Weird Fic Picks - Daisy Bilenkin

Today's Weird Fic Pick is an incredible standout - because we get to hear from Daisy Bilenkin, who voices Charity in Episodes 4 & 5, wax lyrical about one of her favourite horror movies, Sleepy Hollow!

Give it a watch, and please don't forget to give Daisy a follow on Twitter.

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi, my name is Daisy Bilenkin. I’m the voice of Charity on The Silt Verses, and this is Weird Fic Picks, our Patreon-exclusive series where the cast and crew can wax lyrical about their favorites within the genres of horror, weird fiction, science fiction, and dark fantasy. Spoilers will follow for the work involved, so please be aware.

I would also like to issue a content warning for this video in particular: for scenes of graphic violence, tonal dissonance, and just like….the most copious amounts of Manic Panic red blood gel effects.

*Title Card: Daisy’s First Video Essay, Or How I learned to stop worrying and love horror*

I would like to talk to you all today about my selection, the 1999 supernatural, Gothic horror film: Sleepy Hollow, directed by Tim Burton and loosely inspired by Washington Irving’s legendary folktale, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The film follows a rational-minded young constable in 1799, when his exasperated superiors in the big city send him upstate to Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of decapitations. There, he hopes to -

“Detect!”

- the murderer and defeat them in the arena of facts and logic. However, he faces more than he bargains for as conspiracies, the supernatural, childhood trauma, and yet more murders come to light.

In execution, Sleepy Hollow can come across as this chaotic convergence of multiple genres. We’re talkin’ murder mystery, police procedural, historical drama, period romance, and supernatural horror, which can be difficult for some to digest within one movie. However, I’m going to focus on my personal experience with this film, and maybe commit the sin of omitting context and disregarding the criticisms of people who know more about film-making than me. Rest assured, though, I have many thoughts about its cinematic qualities to its place in the roller-coaster legacy of Tim Burton’s questionable oeuvre.  

I used to justify my love of Sleepy Hollow by saying it was too fantastical to be scary, despite the fact that it was clearly a horror movie. You see, it took two ill-timed viewings of Scream and The Ring when I was younger to commit me to a life, until recently, of being unable to stomach anything “horror” in a movie. And yet...Sleepy Hollow broke the mold! It didn’t take me long to consider it my favorite movie, and why should it conflict with my anti-horror stance? Sleepy Hollow was clearly NOT trying to scare me. It was fantastical and dream-like, and there was a playfulness coming through it that was as comforting as it was charming. It was like taking the hand of a caring and trusted figure as it led you through: multiple decapitations, pools of blood, religious persecution, child murder, mom murder, dad murder, a-guy-being-sliced-in-half-murder, demonically-possessed witches, and the concept of a hell.

Through dour townsfolk, soupy fog, a hair-raising musical score, and the machinations of an impeccably designed movie set, Sleepy Hollow has a roiling river of joviality that cannot be contained. And so, occasionally, it must erupt to form tonal dissonance at its audience. To demonstrate what I mean: I might not be a fan of fake blood being squirted into peoples’ faces for comedic effect on its own. But it can become very welcoming, and even endearing after certain scenes. Such as: a hair-raising chase through the woods; or even a tension-inducing autopsy in the woods; or even the discovery of a reservoir of stored heads in a very creepy tree...in the woods. The point is, there’s an audacity I admire about inserting a crotch joke into a classically framed horror reveal of the Headless Horseman committing a brutal kill. Just like *chefs kiss*.

Much of my personal enjoyment of the comedic winks offered by this movie are, of course, attributed to several fantastic performances: Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane, Miranda Richardson as Lady Van Tassel, and Marc Pickering as my darling, precious cinnamon roll Young Jonathon Masbath.

*Title Card: Nothing will compel me to reveal the name of the best cameo in this movie in case some of you haven’t watched yet*

And so I was introduced to the experience, and the concept of horror as an enjoyable thrill, as a vehicle for comedy even.There was a method of using horror elements to act as tension-relieving foil to more familiar, yet terrifying realism. I mean, there is no shortage of more sobering, “realistic” depictions of things in Sleepy Hollow that juxtaposition it to its camp: police brutality, torture, the persecution of women living outside strict patriarchal guidelines (and stigma against men for same), corpse desecration, adultery, greed, conspiracy plots, hysteria, and stone cold vengeance. There’s even some class consciousness to be had in here -

**
Clip w/Audio from Film:
Ichabod Crane: And...you, sir?
Baltus Van Tassel: A simple farmer - who has prospered! The town looks to me as friend, and counsel.
Magistrate Phillipse: And landlord. And banker. Can we proceed?
**

Mhm. Mhmmmm.

I don’t want this all to come off as if Sleepy Hollow is this criterion piece of auteur sensibility or that other films haven’t done what I’ve described better. But, to me, Sleepy Hollow's execution was very striking and clearly influenced me deeply.

I do believe that Sleepy Hollow successfully swung through the absurd, the sinister, and about five different genres to make a compelling movie. It’s not genius and it’s not meant to be! It’s a melodramatic goblin with many niche interests, an adept hand at her chosen aesthetic, and no subtlety…

Thank you so much for watching, and for supporting The Silt Verses on Patreon. If you have any recommendations for future fiction discussions or any comments around the work we've been discussing today, I hope you’ll share them with us below. Thank you!