Sleepy Hollow Shooting Script
Katrina follows Young Masbath’s slow advance.
Ichabod’s pulling-the flap suddenly gives, revealing a blood- soaked, wide-eyed, gap-mouthed HUMAN HEAD.
Ichabod recoils. Behind him, Katrina stifles a scream.
Ichabod backs off, back of his hand to his mouth.
It is PHILIPSE’S HEAD, hanging off the trunk flap, held by roots grown around and into the flesh.
FOUR other SEVERED, DECAYING HEADS are held by ingrown roots within the dewy innards.
One of the heads is Jonathan Masbath’s. Before Young Masbath sees it, Katrina hides his face in her bosom and comforts him.
KATRINA My God…
ICHABOD He… he tries to take the heads back with him. They will not pass…
KATRINA We must leave this place.
Ichabod looks to the branches towering above.
ICHABOD This is… a gateway, between two worlds…
Ichabod studies the ground, circling the trunk… Around the other side, Ichabod gets to his knees…
He’s found the HORSEMAN’S SWORD: the grave marker, jutting out from the ground, rusted twenty years’ worth, gripped by the tree trunk and vines.
ICHABOD (CONT’D) (touching the ground) Climb down to the Horseman’s resting place… (looks to Masbath) Bring the shovel.
Now he sees Katrina hugging the boy.
ICHABOD (CONT’D) Forgive me… I…
Young Masbath courageously recovers himself, wiping his eyes and nose on the back of his sleeve.
YOUNG MASBATH Yes, sir-the shovel… Two shovels and the rifle, I suggest.
EXT. WESTERN WOODS, TREE OF THE DEAD-DUSK
Lantern light.
Young Masbath’s crouched, rifle across his knees. He watches the tree, looking up…
High branches swarm with BATS.
Behind Masbath, Ichabod and Katrina dig up the SHALLOW GRAVE.
KATRINA This ground has been disturbed, the soil is loose.
Ichabod throws down his Shovel.
Young Masbath comes to the grave. Ichabod pulls at thick BURLAP CLOTH heavy with dirt… straining as it comes away…
Ichabod drops the burlap, looking down, disbelieving…
ICHABOD Look… !
WE SEE: Roots have gripped the HORSEMAN’S BONES and tattered uniform. The skeleton is all there-except the skull.
KATRINA The skull is gone. What does it mean?
Ichabod jumps out from the grave, snapping his fingers.
ICHABOD (energized) It means, my dear Miss Van Tassel, it means-yes! What exactly does it mean? -It means, unless I am mistaken… it definitely means something-what that something is, only time will tell! But I sense that we are very close to the answer here, if only we had one more clue…
Ichabod is unaware that the ground is writhing around him.
KATRINA (O.S.) Ichabod… !
Ichabod turns, looks…
Katrina and Young Masbath back away, because… the ROOTS in the grave are ALIVE, entwining around remains.
Ichabod spins to the twisted tree…
The vertical SUTURE SEETHES, pulling inward… sucking Philipse’s head back in and closing, bubbling.
Ichabod bounds over the grave dirt pile, hastening Katrina and Young Masbath along as he flees across the field.
At the tree, the suture swells.
Ichabod, Katrina and Young Masbath pass where their freaking horses are tied to a fallen trunk, heading for cover.
A RUMBLING is HEARD from the tree. It’s wound suddenly BURSTS wide, spitting smoldering cinders.
At the tree line, Ichabod, Katrina and Young Masbath take cover, looking back.
EXT. WESTERN WOODS TREE OF THE DEAD (EFFECT)-DUSK
From the tree wound, a glow BRIGHTENS… till suddenly the Headless Horseman and Daredevil EXPLODE into existence… They hit the ground running.
EXT. WESTERN WOODS TREE OF THE DEAD-DUSK
Ichabod watches the Horseman ride away, bolts of LIGHTING STRIKING the GROUND BEHIND.
The Horseman disappears into the forest.
ICHABOD (to Masbath) Did you see that?! (recovering) Take Katrina home!
Ichabod runs toward the horses.
YOUNG MASBATH Constable!
EXT. WESTERN WOODS AREA TWO-NIGHT
The Horseman rips past on Daredevil…
EXT. WESTERN WOODS AREA THREE-NIGHT
Ichabod rides as fast as Gunpowder is able…
EXT. WESTERN WOODS AREA TWO, FARTHER ON-NIGHT
Trees are silhouetted against the sky. As Daredevil’s HOOFBEATS get
LOUDER, branches bend like arms and fingers yearning to touch. As HOOFBEATS ROAR PAST, the trees relax.
EXT. WESTERN WOODS AREA TWO, FARTHER ON-NIGHT
Ichabod ducks under foliage as he pursues. He sees…
Through the forest ahead: the SKY’S LIT UP. Distant fire.
EXT. WESTERN WOODS, CAVE HOME-NIGHT
The Crone’s CAVE vomits FLAME.
Ichabod arrives on Gunpowder, horrified, struggling for control as Gunpowder rears, trying to see through BLACK SMOKE…
Embers swirl everywhere. Ichabod dismounts, moving closer to the cave … suddenly he SLIPS…
Ichabod falls down a bloody rock, landing very close to the CRONE’S HEADLESS BODY. Ichabod recoils, crawling away, looking to the carnage in terror…
The corpse lies near the cave entrance. The jagged skin of the neck wound still bleeds. The ground and dead leaves around the corpse are thick with BLOOD. Ichabod crawls back to the Crone, terrified… because he has seen a CLUE.
The cord around the Crone’s neck has been cut and the Carved Bauble is missing (along with the Crone’s head).
Ichabod hears a Horse neighing in the trees… and the sound of the horse crashing through the undergrowth, departing… but he can see nothing.
EXT. FOREST-NIGHT
Brom, Theodore and Glen are on patrol-Brom with his new rifle. They can hear the same horse crashing invisibly through branches, the sound of hooves. They can’t tell where the sound is coming from. They look around nervously.
BROM Split up! He won’t get away.
The three of them gallop off in three directions.
When they clear the frame there is a sound of deep rumbling, the sound we heard before Jonathan Masbath was murdered.
INT. KILLIAN’S HOME, KITCHEN-NIGHT
Small home. Killian, Thomas and BETH, Killian’s wife, have finished supper. Beth clears plates as Killian picks his teeth with a knife.
The same rumbling sound is faintly heard.
The glasses on the table shiver audibly. Killian notices. Then the phenomenon stops. Killian continues picking his teeth.
Thomas gets down from his chair. He goes to the fireplace to light a tallow wick, which he takes to the next room.
INT. KILLIAN’S HOME, WHITE ROOM-NIGHT
Thomas plops on the floor and lights his MAGIC LANTERN: a lantern with an outer sleeve of glass painted with SILHOUETTES of LIONS and MONSTERS.
Thomas turns the lantern and looks to the walls where the creatures’ SHADOWS are cast.
He roars for them, imagining them real and having a grand time.
INT. KILLIAN’S HOME, KITCHEN-NIGHT
Beth comes for dishes.
BETH Don’t pick teeth. You teach Thomas bad habits.
Killian pulls her to him, playful.
KILLIAN I am a bad habit. There’s nothing for it.
BETH (kisses him) Oh, isn’t there.
