Written by Mr. Mouseburger 20th Nov 2005
Kindly submitted by Pyro
When the Headless Horseman arrives to claim his next victim, the entire town barricades themselves in the local church. One would think because the ghostly rider can't enter, they are safe. Ever the resourceful one, the Horseman figures a rather innovative way around this and snaps off a wooden fence pole, ties it to some rope, and circles around the building.
The Horseman uses his head...
Meanwhile, inside the church, Katrina's father, Baltus Van Tassel, discovers the Horseman is after him! The other townspeople figure this out as well, and after a brief fight that leaves two men dead, Baltus is driven up to the balcony by a mob of townspeople who now seem more then eager to throw him out for the Horseman to finish.
"There is a conspiracy here, and I will seek it out!" Baltus declares, but before he gets the chance to follow through on that, the horseman's deadly makeshift weapon crashes through the window and spears its way through Baltus's chest, sending blood everywhere.
The conspiracy has Baltus stumped....
Baltus then must endure a horrific experience of being pulled from the window and dragged along the ground as the Horseman reels him in, pinning him between two fence posts, with his head sticking just outside the hallowed ground of the church.
This is all the Horseman needs though, and he turns his horse around, sword unsheathed, and slices Van Tassel's head clean off.
The Hessian Horseman is the friggin' man. This fact is doubled by the fact that he's Ray Park, and is further tripled by the fact that he's Christopher Walken. Only the combined Man-ness of Park and Walken could ever hope to embody the Hessian Horseman so effectively.
And his sword is a work of art, too.
Have you people ever heard of BRAVEHEART
Not only does the lead character get beheaded, which energizes a starving and outnumbered Scottish Army, but he reams the Captain of the English Guard like it's his job in the Battle of Stirling.
"BASTARD!" (holds arms and sword out, before cutting down the horse, and then the guy's head from his shoulders).
Decapitation? You forgot to add the prior events of being "Impaled" by a "Projectile" then subsequently having his head "Hacked" off.
Shouldn't it also be falling????????
Good point Mr Briggs, i have added the categories, although i am leaving off hacked, as decapitation covers that nicely.
KrazyCorn - not sure we can call this falling, he is dragged out of the church by the Hessian's spear, rather than falling out of it.
I was thinking that since an "animal" or piece of flying wreckage or just extreme pressure could cause decapitation, "Hacked" could be used to clarify. (Although it is admittedly pretty obvious in this case.)
That movie is kick ass and Baltus's death is gross and creative. I think when I first saw that as a little kid, I was sickened and I covered myself under the blanket. Nowadays, I look forward to that part, it is probably the best death in the movie second only to Brom Bones's.
Here's something I noticed, just before he's about to get killed Baltus shuts his eyes, a cliche almost every director uses which is a symbol some divine intervention will result in them not getting killed right at that moment, doesn't seem to work for this one, though, does it ?