Sleepy Hollow Shooting Script
The Fiddlers strike up the music. Katrina watches Ichabod’s exit. Brom watches Katrina’s interest with displeasure.
INT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, ICHABOD’S ROOM-NIGHT
We HEAR the music from downstairs. Ichabod is unpacking-arranging his scientific books. His “medical case,” revealing a few mysterious Instruments of Detections, is open on the bed. Sarah is just delivering a pitcher of water to the washstand.
ICHABOD Thank you. Please tell Mr. Van Tassel I will be down in a moment.
SARAH I will, sir. (then-as she leaves) Thank God you are here!
Ichabod is a bit surprised by her emotion. Then he pours the water and douses his face.
INT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, PARLOR-NIGHT
FIVE MEN wait grimly for Ichabod, silent in the presence of Sarah, who is placing a pipe cradle by Baltus. Lady Van Tassel is pouring the men a drink. The music from the party is faintly audible. Lancaster is 50, dour, always sweaty. Philipse is youngest, a drinker, eyes bloodshot, augmenting his glass with a shot from his private flask. Reverend Steenwyck has a disdainful, sour expression. Hardenbrook is oldest, ancient, nervous, one eye pale and blind.
HARDENBROOK All the way from New York!
DOCTOR LANCASTER A waste of time!
STEENWYCK (to Baltus) What can he do?
BALTUS (calmingly) Gentlemen, gentlemen…
Sarah, leaving, passes Doctor Lancaster, who secretly trails his hand against Sarah’s buttock… not quite secretly enough for the vigilance of Lady Van Tassel, who, by the merest flick of an eye, shows us that she has noticed.
Sarah leaves just as Ichabod appears in the doorway, Sarah closing the door behind him.
BALTUS (CONT’D) (to Ichabod) Excellent! Come in! (to his wife) Leave us, my dear.
ICHABOD So. Three persons murdered. First, Peter Van Garrett and his son Dirk Van Garrett, both of them strong capable men, found together, decapitated. A week later, the Widow Winship, also decapitated. I will need to ask you many questions, but first let me ask-is anyone suspected?
BALTUS I don’t understand you.
ICHABOD I say, is there any one person suspect in these acts?
The men stir in their seats-their looks say “I told you so!”- “Useless!”-etc.
BALTUS Constable… how much have your superiors explained to you?
ICHABOD Only that the three were slain in open ground and their heads found severed from their bodies…
STEENWYCK The heads were not found severed. The heads were not found at all.
ICHABOD The heads are gone?
Hardenbrook leans forward, his voice cragged.
HARDENBROOK Taken. Taken by the Headless Horseman. Taken back to hell.
ICHABOD Pardon me, I… ?
BALTUS Perhaps you had better sit down.
Baltus gestures for Ichabod to sit. Baltus lights his pipe and pours a glass for Ichabod. The men help themselves to food and drink.
BALTUS (CONT’D) The Horseman was a Hessian mercenary, sent to our shores by German princes to keep Americans under the yoke of England. But unlike his compatriots who came for money, the Horseman came… for love of carnage… and he was not like the others…
FLASHBACK-AMERICAN BATTLEFIELD (WINTER)-DAY
The HESSIAN HORSEMAN rides his black steed into a gory, close-quarters clash, his cloaked uniform adorned with edged weapons. He cuts down Americans left and right.
BALTUS (V.O.) He rode a giant black steed named Daredevil. He was infamous for taking his horse hard into battle… chopping off heads at full gallop.
The Horseman dismounts, hoists a battle axe. With sword and axe, he annihilates. Blood gushes. Bones crack.
BALTUS (CONT’D; V.O.) To look upon him made your blood run cold, for he had filed down his teeth to sharp points… to add to the ferocity of his appearance…
The Horseman lets out a war cry. Jagged teeth. Grotesque.
FLASHBACK-FOREST BATTLEFIELD (WINTER)-DAY
Winter. CANNONS can be HEARD BOOMING from afar. Daredevil, galloping is hit and falls. The Horseman is not hurt.
BALTUS (V.O.) This butcher would not finally meet his end till the winter of seventy- nine…
The Horseman rises, eyes filled with rage, looks to see…
SIX ragtag REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS give chase, firing rifles. The Horseman flees, bullets throwing snow behind.
BALTUS (CONT’D) … not far from here in our Western Woods…
FLASHBACK-DEEPER IN THE FOREST BATTLEFIELD (WINTER)-DAY
The Horseman glances back, bounding through, drawing his sword, when suddenly he halts…
He’s happened upon TWO YOUNG GIRLS gathering firewood. The girls stand frozen at the sight of him for a long, silent moment, till one girl drops the firewood and runs.
The second girl remains, holding the Horseman’s gaze.
The Horseman and the girl hold each other’s gaze for a long beat.
The Horseman puts his finger to his lips, warning her to stay quiet.
The girl takes one of her pieces of dry wood and deliberately breaks it, making a noise like a pistol shot.
There is a responding shout from a soldier back in the trees. The Horseman turns to the sound.
Soldiers move forward from the forest behind, spreading out.
The second girl flees. The Horseman hefts his sword, turning as soldiers surround. One soldier aims his rifle…
The Horseman reaches over his shoulder, grasps a sheathed knife and THROWS- THOCK! The rifleman jerks back, knife in his eye socket.
A second soldier aims and FIRES… Blood explodes from the Horseman’s arm. His sword drops.
The Horseman readies and AXE in his good hand. The Revolutionaries move in with swords. They battle, STEEL AGAINST STEEL. The Horseman fends off blows…
Soldier Three stabs his blade deep into the Horseman’s side. The Horseman roars, bringing his axe DOWN…
BREAKS the sword at the hilt. An UPWARD stroke sends Soldier Three backward in a fountain of blood.
The Horseman staggers, trying to pull the blade from his ribs. The remaining soldiers close in…
INT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, PARLOR-NIGHT
Ichabod is spooked. Pipe smoke wafts from Baltus’s mouth.
BALTUS They cut off his head with his own sword. To this day, the Western Woods is a haunted place where brave men will not venture.
FLASHBACK-EXT. WESTERN WOODS, TREE OF THE DEAD AREA (WINTER)-DAY
The Horseman’s headless corpse lies in a shallow grave.
BALTUS (V.O.) … for what was planted in the ground that day was a seed of evil.
The HORSEMAN’S HEAD is dropped into the grave.
FLASHBACK-EXT. WESTERN WOODS, TREE OF THE DEAD AREA (WINTER)-LATER DAY
One of the four surviving soldiers stabs the HORSEMAN’S SWORD deep in the ground as a marker.
The grave is done. The soldiers walk away from the grave. They have buried the Horseman in a treeless clearing.
Daredevil appears, limping, from the trees, and puts his nose down to the turned earth.
The Second Girl is watching from hiding.
She sees: Daredevil collapses on the grave, blood frothing from his mouth. Dying.
INT. VAN TASSEL HOUSE, PARLOR-NIGHT
BALTUS And so it has been for twenty years. But now the Hessian wakes-he is on the rampage, cutting off heads where he finds them.
Ichabod sits back, shakes off the reverie of the tale. He takes a gulp from his glass.
ICHABOD Are you… saying… ? Is that what you believe?
HARDENBROOK Seeing is believing!
Baltus puts a calming hand on senile Hardenbrook’s shoulder.
DOCTOR LANCASTER No one knows why the Hessian has chosen this time to return from the grave.
STEENWYCK Satan has called forth one of his own.
Steenwyck stands and from a side table picks up the hefty Baltus family Bible.
STEENWYCK (CONT’D) They tell me you have brought books and trappings of scientific investigation-this is the only book I recommend you study.
He drops the Bible on the table in front of Ichabod, making him jump. Ichabod gingerly lifts the front cover-revealing a page of ink writing, which he will remember later-then he snaps out of all this “nonsense.”
ICHABOD Reverend Steenwyck… gentlemen… murder needs no ghost come from the grave. Which of you have laid eyes on this Headless Horsemen?
Pause.
HARDENBROOK Others have. Many others.
Ichabod allows himself a skeptical smile.
BALTUS You will see him too if he comes again. The men of the village are posted to watch for him.
ICHABOD We have murders in New York without benefit of ghouls and goblins.
BALTUS You are a long way from New York, sir.
ICHABOD A century at least. The assassin is a man of flesh and blood, and I will discover him.
STEENWYCK How do you propose to do so?
