Sleepy hollow

Sleepy Hollow- The first thing we see in this scene is a woman cutting hair from  a young girl, place it in a fire and then perform some spell with a skull. There are three parts to this little bit which makes it unusual and gives off some good examples of techniques used. The first one is the cutting of hair. As it has done with anger there is some evident hate coming from this woman and seeing as this little girl is currently unconcious it is clear that the girl is weak and innocent, this alone creates a binary opposition of strong vs weak. The second point is the fire. Fire in horror films usually is used to represent danger, death and evil. On the other hand in romantic films for example fire can be used to represent warmth and content. In this case though the fire has a negative approach with anger, death and negativity. 

the third point is the skull. It is universally known that a skull represents death, no matter what genre or context a particular text is in. So this could only mean one thing. The fact that this woman also holds this skull up in the air tells us even more about her character. It seems like she is almost worshiping this skull or what she is trying to summon, as if it was God like.