Continuity mistake: In the flashback to the death of the headless horseman, when the horseman's steed gets shot and falls to the ground, the blood and the wound are on the right side of the horse...later in the scene when the horse is seen again, the wound is on the left side of the horse. (00:16:45)
Revealing mistake: When the Headless Horseman is about to kiss Catrina's stepmother, you can see his actual teeth behind the filed ones. Christopher Walken's teeth are blacked out and their outline is visible against his tongue during the closeup of his face. (01:37:20)
Trivia: Numerous references to other Tim Burton films: a) The dress Katrina Anne Van Tassel wears at the end is similar to Beetlejuice's outfit. b) Crane has various sharp scissor-like tools, which is a reference to Johnny Depp's early film "Edward Scissorhands" (1989). c) The scarecrow at the beginning looks exactly like Jack from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1994). d) The covered bridge is a lot like the bridge in "Beetlejuice."
Continuity mistake: When that boy lights the spinning lamp that casts shapes on everything, we can clearly see the shapes on the wall behind him, but they never shine on him or his mother. (00:53:00)
Continuity mistake: In about the middle of the film where Ichabod Crane is writing doing process of elimination. He writes "Baltus" in cursive. Watch the tail of the "s" on "Baltus." One or two shots after that the "s" on "Baltus" is clearly different than the one we watched him write. The "l" in Baltus changes too. (01:04:30)
Continuity mistake: At the church scene, the Horseman hauls a piece of fence through the church window and through Christina Ricci's father. After much screaming and amazement, the old man is ripped back through the window. However when he is torn from the church back out the window, the window breaks before he hits it. And wouldn't some of the window have broken when the spear was thrown through in the first place? We don't hear breaking glass or see any broken window panes. (01:18:00)
Continuity mistake: When young Ichabod jumps back from the sight of his mother in the iron maiden, he punctures his hands on a spiked chair. The hand area of the chair shows approximately six rows of four spikes and would be very hard for his small hand to have gotten more than seven or eight punctures at the most, rather than the twenty or so he sees on his hand after he wakes up. (01:00:20)
Continuity mistake: When Ichabod first sees the cut on the Widow Winship's stomach, it looks to be quite shallow, but when he is performing his autopsy, the cut is much deeper. (00:27:55)
Continuity mistake: When Katrina faints after having seen his father being killed by the Headless Horseman, Ichabod notices a pink chalk fallen from her hand changing position in another shot from an overhead shot.
Answer: As revealed by Lady Van Tassel to Katrina during the film's climax, the midwife Mrs. Killian was abreast of the secrets regarding the affairs of Peter Van Garrett with the widow Winship, as well as their unborn child. Mrs. Killian revealed this secret to Lady Van Tassel right in front of Mr. Killian, which signed both of their death warrants. However, Lady Van Tassel most likely commanded the Headless Horseman to kill the Killians (as opposed to just saying Mr. & Mrs. Killian), to which the Horseman would instinctively murder their child too. It may have been an oversight on the part of Lady Van Tassel, as the child would undoubtedly be ignorant of affairs and the intricacies of legal matters regarding wills, but then again, she probably didn't care anyway.
Phaneron ★