I just finished watching the first few episodes of the tv version of Sleepy Hollow. It had many of the same characters as the short story but it was made modern by adding many modern day elements. It goes like this: Ichabod, who has been dead since 1781 after decapitating the Headless Horseman, awakens in the town of Sleepy Hollow, New York. He is accused of decapitating the local sheriff and is arrested. The only police officer who believes he is innocent sends him to a cave and he is resurrected. He finds an old bible that is marked at Revelation 6:8 and that leads him to believe the headless horseman is the horseman named Death. After having a dream in which his wife tells him that the horseman's head is buried at her grave and if he doesn't find it before the horseman does, his power will return and bring about the Apocalypse, Ichabod and Lieutenant Abbie Mills race to the grave to recover the head. Officer Andy Brooks, who is collaborating with the horseman, also leads him there. Ichabod beats them there and recovers the head and the horseman flees as the sun comes up. Andy was arrested by Abbie and was later killed in his cell by a demon before Ichabod and Abbie have a chance to question him. And that was just the first episode.....
The next episode was a little less involved. Ichabod has another dream where his wife, Katrina tells him of things he needs to prevent from happening. Abbie is assigned to work with Ichabod and they break into the secure archives where the investigation of the sheriff's death is located. This is where Ichabod realizes he is supposed to stop the resurrection of Serilda of Abadon. The demon who killed Andy brings him back to life to help revive Serilda so that she can use the ashes of the descendants who killed her to restore her power. Abbie and Ichabod realize that she has completed the resurrection but are able to kill her again with old explosives found in the tunnel the used to break into the archives. Serilda tells Ichabod that his wife's soul is trapped in a "world between worlds" and Abbie has a dream where the sheriff tells her not to be afraid of 49. 49 ends up being the room number at the mental facility where her sister Jenny lives.
I do see some of the same elements of the story here but the modern twist makes it seem a lot less like the original story. At first I wasn't sure I would like it but I am kind of excited to watch the next episode. Even though I don't think it is anything like the real story, I do think it is interesting.
Wow! Now I kind of want to watch the show. Haha! It sounds very exciting and full of action and suspense. It is a tricky and sometimes questionable move by Hollywood when they "base" a show or movie off of a book. Sometimes it feels like they are profiting off of the good name of the book or story without actually having much to do with it.
ReplyDelete"The Walton's" lasted a little more than a decade as a television show. I suppose the fact that Earl Hamner wrote a series of books about his prized family helped the longevity of the series but it was a single book first.
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