[Headless Horseman]
Plot:After taking an ill-advised detour, a group of kids get lost on the way to a Halloween party. Soon they find out what old Ichabod Crane seemed to lose his head over...do you hear the hooves racing in the dark or is it the beating of your heart?

Cast:Vasile Albinet, Billy Aaron Brown, Rebecca Mozo, Richard Moll, Arianne Fraser.

My Thoughts:For a SCI-FI original picture....this was pretty damn good.

Review:So, for a SCI-FI Original Picture, "Headless Horseman" was pretty good, that's the last time you'll hear me say that probably for the next 20 years. Directed by Athony C. Ferrante, the film follows some kids on their way to a Halloween Party who end up getting a flat tire which strands them in one of those hicksville USA small towns. As usual in scenarios like these, those crazy hillbilly folk won't let the kids leave, and to prove how sinister they are...they dismantle their car, steal their cellphones, give them the run around on certain questions, you know...the usual type of behavior from redneck types.

After setting up a classic and cliche scenario like this, I was hoping Ferrante would offer up something cool and original, like he did in "BOO". Which he does, and does very well. Instead of allowing the film to become another cannibal, or sick hick flick where crazy "townies" are hunting down more affluent city folk, Ferrante uses the townspeople sinister behavior to connect with the Headless Horseman. Yes, the legendary villain who's made appearances in films such as "Sleepy Hollow", and "The Hollow". Of course this film is set in a small southern town, instead of New England, and Ferrante puts his own spin on the horseman legend...a quite unique spin might I add.

Seems the horseman who was evil even before he was killed, needs to collect seven heads around Halloween time to appease the devil and regain his human form, otherwise, should he come back to hell empty handed, he will take the town with him. Which means the end of days for all of the towns people. This gives the hillbilly folks a vested interest in making sure the city kids stick around, and lose their heads in the process.

Ferrante does an excellent job in creating the horseman character, which is really the figurehead for the story, and unlike in most B horror films where the title character is relegated to a shadow or a few off-screen kills, the horseman in this film makes many appearances. He also looks really intimidating and badass as well, sporting many different looks such as headless, a pumpkin for a head, and then veins which sprout up out of his neck. Sure it may sound ridiculous, but all of these different forms will make sense if you've seen or when you see the picture, as they are set up by different scenarios and situaitons that take place within the movie.

This film is also pretty bloody for a SCI-FI original picture, with impalings, numerous decapitations, and fingers taken off. A girl even loses her head in a bear trap, and the scene is allowed to unfold in all of it's bloody glory. I was kind of surprised the SCI-FI Channel allowed all of this carnage to be shown, seeing as how they badly edit most of their original and non-original films. But they seemed to have purposely been asleep at the switch during "Headless Horseman". Maybe because it was Halloween weekend, who knows...either way, I'm not complaining.

The film does boast some CGI but it's not bad enough or regularly present to the point of becoming an annoyance or a distraction, and the acting in this film is surprisingly decent. To top all of that, the characters not being overtly annoying was a major plus. I pretty much found myself rooting for all of the kids to survive, and while the occasional poor decision making by the horseman's victims did annoy me in a few places, it wasn't enough to make me deduct any points away from the film. "Headless Horseman" wraps up nicely and pretty intense, and although the film uses the age old cliche of the "redneck defector" to help along it's heroes, overall the movie is certainly one of the better SCI-FI Channel originals to debut in quite some time.

Positives:Great death scenes, lots of blood and gore, intriguing and smart story, good performances, and likeable characters.

Negatives:A few too many cliches.

Overall:A film worth checking out.





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