VIDEO MACABRE TO MELODRAMATIC.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

Apart from their odd and occasionally macabre sensibilities, Tim Burton and Neil Jordan have little in common as filmmakers. Burton has a baroque visual style inspired by everything from D.C. Comics to Edward Gorey drawings to sci-fi fantasies to B-movies, a style that often carries his films. Jordan, who is also a novelist, draws his style more from his storytelling abilities (he is Irish, after all), and being that they are not simple tales, light and shadows often play a big part in the way his films are shot. These contrasting styles are on display in Burton's and Jordan's latest films, now out on video and DVD.

``Sleepy Hollow,'' an oddly reimagined telling of the classic Washington Irving story starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci, is like a gothic dream - er, nightmare. Its narrative operates much like a dream, with each bizarre occurrence catapulting the characters into another equally strange reality, with only a thread of logic holding them together.

Despite a number of lopped-off heads at the hands of the Headless Horseman (played with deranged glee by Christopher Walken), ``Hollow'' is not about abject terror. There is a gentle ghoulishness to Burton's films, including ``Beetlejuice'' (1988), ``Edward Scissorhands (1990) and ``The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993). ``Hollow'' is darker, though, with a more sinister edge. Even Depp's Ichabod Crane, with the scientific contraptions he straps on, looks more frightening than the gentle Scissorhands with his razor-sharp appendages. It's as if Burton is giving us a grotesque vision of ourselves 20 years later, attached to our own contraptions. It's with images like these that Burton succeeds, but there is something lackluster about the storytelling. Still, the movie is fascinating at times, such as in the scene of a revolving lantern lit for a small boy that sends shadows of witches and goblins swirling on the walls.

``End of the Affair,'' Jordan's adaptation of Graham Greene's novel, is an exquisite balancing act between the metaphysical and the sensual. The film chronicles the breakup of a novelist (Ralph Fiennes) and the wife of a high-ranking civil servant (Julianne Moore), with whom he's having an affair in London during World War II. This could all seem rather pedestrian, and in lesser hands than Jordan's, Greene's delicate story undoubtedly would fall apart. ``Affair'' is like an intricate jigsaw puzzle, with multiple voices and perspectives that Jordan deftly orchestrates. And when the pieces finally fit together, the final picture resonates beyond the film's surprising end.

A new DVD version of one of Jordan's voyages into the macabre, ``Interview With the Vampire''(1994), is also being released with commentary by the director. Despite being saddled with having to adapt Anne Rice's best seller, Jordan managed to keep fans of the novel happy while making a film that has some bite for the rest of us. It's a film that deserves a second look.

``Sleepy Hollow'' (Paramount) is $106.99 for VHS (priced for rental) and $29.99 for DVD, which includes commentary by Tim Burton, cast and crew interviews and a behind-the-scenes featurette. ``End of the Affair'' (Sony) is $104.99 for VHS (priced for rental) and $27.95 for DVD, which includes commentary by Neil Jordan and Julianne Moore and a making-of featurette. The new DVD version of ``Interview With the Vampire'' (Warners) is $24.98 and includes commentary by Jordan and a behind-the-scenes featurette and introduction by Jordan and Anne Rice.

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Christina Ricci tenderly caresses the face of Johnny Depp in Tim Burton's ``Sleepy Hollow,'' now on video and DVD.