The movie involves multiple murders in the small farming town of Sleepy Hollow. All victims were decapitated, their heads 'taken back to hell'
Because he beleives in logic, Constable Icabod Crane is sent from New York to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the murders. At first he is welcomed warmly, but as things progress, he becomes hated by the ton elders who all have something to hide.
The murders are said to be done by a Hessian mercenary killed in the woods around Sleepy Hollow with his own sword.
After investigations, Icabod notices that there must be a link between the murders, that the heads were burned off by something hot (said to be 'hell's fire').
With the aid of a boy who's father was murdered by the horseman, and katrina van tassell, he goes into the woods to find the tree of the dead.
When they reach the tree, Icabod discovers blood coming from the tree, and after removing some branches, he finds the heads of the victims.
Meanwhile, more and more murders are occuring, including one of the town elders, brom bones, and a whole family. At one point, Icabod realizes that the murders are linked in a way involving one of the most important family's
belongings, which were given away when they family was murdered.
One night after sneaking into the woods, he sees Katrina's stepmother with another man, and she cuts her hand with a knife and smears the blood on the man. Later, katrina's stepmother is 'killed' by the horseman. When Icabod inspects her body, he realizes that the cut on the body's hand was made when the body was already dead.
While that was going on, katrina runs into her dead stepmother, who takes her to the old mill, where she explains her story. She and her family had moved into the town and the head family had given them a shack in the woods, where they lived until they were forced out. While in the oods one day, the lady met the hessian, just before he was killed. She sold her soul to Satan, if he would bring the hessian back to avenge her family. She stole his skull and ordered him to kill whoever go in the way of her receiving the inheritance.
She sends the horseman to kill Katrina, who is rescued by Icabod from the burning old mill. They all meet up at the tree of the dead, where the horseman gets his head back. He puts it on, and his face grow back on. He picks up Katrina's stepmother and bites her, before sucking her to hell through the tree of the dead.
