LADY VAN TASSEL (MIRANDA RICHARDSON)
AND....
THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN(CHRISTOPHER WALKEN)
FROM TIM BURTON'S SLEEPY HOLLOW
WARNING:THERE WILL BE SPOILERS
This was another tough decision. I know Lady Van Tassel is the real Villain in the film, but The Headless Horseman serves as his own Villain too, even if he is controlled by the main Villain. These two Villains in the film are one of the many reasons why I love Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow and it would be an insult if I didn't include both of them on the list. Let's start talking about the minor villain.
THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN
Before he became The Headless Horseman he was a Hessian mercenary in The American Revolutionary war. A man with sharp teeth and big devilish eyes who rides a dark horse named daredevil and enjoys killing people and chopping soldier’s heads off. One day his horse has been shot down by the American Soldiers and he hid in the woods when suddenly he ran into two little girls. One of the girls snitched on him and when the troops found him they beheaded him and buried him. As years went by The Horseman came back from the fires of hell headless and roams around Sleepy Hollow chopping off people’s heads.
The Headless Horseman is one of those Villains that can make a creepy entrance. Whenever he appears, animals run, the lights go out, the wind blows, and he comes out of the dark mist attacking you. His gate way to get out of hell is The Tree of the dead where the horseman's buried and also stashes his victims heads. The Horseman carries a sword with a hot blade from the fires of hell; an axe; and a head bag. The only thing he was missing which kind of disappointed me was his flaming Pumpkin head. By the way, unlike the original Headless Horseman there is no bridge to escape from him, the only place he can't enter is a Church, but that won't stop him from figuring out a way to kill you without even entering.
This Villain doesn't just kill men; he also kills women and children. You can shoot him, stab him, even blow him up, and he'll still come after you unharmed and won't even have scratch on him. He even knows where you're hiding by sensing it. You can run, fight and hide all you want but in the end you will lose your head.
"The Horseman comes. And tonight he comes for you."-Lady Van Tassel
LADY VAN TASSEL
Lady Van Tassle doesn't appear much in the film because she's in a twist the main antagonist. It appears that she has been controlling the Horseman the whole time with his missing head and her witchcraft.
Her back story is she's from a family called "The
Archer". She lived with her father, mother and sister in a cottage for
years. When her father died, landlord Van Garrett kicked her and her
family out of the cottage so the Van Tassel family can move in. No one in town
would take her in because her mother did witchcraft, which also runs in
her and her sister's blood. A year later, her mother died and she and her
sister were alone. I did kind of feel bad for her, but her story
wasn't tragic enough to have me feel for the Villain. One day while
gathering fire wood she and her sister ran into the Horseman, while he was
hiding from the soldiers and take a big fat guess which one of those two girls
snitched on him. She stayed and watched the Horseman die. She sold
her soul to Satan only if he would bring the Horseman back from the
dead for revenge. As years went by she got to marry Baltus Van Tassel by being his sick
wife's nurse. Instead of helping her, she puts her body in a grave and
married Baltus. Her scheme is to kill The Van Garrett family and kill the
Van Tassel family to inherit their fortune. She'll even kill anybody who stands
in her way or know about her plan.
Before I saw the film, I was told by my teacher that
the real Villain in the film is the Step Mother I knew right off the
bat that this film is going to be completely different from the story I
know and love. Is it a good change or a bad change? I'll save that
when I review the film. When I heard it was going to be her, I actually
thought it was a good plot twist instead of being a pointless fun slasher film.
As I said before, we don't see much of her till we get to the films climax.
Most of her scenes are just her appearing in crowds or standing by her husband.
She'll say a line once and a while, but she really doesn't do anything evil
on-screen yet. However, when I see her I do notice the evil in her, in fact she
kind of reminds me of The Wicked Queen from "Snow White",
Lady Trumain from "Cinderella", Maleficent from "Disney's
Sleeping Beauty" and even Messina
from my guilty pleasure childhood favorite "Freddie as F.R.O.7".
The scene when we finally find out the evilness in her is when she captures Katrina, so she can have the Headless Horseman kill her. A scene that hints her evilness is when she seduces the reverend. This woman is just flat out mad, she'll do whatever she can to get what she wants. She'll not only have the Headless Horseman kill you, but she'll also blackmail you, use you, seduce you, and even kill you herself. This woman even fakes her own death, what a crazy witch. In fact, she gets crazier and crazier towards the whole climax, hell she even kills her own sister, can't get more evil then that. What happens to her in the ending is the most awkward scene in the movie but all I'll say is she pays the price for dealing with the (Off-Screen) devil and using her powers for evil.
"You're just in time to have your head cut off" -Lady Van Tassel
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