GL84 Having been told of his family legacy, a young teen descendant of Ichabod Crane learns the legend of the Headless Horseman is true and out hunting the townspeople's Halloween celebrations forcing him to stop the legendary killer.Overall this was quite a decent enough slasher. One of the better elements in this one is the rather smart story here that's much better than expected here, managing to tie up some rather intriguing storyline within the legend and making it seem realistic here that the events of the legend really happened here which forces this one into some rather intriguing scenes here. There's a lot of fun here in the opening with the telling of the story setting up the cemetery joke as well as the resulting encounter with the killer out near the shark setting up the story nicely, and the early tormenting really bring this along nicely as there's plenty to like here in this section. That in turn allows the second half to focus on a nearly non-stop series of stalking scenes beginning with the hayride sequence where the real horseman appears alongside the play one leading to some absolutely chilling scenes here going through the graveyard from the horse-bound killer whole trying to protect his girlfriend at the same time. The finale itself is another big plus with the final retelling of the prophecy come true as the big house confrontation to set that up comes off rather well, but this leads into the first of the big problems here. The low-budget nature of this one here is patently obvious throughout which is the single most damaging one here, rendering the supposedly scary being into a cheap, flimsy mask that does little better than the play-version of the killer, the kills are all off-screen due to a lack of showing off the body aftermath and a seriously short running time that keeps this one based around only a few scenes here as there's barely any room in the lot to really stretch out proceeds here which causes this to feel rushed along at the majority of the big encounters while dragging out the other scenes since there's little time to do that with the budget it is. The other big flaw here for this one is the series of constantly irritating jokes throughout here which tends to wear thin here showing off nothing but their treatment of him as an outsider in town, which isn't all that impressive and simply gets boring. After these, there's not a whole lot really wrong here.Rated R: Violence, Language and Brief Nudity.

imdb-45 Just saw a few minutes of this tour de force in horrible acting. This is a bad B-Movie trying to revive a common remade rehashed familiar story. I'm so glad I didn't invest more time.Judge Rheingold has aged.... really aged. And he can't wipe that grin off his face even when the scary things were supposed to be happening. He seems like he thinks he's still on the set of Beverly Hills Cop and plays the same character. It's quite hilarious to watch tense moments lightened up by the Judge trying to act scared but not being able to pull it off not even for a moment.But the show is stolen by Stacey Keach. I can't even say his acting was bad. Still has the deep voice but that script... OMG.... that script. Horrible. He must be paying off some big debts to red the lines and try to pull it off.The ending could not be more predictable and laughable. I mean could it have been done more often? I really don't think so. And if you're looking to be scared, you'll laugh at loud at the scary scenes. I'm guessing they ran out of money in the budget and decided that they needed the old "cutaway" shots so that you can fill it all in yourself. I wish I could even give this a star for something but I can't find anything redeeming.

Woodyanders Teenager Ian Cranston (a solid and likable performance by Kevin Zegers), who's the last blood relative of Ichabod Crane, returns to the small town of Sleepy Hollow to defeat the legendary Headless Horseman (Ben Scott in a gnarly pumpkin-faced outfit) once and for all. Ian's perky girlfriend Karen (a sweet and appealing portrayal by the fetching Kaley Cuoco) helps him out. Director Kyle Newman, working from a fun and compact script by Hans Rodionoff, relates the entertaining story at a steady pace, creates and sustains a winningly spooky ooga-booga Halloweenish atmosphere, generates a good amount of tension for the thrilling climax, maintains an engagingly good-natured and innocuous tone throughout, and tosses in a few decent moments of mild gore for good measure. The sound acting from the capable cast gives the picture an extra lift: Stacy Keach has a delightfully hammy field day as grizzled eccentric cemetery caretaker Claus Van Ripper, Nick Carter makes for a suitably hateful jerk as mean jock bully Scott, Judge Reinhold has a nifty change-of-pace bad guy role as Ian's overbearing macho gym coach dad Carl, Nicholas Turturro does well as the skeptical Sheriff Duncan, and Eileen Brennan pops up in a juicy small part as cranky old bat Joan Van Etten. Scott Kevan's shadowy cinematography provides a cool autumnal look. Todd Haberman's spirited shuddery score hits the stirring spine-chilling spot. A neat little flick.

despitethesnow The Hollow is the kind of film you watch with a bunch of friends and family who have a good sense of humor. The story uses the archetypal Headless Horseman theme and does a silly bit with poor Washington Irving's grave, but Stacey Keach is priceless as the curmudgeonly Klaus Van Ripper. The name alone is a hoot. What makes this film better ,for me anyway, is that my family and I visit Sleepy Hollow every Halloween for their Legend Weekend festivities. The original Keach character still gives tours of the Old Dutch Church where the bridge used to be and we got some great photographs of him amongst the graves of the Van Alan family. Anyhow, The Hollow, despite some gratuitous gore is not a bad escape for a rainy night and a bowl of popcorn. In addition, the hayride in the film is actually modeled after the Haunted Hayride in Sleepy Hollow that the local High School has been hosting for years.