Tim Burton's gothic detective story is steeped in the traditions of American myth and the style of Hammer Horror. At the beginning of the 19th Century, New York pathologist Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) is sent to the remote town of Sleepy Hollow to investigate the gruesome deaths of a number of the community's figureheads. Despite his attempts to find a rational explanation for the decapitated bodies that continue to turn up with alarming regularity, Crane comes to the conclusion that the killings are the work of an axe-wielding headless horseman.