MovieChat Forums > Sleepy Hollow (1999) Discussion > Little more blood would have been nice

Little more blood would have been nice

posted 8 years ago by Alex_Hodgkinson
8 replies | jump to latest

I get that this is supposed to be unrealistic in many senses for a comical approach, such as the mad Walken laughter, but I naturally like to immerse myself in a film and find it hard to do that with some things being absent. When a head gets chopped off, I'd like to see blood, because the complete absence of blood just looks ridiculous and I can't take the film very seriously. I mean, I like to think of it as a gothic thriller with comical undertones. The blood would have just added to the film much more. Anyone agree?

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Ignore what people say; freely state your opinion and be proud of it :)

[–] masterofallgoons 8 years ago

Hmm.. There is a pretty considerable amount of blood, I always thought. The decapitations, it is explained, are done with a sword forged in hell fire, so the heat of the blade cauterizes the wounds immediately. As much of a humorous fantasy as it is, they even still made a point in explaining that pretty explicitly. Seems like an odd complaint to me.

[–] Alex_Hodgkinson 8 years ago

Whether it's a part of the plot or not, it does look silly. And I wouldn't say my point is a complaint; more of an observation. I don't mind that there's no blood.

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Ignore what people say; freely state your opinion and be proud of it :)

[–] masterofallgoons 8 years ago

I wouldn't agree that it looks silly. I suppose I understand what you mean, it's not entirely realistic, but I don't think silly is the word. I think it fits the tone pretty well of an old fashioned horror movie but with more pristine effects. There's a good deal of blood elsewhere but I never thought it was needed in those decapitations. I thunk Roger Ebert's review said something along the lines of 'it has a lot of gore, but not 'mean gore' if you know what I mean.' I feel like that's a good way of putting it. For instance, when the Horseman kills the man in his house and then slowly approaches his wife holding his head in hand, if you had seen streams of blood dripping steadily from his neck in that shot, I think you'd really shift the tone from slyly comedic classic gothic horror movie to a much more grisly and unpleasant. There's a lot of violence here, but it is strictly stylized movie violence. Not that the other kind can't work, I just don't think it would work here.

[–] chilone 8 years ago

Whether it's a part of the plot or not, it does look silly

That make no sense. It would look silly if they DID show blood from wounds that were cauterized at the moment they were made.

I don't love her.. She kicked me in the face!!

[–] Toshi51 7 years ago

Never enough blood for some people. Sigh.

The sword explanation was good enough for me.

[–] Wombstar 8 years ago

It's quite bloody in other parts, it's not a slasher movie.

[–] rtodd110 7 years ago

Having blood would make it silly

This is such a strange complaint

[–] twominds79 7 years ago

Absolutely . When it comes to blood as George Romero said " more the merrier "