Continuity mistake: Johnny Depp's character repeatedly plays with a little red bird in a cage toy during the movie. Towards the end, he is riding in a carriage and playing with it. We see a shot from his eye view and the bird is upright, meaning if we were seeing it from the opposite side it would be upside down. But immediately after that, we see a shot facing Ichabod. The bird is upright, not like it should normally be. We then cut directly to another shot of Ichabod's view, the bird is upright yet again! (01:21:55)
Continuity mistake: Near the end of the movie, when Ichabod, Katrina and the young Masbath are in the windmill, they closed the door with flour bags. They put 4 in place, but in the shot later, there are only 3. (01:28:55)
Other mistake: Near the end of the movie, Ichabod, Katrina and the young boy are in the old windmill when the horseman arrives. When the three good characters jump onto the moving sails Ichabod drops a lantern down to the floor setting the whole windmill on fire. He, the little boy and Katrina jump off the sail onto the ground and start running back to their carriage some yards away. A camera shot shows the top of the building explode and we see a very quick shot of the whole windmill exploding in flames, but Ichabod, Katrina and the little boy have disappeared. Two shots later they are still running to the carriage. (01:30:25)
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)
Audio problem: Near the end of the movie, when Ichabod gives the horseman his head back, in one shot, the horseman has his sword in one hand, and in the next shot he puts his head on with both hands; yet we do not hear any sound of him either dropping his sword or re-sheathing it.
Revealing mistake: When Brom (disguised as the horseman) throws the jack-o-lantern at Ichabod, there is a shot from Ichabod's perspective showing the jack-o-lantern flying toward him. It jiggles from side to side, revealing it was travelling on a wire.
Continuity mistake: When Ichabod Crane and young Masbath are riding to the Tree of the Dead for the first time, watch the boy's horse carefully. The camera pans behind a tree and when it comes out from behind it, for a second you can only see Gunpowder's haunches (Gunpowder being the grey that Ichabod rides) and not the chesnut's. Very hard to spot if you are not watching carefully.
Continuity mistake: Crane sprinkles a powder on the ground under the severed neck of Masbeth. Smoke comes up and he says something about a chemical reaction. Masbeth was running at full speed when killed, his body must have traveled at least his body length forward and maybe a few feet more, so there would be no blood under his neck as the Horseman decapitated him while he was standing and his blade cauterized all the neck tissue, veins and arteries.
Continuity mistake: When Ichabod arrives at Jonathan Masbath's murder scene, he selects a small bottle full of green powder to begin his investigation. The amount in the bottle changes from half-full to full in between shots.
Continuity mistake: During the sequence where Ichabod and The Horseman are fighting on top of the carriage, it's quite obvious that the two horses Masbeth and Katrina are riding keep changing colour. Sometimes they are both dark brown but sometimes Katrina's is dark brown and Masbeth's is white.
Suggested correction: Some horse breeds, like an appaloosa, waere used in the film - like the horse 'Gunpowder'. They have darker colored front halves and legs while their back end is white. Most likely Gunpowder is one of the horses used in this scene. There is one shot, taken from the side of the horse during this chase segment, where you can see this marking, his front is dark and his back end is white. Horses aren't changing, just the camera angles on the horse.
Continuity mistake: When Peter Van Garret's son gets his head chopped off Peter Van Garret looks out of the window. In the close-up his mouth opens in a gasp. Then it goes to a long shot showing the son with no head and Peter Van Garret's mouth is suddenly closed and then he gasps again in the exact same way.
Continuity mistake: At the end of the movie, after Ichabod gives the Horseman back his head, he and Katrina are shown standing next to each other, and her hair is completely down around her face. It then goes to a shot of them from behind, watching the Horseman, and her hair is pulled back. Next shot of them from the front, it's all down again.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Crane and the Headless Horseman are fighting atop the moving carriage, Crane shoots at the horseman, leaving a mark on the roof of the carriage. In the next shots, the mark is gone.
Continuity mistake: When Ichabod is investigating Johnathon Masbeth's death, he notes that the neck wound was cauterized immediately, which explains why there's no signs of bleeding. At the beginning of the movie, when Van Garret is killed by the Horseman, a splash of blood is shown hitting the pumpkin that is used for the scarecrow.
Suggested correction: Blood is constantly circulating throughout the body. While the neck wound itself is cauterized, if there is a buildup of blood in an area such as the jugular or the trachea, there will logically be a splash of blood. You actually see the same thing happen when the Horseman kills Jonathan Masbeth and Mr. Killian.
Revealing mistake: In the scene where Ichabod and Young Masbeth enter the witch's cave, the witch tackles Ichabod to the ground. The creepy face of the witch is obviously a mask because you can see the black cloth where the eyes are if you pay attention closely.
Revealing mistake: When the headless horseman's head is being dropped into his grave it bounces on the dirt like rubber.
Continuity mistake: At the funeral of Jonathan Masbath, there are many shots between Ichabod, Brom and Katrina. There are a few people between Ichabod, Katrina, and Brom. When Ichabod looks over at the other two, the people are gone. Then when they show another overall view, the people are back.
Other mistake: Towards the end of the movie when Ichabod discovers that Peter van Garrett and widow Winship were secretly married, we see the marriage certificate. The bride is shown as Emily Winship (maiden). Surely she should have been described as a widow because a maiden was the term for a woman who had never been married.
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.
Factual error: At the very end of the movie, Ichabod addresses to Young Masbath saying the final line "You'll son find your bearings young Masbath. The Bronx is up, the Battery is down and home is this way." However the Bronx was instituted only in 1898, a century later.
Suggested correction: 1. The Bronx was established in 1639, along the Bronx river by Dutch settlers, they started using the name Bronx. It doesn't have to be part of New York City for Ichabod to mention the location of the Bronx. There was already 2 bridges to it from Manhattan island even. 2. He could be simply referring to the Bronx river.
