things. The mystery is where it wobbles. By the last act, the explanation piles on wills, family secrets and a hidden villain until you need a flowchart, and Christina Ricci is stuck looking pale in doorways. But the look of this thing. Tim Burton drains nearly every color but red, the fog never lifts, and the Horseman bursts out of a twisted tree like the forest is spitting him out. Christopher Walken growls through the flashbacks with filed teeth and doesn’t need a single line. Depp’s goofy gadget glasses, with all the little flip-down lenses, are a whole character. A 7.1 because it’s a gorgeous Halloween decoration with a plot that keeps tripping over its own cape. $10.43 says you squint through a magnifying glass at something totally ordinary this week and feel like a detective.

What works: Tim Burton’s foggy, nearly colorless storybook look, a creepy Horseman, and Depp playing a hero who is clearly the most scared man in town.

What doesn’t: The mystery gets overstuffed in the last act, and Christina Ricci’s Katrina mostly drifts around looking haunted and waiting.

Who it’s for: Anyone who wants a spooky October movie that’s more gothic fairy tale than straight horror.