Sleepy Hollow Shooting Script
The rope tied to the post suddenly YANKS Baltus backward with incredibleforce-SLAMS him into the WINDOW…
EXT. CHURCH-NIGHT
Baltus CRASHES backward through the window, hits the ground, DRAGGED…
OUTSIDE THE FENCE, the Horseman rides Daredevil away from the church, with the rope tied around Daredevil’s saddle pommel…
Baltus SLAMS the fence. The rope SNAPS. Baltus is held there awkwardly, gurgling blood.
INT. CHURCH-NIGHT
Ichabod, holding Katrina, cries out- ICHABOD Oh… Katrlna… Oh God, forgive her…
EXT. CHURCH-NIGHT
The Horseman turns Daredevil, riding back… his sword raised high…
… he chops off Baltus’s head.
INT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE-NIGHT
Katrina lies insensible in her bed… the ribbon with the bauble around her neck.
Ichabod stands watching her, alone with his grief and his appalling “secret.”
ICHABOD It was an evil spirit possessed you. I pray God it is satisfied now, and that you find peace. Good-bye, Katrina. The Evil Eye has done its work. My life is over-spared for a lifetime of horrors in my sleep, waking each day to grief.
Ichabod leaves the room, closing the door.
EXT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, KITCHEN, PORCH AND LAWN-DAWN
Ichabod, watch only by Young Masbath, stands by a FIRE burning in a CIRCLE of ROCKS nearby. He has his Ledger. After a moment, he throws the LEDGER onto the fire. The pages catch quickly.
He opens his satchel and digs out a BOOK. His luggage is packed on the porch.
He walks back to the fire, looks at the book in his hand, the book Katrina gave him. He stands staring down.
A DECREPIT COACH is arriving.
EXT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, KITCHEN, PORCH AND LAWN-DAY
The decrepit COACH, with Gunpowder as one of its team, waits, loaded with Ichabod’s baggage.
Van Ripper, the driver, helps Ichabod with strapping the load. Young Masbath watches, not helping.
Ichabod turns to Young Masbath.
Angry tears come to Young Masbath’s eyes. The farewell is like an argument.
YOUNG MASBATH But who will look for the truth when you have gone?
ICHABOD There is no more truth to be found. That is why I can go and leave this wretched place behind me.
YOUNG MASBATH You think it was Katrina, don’t you?
Ichabod clamps his hand over Young Masbath’s mouth. He looks intently into his eyes.
ICHABOD That can never be uttered. Never.
Ichabod takes his hand away.
YOUNG MASBATH A strange sort of witch! -with a kind and loving heart! How can you think so?
ICHABOD I have a good reason.
YOUNG MASBATH Then you are bewitched by reason.
ICHABOD I am beaten down by it! It’s a hard lesson for a hard world, and you had better learn it, Young Masbath- villainy wears many masks, none so dangerous as the mask of virtue. Farewell!
Van Ripper climbs onto the coach. Ichabod looks to the Manor House. Only one light shines, in a SECOND FLOOR WINDOW.
lchabod climbs into the coach.
INT. VAN RIPPER’S COACH-DAY
INSIDE THE COACH, Ichabod slumps. He pounds twice on the coach wall.
EXT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, FRONT LAWN-DAY
OUTSIDE, Van Ripper whips the reins. The coach starts. Young Masbath watches, wiping tears.
INT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, KATRINA’S ROOM-DAY
Katrina wakes. She hears the Coach Wheels. She gets up from the bed and goes to the window. Her POV shows the Coach leaving… Katrina’s face shows that her world has collapsed around her.
EXT. TOWN SQUARE, CHURCH-DAY
Van Ripper’s coach crosses the covered bridge… past the town square … past the church.
Near Doctor Lancaster’s house, the coach passes a flat cart… on which lies the headless corpse of Lady Van Tassel. Ichabod looks at the corpse and he notes the gashed palm of one dead hand.
The cart is being pulled at a walking pace by a single horse. The CART MAN walking, holding the bridle.
The cart man pauses, seeing a RIDER approaching, traveling in the same direction as Ichabod’s coach.
Ichabod realizes that the rider is Katrina. He looks from the coach window and sees Katrina get down from the horse and go to the cart.
Ichabod pulls back from his window and closes his eyes.
INT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, ICHABOD’S ROOM-DAY
Young Masbath enters, looks around the empty room. He goes to sit, crosses his arms on the desk and lays down his head.
INT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, PARLOR-DAY
Katrina enters. She crosses, slumps in a chair, staring into the burning fireplace
INT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, VARIOUS ROOMS-POV-DAY
A POV MOVES SLOWLY THROUGH THE HOUSE; SOMEONE’S searching various rooms…
INT VAN RIPPER’S COACH-DAY
Ichabod opens his satchel, takes out a bottle of water and gulps from it. In replacing the bottle, he finds… the Book given him by Katrina. He opens the book. There is a DIAGRAM DRAWING on a whole page. Ichabod recognizes… the “Drawing” of the supposed “Evil Eye,” identical to the two we have seen before. But what gets Ichabod’s real attention is the bold “headline.”
The Headline over the Picture is “For The Protection of A Loved One Against Evil Spirits.”
Ichabod gasps, and mutters the words aloud.
What a fool he’s been!
ICHABOD (to himself) But then, who… ?
He is puzzled. He stares at his open palms. The scars on his palms trigger a thought…
Then he understands: something we will soon understand.
He slides the front window panel to shout through it.
ICHABOD (CONT’D) Van Ripper, turn the coach… !
VAN RIPPER What?
ICHABOD Turn around, now!
INT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, VARIOUS ROOMS, PARLOR-POV-EVENING
SOMEONE still moves through the house, a TRAVELING POV-moving through ROOMS on the ground floor…
Stopping at the doorway of the PARLOR, looking to where Katrina is seated across the room.
INT. DOCTOR’S RESIDENCE, MEDICAL ROOM-EVENING
Mrs. Lancaster comes to answer BANGING on the door. She opens the door and Ichabod pushes past, satchel in hand, taking Mrs. Lancaster’s lantern.
ICHABOD Pardon my intrusion…
There are TWO COFFINS on the floor.
Ichabod throws off the lids from the coffins, looking to the headless BODIES of BALTUS and LADY VAN TASSEL.
INT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, PARLOR-INTERCUT-EVENING
Katrina still sits, her eyes closed. A FIGURE in BLACK moves forward in the darkness behind…
INT. DOCTOR’S RESIDENCE, MEDICAL ROOM-INTERCUT-EVENING
Ichabod goes to lift Lady Van Tassel’s hand with the GASH on its palm, bends to study… pulling at the sewn wound-pulling the stitches apart between his thumbs…
Mrs. Lancaster watches.
INT. VAN TASSEL H0USE, PARLOR-INTERCUT-EVENING
Katrina hears a BOARD CREAK. She sits up, turning…
KATRTNA Who is it?
INT. DOCTOR’S RESIDENCE, MEDICAL ROOM-INTERCUT-EVENING
Ichabod releases the corpse’s hand, tears off his spectacles, shaken by the realization…
ICHABOD No bloodflow, no clotting, no healing… When this cut was made… this woman was already dead.
Ichabod grabs his satchel, bolts out the door…
INT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, PARLOR-INTERCUT-EVENING
The FIGURE moves closer in darkness…
