The Wicker Man (1973)

1973, 88 min. long

Director: Robin Hardy

Writer: Anthony Shaffer

Stars: Edward Woodward (Sergeant Howie) , Christopher Lee (Lord Summerisle), Diane Cilento (Miss Rose), Britt Ekland(Willow)

If it’s not apparent, I love older horror movies. I also love musicals and way more B-movies than I should ever admit, so The Wicker Man is a perfect appeal to my tastes (though it’s not 100% musical, it just contains a fair number of musical scores throughout several scenes). The Wicker Man is less like a typical horror movie, containing equal amounts of mystery, thrills, horror, and music. It’s also slow-paced and contains absolutely no gore. Don’t let that stop you though. It’s still an amazing movie and stars a veteran of Hammer Horror films, Christopher Lee, as Lord Summerisle.

The story unfolds as Sergeant Howie travels to a small Scottish island after receiving a mysterious letter about  the rumored disappearance of a young girl named Rowan Morrison. Upon his arrival, however, the villagers claim that a young girl by the name of Rowan had never lived there. Regarding the locals as peculiar and unhelpful, Sergeant Howie is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. Sgt. Howie is an upright, uptight Christian and the locals are everything but upright and Christian.  Sgt. Howie stumbles upon orgies in a graveyard and groups of nude young women performing rituals around a fire, just to name a couple of instances of that aren’t aligned with his moral compass.

It’s not long before he starts to believe something even more sinister is afoot; he assumes, even, that the villagers are planning on sacrificing young Rowan to the Pagan entities they’re worshiping and have been trying to cover up her existence in some attempt to hide the plotted murder. As it appears, the villagers on the island have shunned Christianity and embraced the old traditions of Paganism.  For the past few years, their crops have not done well; for the inhabitants of the island, this entails a sacrifice for any hopes of a successful crop for the next season. Sergeant Howie is shocked at what he’s soon thrust into. The actual sacrifice, rather than Rowan, is his burning to death, inside the Wicker Man.

The movie is heavily ridden in overtones of religion– that of Christianity and of Paganism (it’s more of a commentary on religion than a horror movie, even, in many senses). Standard pagan imagery is depicted throughout the movie: children at school learn ancient medicine, the townspeople drink at The Green Man Inn, and the religious festivals are those of the Maypole, with children being taught it represents the phallus. Sergeant Rowan has been thrust into a world that completely clashes with his Christian upbringing– and with his sacrifice to the pagan god, Howie now becomes like Christ  himself: he is sacrificed for the goods of mankind – the people of the Earth.

I almost don’t want to classify this film under horror, but elements of horror are still there and I find the interesting stray away from typical horror to be one of the many endearing things about this movie. One of the best things about it other than Edward Woodward’s role, too, is Christopher Lee’s portrayal of Lord Summerisle. Lee wanted to be a part of this film to do something different from the Hammer films he’d always been associated with. The result was a psychologically thrilling spin on the horrors of what man is capable of in the name of religion.

Best Line &/or Scene: “Naturally! It’s much too dangerous to jump through fire with their clothes on.” – Lord Summerisle explaining the nude women jumping through fires during a ritual

Story: 8.5/10
Gore Factor: 1/10
Scare Factor: 2/10
Overall: 8/10