Retro Film Review: The Wicker Man (1973)

When people are discussing the greatest horror films, they often mention 1970s as the golden age of that particular genre. Big studios were eager to spend their money on them and brand new talents earned the respect of mainstream critics. As a result, many films from that period, like Spielberg's Jaws, Friedkin's The Exorcist and Carpenter's Halloween became big commercial hits, critics' darlings and their reputations through the later decades remained untarnished, even after multitude of bad sequels or even worse rip-offs. In the shadow of these big horror films lies The Wicker Man, 1973 low-budget British film by Robin Hardy, which remained almost unknown outside small circles of horror genre aficionados.

Plot of the film begins when police sergeant Neil Howie (played by Edward Woodward) comes to Summerisle, remote island off the western shores of Scotland. His task is to investigate mysterious disappearance of a local girl. However, he finds out that the islanders are very uncooperative - they claim that the girl actually doesn't exist. Howie, who happens to be devout Christian, is even more shocked to find out that all the islanders not only tolerate open sexuality and similar un-Christian forms of behaviour, but also practice ancient pagan religion. Despite that, his zeal leads him to continue investigation and islanders reluctantly admit that the girl has died few months ago. Howie doesn't take their word for granted and the empty grave as the result of exhumation only validates his suspicions. Howie is even more disturbed with the prospect of girl being alive, presuming that the old pagan tradition includes human sacrifice. He continues investigation, this time racing against time, since the great annual festivities are set for the next day.

One of the reasons why The Wicker Man remained in relative obscurity until this day is in its unconventionality. Hardy's film looks strange and unusual, not just by the Hollywood standards, but also compared with horror genre as a whole. Those who expect straight horror film would be surprised with the way Hardy treats the story that would otherwise belong to cheap exploitation territory. Instead of shocking us with fear or gradually building suspense and terror, Hardy builds genuine drama by strong contrast between two opposing worldviews. On one side we have Howie, which is supposed to be conventional hero and embodiment of all that is decent and righteous in the Western civilisation, and we sympathise with his struggle to establish law and order; on the other side, pagan islanders are portrayed as bunch of depraved savages that show almost sadistic pleasure in insulting our hero's deep religious beliefs. But, through the course of the film, the picture changes when we are introduced to the schoolteachers, postal workers, and finally, local magistrates who share their neighbours+ pagan beliefs; the society of Summerisle is shown to be as orderly as Christian societies on the mainland and the islanders are very serious about their beliefs. Howie, on the other hand, proves to be ignorant bigot whose presence might present danger to this utopian community. This conflict, which in some ways reflects the social turmoil between the Old and New in 1960s, gets resolved in the emotional final scene, which might be seen as some sort of reconciliation between those two conflicting worldviews.

The Wicker Man, thus, must be praised as one of the rare horror films that allow viewers to think about important issues and make their own conclusions. Unfortunately, interesting ideas and thought-provoking script is somewhat downgraded with somewhat unpolished execution. Instead of using conventional musical soundtrack, Hardy employed the talents of Paul Giovanni and folk band Magnet (or Lodestone). The songs, that might have been fashionable in 1970s, look extremely outdated now, and often cause unintentional laughs, turning this film into black comedy. Same effect is caused with faux documentary style of showing islander's everyday life, including their religious practices at the end - which corresponds with the Blair Witch style producers' note in the film's opening title. On the other hand, thanks to the sloppy editing scenes that feature (all female) nudity are not erotic at all. The most noted is the scene featuring naked Britt Ekland singing "Say How Do"; use of body double is painfully obvious.

Sloppy editing and corny music are, on the other hand, compensated with the great acting talent of Edward Woodward, who would later gain charisma by playing lead character in The Equalizer. The ordeal his character has to endure provided him opportunity to express broad range of emotions - from initial revulsion towards paganism, inner struggle with his own sexual desires and final test of his beliefs at the end. His screen personality has dwarfed everyone else, including Christopher Lee who, when playing island's unofficial leader, Lord Summerisle, uses more his already established charisma of Dracula-like elegant villain than some genuine acting effort. Britt Ekland and Ingrid Pitt, on the other hand, are here just to provide adequate amount of T&A (effort that failed, as noted above). Luckily, they don't slow down the plot, which goes very neatly and leaves the audience with unexpected, unconventional ending and images that would remain long in their memory.

The Wicker Man is perhaps slightly flawed, but in its essence very intelligent and engaging film that definitely deserves more recognition. On the other hand, it might look somewhat insulting to Christians and pagans alike; the other viewers might be disturbed by its content (although incredibly tame for cynical 1990s). For me, the most disturbing thing about The Wicker Man is the distinct possibility of this film being considered by some modern-day Hollywood hack producer as a material for 1990s style remake - the fate that gives new meaning to the word "horror".

RATING: 8/10 (+++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on December 28th 1999)

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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/16307-the-wicker-man
Critic: AAA