The Hollow

In the fall of 1799, pragmatic New York City constable Ichabod Crane is sent to the upstate Dutch village of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of brutal decapitations of its residents, which included landowner Peter Van Garrett, his son Dirk, and widow Emily Winship. Received by the insular town elders—wealthy farmer Baltus Van Tassel; doctor Thomas Lancaster; the Reverend Steenwyck; notary James Hardenbrook; and magistrate Samuel Philipse—Ichabod learns that the locals believe the killer is the undead apparition of a headless Hessian mercenary, who is trying to find his missing head. Skeptical of the paranormal explanation, Ichabod begins his investigation and settles in the house of the Van Tassels, becoming romantically attached to Baltus' spiritual daughter, Katrina. After Van Garrett's servant, Jonathan Masbath, becomes the next victim, his teenage son volunteers as Ichabod's assistant. On a tip from Philipse, Ichabod and Young Masbath exhume the bodies of the victims and learn that the widow died pregnant. Shortly after, Ichabod witnesses the Hessian killing Philipse. Together with Masbath and Katrina, Ichabod goes to the Western Woods, where a crone reveals the location of the Hessian's grave at the "tree of the dead", his portal into the living world. Ichabod digs up the grave and discovers the Hessian's remains without a skull, deducing that it has been taken in order to control him. That night, the Hessian kills town midwife Beth Killian and her family, as well as Katrina's suitor, Brom Van Brunt, when he attempts to intervene. Ichabod hypothesizes that the Hessian is attacking selected targets linked by a conspiracy. Ichabod and Masbath visit Hardenbrook, who unwittingly reveals that Van Garrett had secretly married Winship, bequeathing his estate to her and her unborn child. Ichabod deduces that all the victims are either beneficiaries or witnesses to the new will, and assumes that the Hessian's master is Baltus, Van Garret's next of kin who would otherwise have inherited the estate. Ichabod finds a chalked pentagram under his bed, which he believes symbolizes the evil eye. Upon learning of Ichabod's suspicions, Katrina destroys his evidence to protect her father. Hardenbrook commits suicide, and Steenwyck convenes a meeting to discredit Ichabod, but Baltus bursts into the church assembly, announcing that the Hessian has killed his wife and Katrina's stepmother, Mary Van Tassel. The remaining elders turn on each other, resulting in Steenwyck and Lancaster being killed. Unable to enter the church, the Hessian harpoons Baltus through a window, dragging him out and acquiring his head. In the ensuing chaos, Katrina draws a pentagram identical to the one Ichabod found earlier, making him believe that she is the Hessian's master. Using Katrina's compendium of charms, Ichabod discovers that her pentagram is actually one of protection; he also finds a post-mortem wound on Mary's supposed body, which belongs to the Van Tassels' servant, Sarah. Mary confronts Katrina and takes her to a windmill, where she reveals her true parentage from an impoverished family evicted by Van Garrett years ago in favor of the Van Tassels. Having witnessed the Hessian's death as a child, Mary pledged herself to Satan to resurrect him from the grave and take over the Van Garrett and Van Tassel estates in revenge. She manipulated her way into the Van Tassel household, killing Katrina's mother to take her place as Baltus' wife, and drew the other elders into the conspiracy against him through blackmail and lust. Having eliminated all the other heirs and witnesses, including her own sister (the crone) for aiding Ichabod, Mary summons the Hessian to finish off Katrina. Ichabod and Masbath rush to the windmill to rescue Katrina as the Hessian arrives. After escaping from the windmill, which led to its destruction, and the subsequent chase to the tree of the dead, Ichabod retrieves the Hessian's skull from Mary and returns it to him, freeing the Hessian from her control. With his head restored, the Hessian spares Katrina and returns to Hell, taking Mary with him. With the case solved, Ichabod takes Katrina and Masbath from Sleepy Hollow to start a new life with them in New York.