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Sleepy Hollow High


I found Sleepy Hollow High (1999) one day at some store or other, I dont remember anymore. I picked it up because it had a cool jack-o'-lantern on the cover and I like the town of Sleepy Hollow.

This is a different Sleepy Hollow. At least it appears to be. Especially with the cars having MD plates. This is a local film, filmed near Baltimore in Sykesville, Maryland. And while the killer wears a jack-o'-lantern on his head this has nothing to do with the beloved Washington Irving story.

No, this is set in Sleepy Hollow, Maryland, in Calvert County I imagined. Though its never said as much, thr plates on the cars are MD, so I'm going with this setting. Thing is, the characters act like they are in Sleepy Hollow, NY, you know -- the one with the headless horseman legend an all... Written by a certain Washington Irving. I could have this all wrong, and they just ignore the part where they're in MD and filmed here instead of traveling to NY. Who knows, who cares? 

Whatever, semantics aside, the movie kinda sucks. It does. It's a homemade film, on a budget that is small to non-existent.

But I still like it. Maybe it's because it's so familiar, set no more than 20 miles from where I grew up. The characters aren't exactly likable, but I like them still. Their senior counselor, who reminded me of a teacher I had in Vo-Tech, Mr. E (Kevin Summerfield), was actually a pretty good actor. As was the bad boy, Z (Ruben Brown), was quite authentic, as well. He showed up in an episode of Homicide: Life on the Streets.

To be honest most of the cast were good actors. They just really did not have anything to work with. I still don't understand the climax of the story. But as with most B movies you kinda just watch and try and enjoy the ride. This time of year, with Halloween a few weeks away, enjoy it I did. If you don't expect too much you might like it too. Especially if you're local.

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