Headless Horseman (2007) Review
Classic Washington Irving Story Doesn’t Benefit from Update
Jan 11, 2009
One of the more popular horror fables, the tale of the headless horseman from Washington Irving’s classic story has been adapted into many films. This time, modernizing it doesn’t really work as well as it could.
Plot Synopsis
A group of friends on their way to a Halloween party take a detour that ends up stranding them in a mysterious ghost-like small town. Unfortunately for them, the townspeople are cursed to serve a demon-like creature by ensuring he has heads to add to his collection, or else they are doomed to a life in hell. Cue the gruesome deaths.
Headless Horseman in Depth
The movie starts with a civil war soldier encountering a scarecrow with a pumpkin head. Disturbing the scarecrow awakens something that hunts him down in the forest and beheads him.
Cut (pardon the pun) to "present day Halloween" as the screen transition reads. A group of young adults decides to take a shortcut through the woods to save time on the way to a party.
An accident leaves them stranded in the small town of Wormwood, where they discover the legend of the headless horseman is not just an ancient story. It's a very real curse by the devil and the townspeople will do anything to give this legend his heads to avoid being taken to hell.
The friends soon find themselves hunted by the Headless Horseman. As the group is picked off one by one, they decide to try to fight back against this supernatural killer.
In the end, the ones that keep their heads are the ones who keep their wits about them.
Worth Watching?
As Sci-Fi Channel horror movies go, it's one of the better efforts. Unfortunately, the script does have several flaws, and most of the plot seems to be a mere excuse just to link the killings rather than actually tell a story. Which is a shame considering the source material it works from.
Billy Aaron Brown (Jeepers Creepers 2; TV’s “8 Simple Rules…”), as the lead character of Liam, is probably the strongest actor in the movie, though the rest of the cast of relative unknowns do the best they can with their characters. No real overacting, like found with most low budget/produced for DVD horror efforts. Well, except for the vain girl with the annoying side ponytail, but she's one of the first to lose her head (literally). Richard Moll ("Night Court"), who appears as a hulking menacing old town coot with an extensive cuss word vocabulary (for TV, that is) is probably the most recognizable of the cast.
The special effects are pretty decent, too. Lots of blood splashed everywhere and some rather creative ways to separate the head from a body. The tentacle effects on the title character are well done, too.
This is far from a classic horror film, but for a B-movie, it's not a complete waste of two hours either. Definitely don’t spend the money renting it, but if it’s on TV, feel free to give it a go. Or just view the Headless Horseman trailer online and see the best bits from the film in less than two minutes.
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