Headless Horseman (2007)

Most likely adults have been making up ghost stories to scare their kids since before recorded history. One of the most enduring is that of the headless horseman riding through the night looking for victims. Of course the most famous of this particular story is the Sleepy Hollow variation; it is classic. It has also been made and remade more times than you can count. Well, add one more to the tally. The latest flick by horror-meister Anthony C. Ferrante is aptly called ‘Headless Horseman’. Like so many horror flicks that have been coming out of late this one was done with a very limited budget and extremely short filming schedule. While these limitations are evident in the finished product the flick is good to watch on a dark and stormy night with friends, especially if copious quantities of beer and pizza are involved. The movie was originally aired as part of the Sci-Fi Channel’s now famous, or by some accounts infamous, Saturday night specials. For those unaware of this series of flicks they are original movies made for the network to broadcast on Saturday nights. Since most of the studios have completely forsaken this night and some only reruns of their weekly series the Sci-Fi Channel gets viewers almost by default. This film was a departure from the usual science fiction theme to horror for a Halloween showing. Aside from being the only ‘new’ programming that night these films are supporting the economy of several eastern European countries where most of them are shot. So when you are watching this flick just keep in mind you are contributing to helping the world economy. I suppose that having your community used for ‘B’ horror flicks is better than growing poppies for drugs.

Washington Irving is credited here as the writer of the story. Yes, there is a horseman and he is headless and true, he likes to chop off other people’s heads but the similarities end there. This flick has almost nothing to do with the classic spooky tale. The script writer Zachary Weintraub has concentrated his writing career on quick and dirty horror flicks. He has also been involved in films in other capacities such as director, producer and actor so he is not new to the business. To be fair the script is not bad. There are times when the writing is better than usual for this type of flick. At times it manages to rise above the pack and some a degree of imagination. He appears to have been limited in his script by what could be realistically filmed. Other aspects of the film are heavily borrowed by other members of the genre. The antagonist could easily have been walking around killing kids instead of on horseback. You could substitute a chain saw for his sharp ax to accomplish the decapitations. Where Weintraub shows his skill is in the depiction of the victims. So many horror flicks have the twenty-somethings as complete idiots. At least in this script a couple of them have a modicum of smarts. At this point the situation that leads to the terror is predictable even hackney but what can a writer do, it is part of the format.

Anthony C. Ferrante takes on the directorial task here. This is his second time at bat for a feature length film. His previous shorts include one that is part of the unofficial Star Wars saga. From there he moved on to full length horror. That prior film, ‘Boo’, was about a group of a bunch of twenty-somethings trapped in a haunted hospital; sound familiar? At least all he had to do was use search and replace on his production notes to change hospital to deserted town. For a Sci-Fi Channel flick this one is more blood filled and gory that usual. Some of this series has shown bodies ripped in half or arms being torn out but the slashing here is almost at the level of a theatrical horror movie. Trying to make the mood surrealistic by the use of little people is not over so over done it borders on insulting by now. Some of the decapitations do get points not so much for execution, pun not intended, but for degree of difficulty. One notable example is when the evil horseman flips a car and manages to take the head en passé. One of the more perplexing beheadings is a girl who gets her head stuck in a bear trap. You might expect a leg would be the target but this is just about a blonde joke in how it happens. Some of the effects used are mandatory. Naturally the horseman has to put a jack-o-lantern on top of his shoulders to make sure we remember this is a Halloween flick. Ferrante does what he was hired to do, create a reasonable Halloween horror flick for basic cable. This is never going to make any lists of great flicks but it is more entertaining than many of the Indy horror flicks coming out every week.

The film starts on All Hollow’s Eve; the year is 1862 during the Civil War. Two soldiers are on patrol. They see a horse up ahead in the misty night and the sergeant orders the private to take a look. The horse is tied next to what looks like a scarecrow. The horse spooks and the private bumps into the scarecrow. The jack-o-lantern head falls off revealing it is a headless body. It turns out, as later explained in great detail, that a man back then was chopping heads off the local kids. He was caught and the townsfolk cut off his head. There was not a lot of concern over judicial review or the appeal process back in though days. Now his evil spirit comes back to physical form every seven years and collects the heads of seven young people. I guess if you live in that town seven is not exactly a lucky number. It just happens to be a seventh year and it happens to be Halloween, and by coincidence seven young people happen to break down just outside of town; what are the odds!

On their way to a party seven college friends; Nash, (Brett Lydic), Liam (Billy Aaron Brown), Tiffany (Arianne Fraser), Tiffany Ava, (Rebecca Mozo), Lizzie (Trish Coren), Doc, (Joe Hartzler) and Seth (Elvin Dandel) have a flat tire while taking a shortcut. They wind up in the town of Wormwood Ridge. Now maybe it’s just me but stopping off in an isolated, back water town called Wormwood on Halloween night is not the brightest idea around. You might have well called these kids Sleeping, Doc, Dopey, Slutty etc. They are told by a young woman in the tiniest Daisy Dukes allowable, Candy, (Elizabeth Prestel), that they are just in time for the Headless Horseman festival. If the name of the place didn’t get them this should have resulted in them running as fast as possible out of there. The townsfolk were going to have to sacrifice seven of their own inbreed youngin’ but fortune has given them these kids.

Since this was intended for basic cable there is no explicit sex, sorry guys, only some not so subtle references. There is enough gore to keep you going though. It is basically well filmed and the cast is better than most of the horror flick ilk. There is even a small role for Richard Moll of ‘Night Court’ fame as a shopkeeper. First Look Home Entertainment is releasing this to DVD and as usual their have a plain vanilla release with better than average technical specifications. This is fun to watch but there is better out there.

Posted 03/11/08