Sleepy Hollow High (2000) Poster

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4/10
A pumpkin-headed slayer threatens high school youths in the Maryland woods
Wuchakk12 August 2023
Five juvenile delinquents want to graduate, but they have to do community service at a park in the sticks outside Baltimore to do so. Unfortunately, it's Halloween and there's a man on the loose with a jack-o'-lantern helmet slaying people with a sword.

"Sleepy Hollow High" (2000) is a no-budget slasher that only cost $16,500. I'm a fan of the subgenre and there are numerous examples of barely-a-budget slashers delivering the goods, like "The Ridge" (2005), which cost $2400, and "A Bothered Conscience" (2006), which cost $2300. "Butchered" (2010) is another example. Decent Indie slashers that had more money to work with include "Splatter University" (1984), which had $26,000, and "The Majorettes" (1986), which had $85,500.

This is easily the least of these, but it has a few highlights, like quality locations à la "The Blair Witch Project" (1999), a few attractive women, a little human interest, decent acting (all things considered) and a good rockin' soundtrack, which includes several songs by Big Neon Glitter. Regrettably, the story is one-dimensional and tedious. The script needed a rewrite to flesh-out more highlights and make the story compelling.

Meagan Adele Lopez stands out in the feminine department as Shannon while, on the masculine front, Ruben Brown is reminiscent of Ice Cube, albeit second rate.

The flick runs 1 hour, 20 minutes, and was shot at Sykesville and Towson, Maryland, which are a dozen miles northeast and north of Baltimore respectively.

GRADE: C-/D+ (3.7/10)
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Very bad writing destroys good effort
horrorbargainbin28 June 2002
I don't think this film was made to bring in the big bucks and that makes me want to support it. Still, if it was made for the love of horror why tack on an ending that movie fans are guaranteed to hate. I won't give them away, but the two finishing twists are painful.

The first twist is a cliched and universally hated finishing move followed by a final shot and revelation that makes no sense in conjunction with the first. Even if the shot did fit logically it would not be much of a shocker.

The low production values did not bother me. I thought the woods setting was beautiful. For one dollar I at least got a few kicks out of the video, but the end kind of made me mad.
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1/10
Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!
BHorrorWriter10 September 2001
I HATE MOVIES THAT END LIKE THIS!!!!

This 16mm disaster is full of clichés, stereotypical characters, a generic, over done "plot" and terrible dialog.

In this "Movie" we have the Aggressive Black Guy, The Black Guys Girlfriend, The Blonde Bitch, The Possible Lesbian "hacker chick", the Pedophilic teacher...Blah, Blah, Blah....And then the Pumpkin Man.

"Do you think someone is taking the legend too far?" This question is asked towards the end of the film. Taking the Tagline of Scream 2 too far.

SPOILERS*****Typically I don't go into spoilers but I have to rant....

A dream? The whole thing was a Dream!!!!! This is the most sissified way to end a movie. "I don't know how to explain all of this, and we don't have any more money...Let's make the whole thing a dream." This is what the director/producer/actor/FX guy must have been thinking. Yes, the director is the character of Mr. E He did almost everything on this garbage movie. This is such a cope out ending....And what of the principal, okay, so he has been doing all the kidnapping! What did that have to do with the movie? Of course the Black people are killed, the bitchy girl is killed, the teacher that has a past of sexual harassment with students gets killed ( he is main suspect)....YUCK YUCK YUCK!!! This movie gave me heart burn.

Pointless, senseless, and made with parents Visa and Mastercards (which tells me it is probably still being paid off), this movie is dumb, boring and just plain stupid....

The only thing I liked was the credits. The way they presented the names, etc, in the beginning and at the end. It had a creepy feel to it. Too bad the movie didn't!

1 out of 10
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1/10
can we say home video?
dgrandy10128 March 2002
This was obviously the worst movie ever made...ketchup was the starring role in this movie and would be the only nominee for an award..cause the plot, actors, and anything related to this farce was absolutely horrible and ridiculous. I could have made a better horror flick in my backyard within two hours with a hand-held camera using grass stuffed dummies as the actors, atleast the acting would have been better! Don't waste your time or money on this one...it's extremely cheesy and horrible!!
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5/10
Hilarious Duology
lotrfanboy90022 May 2008
I do consider this film, and its sister "The Adventures of the Young Van Helsing", to be among the worst ever made. Why the high score then? This really is a movie that's so bad, it's good. I've studied both of these movies to understand how a bad film works, and have even used them in College classes as demonstrations. The plot of this movie is so paper thin that it's a wonder George Lucas didn't help write it. That's what's so great about it though. It's a movie that by conventional means you should hate, but you end up loving. I actually searched long and hard for this film, just like "Young Van Helsing". So, in conclusion, good/bad job to whoever directed these films.
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1/10
WHY????????
pmitchell618 February 2002
It wasn't the worst movie that I have ever seen. However, that is only if I get to count home movies made by 8 year olds. This movie was horrible from start to finish. Nothing about it made it worth watching unless you wanted to show new filmmakers how not to make a film.
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8/10
"Sleepy Hollow High": Generic slasher flick better than expected
SwingBatta1 August 2003
Sleepy Hollow High (2000): A group of high school students performing community service on Sleepy Hollow park grounds are knocked off one by one by someone wearing a pumpkin mask and carrying a big sword. Released straight to home video, this movie has the depth of a thimble (as well as an asinine ending) and was clearly made in an attempt to capitalize on Tim Burton's 1999 masterpiece, but there are far worse ways in the world to spend $16,000. The acting is decent, and directors Kevin Summerfield (who also appears in the film as a student counselor named Mr. E) and Chris Arth make the most of their limited resources. The DVD has quite a few extras for a low-budget hole-in-the-wall flick, including directors' commentary, cast and crew interviews, and a "deleted scenes" reel – actually a stale collection of outtakes – plus hidden footage of the film's April 2000 "world premiere" at Towson State University (the movie was shot in Maryland). "Sleepy Hollow High" is the cinematic equivalent of a Snickers bar; satisfying but quickly forgotten, and yet more fulfilling than many $100-million summer blockbusters. 7.5/10
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7/10
Generic slasher story with ambitious character conflict...
fangoria_magazine15 October 2000
SLEEPY HOLLOW HIGH offers further proof that DVD, against the odds, has become the great equalizer; even a homegrown project like this can now receive the deluxe disc treatment. The opportunistically titled film wasn't shot anywhere near Sleepy Hollow (try Maryland), and while it's mostly a generic slasher story (with a copout of an ending), it's a little more ambitious than some in terms of character conflict. The fullscreen transfer of this 16mm production is good enough, with a crisp if sporadically grainy picture and sharp Dolby Digital mono sound, and is accompanied by a wealth of extras: `The Curse of Sleepy Hollow,' a fitfully amusing spoof of all those BLAIR WITCH offshoots; `Deleted Scenes' (mostly alternate takes and outtakes); a making-of short; a music video that looks like it was thrown together in an afternoon; and spirited commentary by the filmmakers who recall the challenges and ingenuity involved in their low-budget shoot.
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Inspirational-in the fact that this movie got distributed
riggsman4 October 2002
Where should I start. I bought this movie on VHS last halloween. I am a big fan of cheesy horror films and figured it would be entertaining. This seems like a poor quality student project. First, there is the actual visual quality. Some posts talk about tis being a 16mm film. I seem to doubt that. The quality looks like 3rd or 4th generation VHS. The colors are so faded that it at times seems almost black and white. The movie starts out bad and just doesn't get any better. It starts with a Jogger running through the woods, who stops in the middle of the woods to eat a candy bar. What kind of exercise fanatic stops to eat a candy bar? Anyway, she gets chased and killed with such great lines like "oh please don't kill me." Definately not an academy award winner. Then a credit sequence that has nothing to do with the movie. I don't want to ruin the movie for anyone that wants to waste an hour or so to watch it. It starts out bad a doesn't get any better. The poor casting consists of people that not only can't act but are totally wrong for the role. A 40 year old guy plays a high school student. terrible. some of the other high school students are also way to old to play the role. For some reason the film maker thought it would be cool to give the characters one letter names, J, Z, Mr E(trying to be clever. mystery) The dialogue is trite and meaningless. It doesn't make sense half the time. The lighting is something out of a low budget porn movie. If it is night a person would not be completely illuminated from the front. The acting is horrible and the directing and editing didn't seemed to have helped. The establishing shots shown over and over again are terrible and obviously nothing more than filler to get it to feature length. I would say that watching it is a must for film students. It was very inspirational in the fact that a movie made so poorly could get such a large distribution. I have shown it to someone before one of my films. It is so poorly done, it makes my films look like the were made by Spielberg. But I did buy it and I don't feel bad about it because even though it isn't good by any means it is an example of how indie films can get seen no matter how good or bad they are. The rating on the box was funny, It said 3 and a half stars. ( what it didn't say was that it was out of ten and not four.) Not as good as a Ed Wood Movie.
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10/10
A cut above the rest.
bigpappa1--225 December 2000
A group of teenagers forced to do community service are decapitated by what appears to be a headless horseman or is it one of them?

Low budget chiller is eerie and spooky and features some good performances ( as well as some not so good ones) and strives for originality, cleverness, & stye and nearly succeeds, but not quite. Still a refreshing change of pace for the genre.

My rating: 7 out of 10.
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7/10
Cool, fun, low budget
istableza9 October 2000
I had a chance to view this film on DVD at a friend's house. Pretty cool little film. It was obviously a small budget Indie, but I think that added to the charm. I'm sooo tired of big budget horror flicks that overwhelm with special effects. Sleepy Hollow High reminds me more of some of the older horror films(you don't see the "creature" right away). The film makers did try to add some humor to this film, which gave it a lighter note and reminded me of a "Scream" type plot. (Which I feel appeals to a younger, or more visceral audience).Its basically a clever, modern day take on the Sleepy Hollow legend,touching on the precognitive nature of dreams, and the way unstable personalities might use a legend to act out their crimes. I really liked the "Z" character(sexy eyes!), and "Mr. E". There was some pretty weak acting from some of the characters, but "Shannon" ,"Z" ,and"Mr. E." shined enough to make up for it. I read a review that said the sound was bad-was this on the video? The DVD version had excellent sound, and some really erie backround music on the DVD itself. There is also a super strange spoof type documentary, and a funny little music video. We also found some hidden footage on the DVD;look for it in the right eye of the pumpkin.
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Made in one weekend, it looks like...
Room1211 September 2000
Whoa, this is one of the WORST movies I have EVER seen! The packaging for the film is better than the film itself. My girlfriend and I watched it this past weekend, and we only continued to watch it in the hopes that it would get better...it didn't...

The picture quality is poor; it looks like it was shot on video and transferred to film. The lighting is not great, which makes it harder to read the actors' facial expressions. The acting itself was cheesy, but I guess it's acceptable for "yet another" teenage horror flick. The sound was a huge problem: sometimes you have to rewind the video because the sound is unclear and/or muffled.

It holds no real merit of it's own; trying to ride on the coattails of "Sleepy Hollow." Don't bother with this one.
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10/10
Great little indie horror
loralynnlove3 November 2021
Good stuff! We watched a bunch of indie horror films on Halloween and this one didn't disappoint. It has a pretty cool premise and a creepy vibe throughout. Yeah it was little less polished than other horror films but I think it actually works in favor of this movie. Don't listen to the haters and give it a chance.
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7/10
Not bad considering the budget
theduckofdeath-224 May 2005
This is an independently produced slasher flick, and as such has many of the shortcomings incumbent to financially strapped filmmakers. The special effects are pretty cheesy, the plot is somewhat clichéd and there are pieces of the story that had to be left out. There are, however, a couple of strong points to the picture. First, the two female leads--Meagan (credited as Meaghan in the film) Lopez and Wendy Donigian--are both lovely, and far more importantly, show great promise with their acting skills. Second, the ending is fairly unique, and does manage to catch the viewer by surprise. And third, directors Arth and Summerfield did an excellent job with the continuity. A bit of a rarity in these "homemade" pictures. I look forward to seeing more product from these folks.
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WELL???
natew3412 October 2000
Ok im not going to give this movie any real credit but im not totally gonna put it down. I was expecting a lot more from this movie with the awesome looking cover and writing on the front of the box that reads scream meets dawsons creek. The movie starts out good with a hand cutting out articles about missing people in sleepy hollow with some really creepy music in the back ground but thats about as good as it gets. The acting is not to good and the quality on vhs is horrible at most times in the film. Im hoping maybe that dvd will be better. I was surprised with the amount of blood in it. It did get a little better towards the end with a big battle between the stars and the horseman but when all is revealed it leaves you down with a disappointed feeling. All in all i have to say if you have nothing to do and want to see a movie and dont care if it has a real intelligent plot go a head and get this one but dont expect too much.
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10/10
good movie
matthew-cole830 September 2008
Most people would look at this movie and say "Bad Movie, Bad Acting, Bad all around." Take into consideration that this movie was made with a limited budget, and small time actors, it is a very good movie. This movie was not meant to be a perfect movie, was not meant to be one of the top 10 movies ever made. It was just meant to provide entertainment. And if you realize, unlike every other movie, the cameras are never visible, no reflections, and hardly any mistakes as to slip ups with words, or untrue facts, making this movie an almost perfect movie. Granted the acting is not perfect, the lines are stressed too much, and the actors are small time, but hey for small time directors, actors, and writers, its a great learning tool. If you buy it, take the time to consider these things, then think about it. I am a Independent director and writer, and I consider this movie awesome. I have made many like it, and many above it. Not every movie can be a Hollywood blockbuster. Think about it. Oh, and the plot and story-line is very well written.
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7/10
a pretty good low budget teen slasher
eiffel1988221443-25 February 2002
stars: Meagen Lopez, Ruben Brown, Wendy Donigian, and Antonio Benedict.

plot: Five high school students are forced by their princible to clean up the woods. But when it's halloween night and they live in a town called Sleepy Hollow, something very bad is destined to happen. A killer with a jack-o-lantern mask and a sword, who rides a horse beheads the students one by one. The remaining few must figure out who it is.

reveiw: Even though this film is shot with a sucky camera, and a sucky ending, its pretty good. The killer looks cool with his kick arse mask! The first scene is pretty creepy, and the gore is good, although its kinda cheesy, but its low budget! Also, the heroin in this film is not the usual depressed girl who lost someone in the past and expects everyone to care.

6/10.
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Home of bad acting, bad writing, and little else
zubldan16 November 2000
YIKES !! This was one awful movie !! How in the world did this movie ever get distributed? The movie was terribly written. The acting was bad. The camera looks like it was out of focus; even when the camera is on a tripod. It sort of looks like a rip off of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and SLEEPY HOLLOW (which was an excellent film). This was a blatant attempt to make a quick buck, if I ever saw one. I say quick because this looks like it was made quickly;the lighting is bad and looks like they didn't use any kind of lights (except the flashlights and firelight) and the story gets boring from the getgo. Its a typical horror movie, even though this one isn't scary: it's got a bimbo, a toughguy, a square guy and a the adult. Not very original and not very entertaining. If you see it on the shelf, keep on walking.......
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* * out of 4.
brandonsites19818 June 2002
A headless horseman is on the loose at a small town beheading people. A group of misfits doing community service for bad behavior at school fall victim to the horseman. At times creepy and original (especially the ending), but poorly acted, directed, and edited. The picture quality is very grainy, but actually works in favor of the film. Intriguing film with an intriguing premise would have been better served with a bigger budget.

Rated R; Graphic Violence.
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A slick independent for all ages!
wildcat-2216 September 2000
This film was very entertaining for its category and is something that everybody of all ages can actually watch for a change (no bad language, very little violence and actually has some positive messages for kids to boot!). It played great on my high-def tv and sound system and after watching all the credits you see these guys really were not backed by a major studio by any means, yet still pulled off something far better than most big budget films that show up in theaters. Worth checking out if you want to see a fresh twist on the headless horseman premise!
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Sleepy Hollow High: the ghetto Degrassi
headnotfound20 December 2011
Here, we debunk the ideology that high school life is easy compared to the reality of adulthood. It was heartbreaking to see all-American boy Spinner (played by Shane Kippel) deal with the consequences of inadvertently inciting a bullied young man to bring a gun to school and shoot his best friend Jimmy ('sup Drake), putting him in a wheel chair for the rest of his life. And we have Liberty (Sarah Barrable-Tishauer) who is at the top of her class, only to have her dreams and ambitions thwarted when she finds out she's pregnant. Not to mention young Emma who dabbles with anorexia, because she... oh wait... *beep* me!...Ha, I totally was reviewing DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION just then. But.. Um... Sleepy Hollow High... yeah.
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