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Horror 93 min R
Rotten Tomatoes92%Metacritic87IMDb
Flesh to touch...Flesh to burn! Don't keep the Wicker Man waiting!
Police sergeant Neil Howie is called to an island village in search of a missing girl whom the locals claim never existed. The investigation is further complicated as Howie’s religious views clash with those of the island’s residents.
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Contemplative, bleak, meticulous and overwhelming.
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Written by TMDB members; each links to the original. Not part of Taste Buds's numbers.
There is something wonderfully perverse about *The Wicker Man* spending so much of its time refusing to look frightening. Summerisle is bright, musical, fertile and apparently having an excellent time. People sing in the pub, copulate enthusiastically on the grass and decorate the place with enough fertility symbolism to make Sergeant Howie’s blood pressure a genuine secondary plot. Yet almost everybody he meets already knows exactly what is going to happen to him. That is where the horror really sits. Howie arrives believing he is investigating the disappearance of Rowan Morrison, but he is actually moving through a carefully constructed ritual in which his own personality does most of the heavy lifting. His Christianity, virginity, sense of duty and magnificent capacity for outrage are not incidental character details. They are precisely what make him useful. Edward Woodward makes that righteousness abrasive enough that Summerisle’s paganism can initially seem almost preferable. Then Christopher Lee’s Lord Summerisle appears, charming, amused and utterly certain of himself, and the film quietly removes the comforting idea that one belief system here is obviously saner than the ot
Read the whole review on TMDBHere Edward Woodward stars as Sgt. Howie, a Christian Scottish policeman sent to the remote island of Summerisle to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. The horror of the Wicker Man is not the obvious kind that hits you in the face with a hammer, but quietly creeps up on you. The way the pagan villagers act indifferently or defensively to the supposed disappearance or murder of a child is disturbing, especially as everyone seems to be hiding something, including the girl's classmates. One criticism of the various heavily cut versions of the film is that not quite enough time is given to that subtle process of building up the suspense and atmosphere of the film. The Director's Cut, however, is a small masterpiece. The central idea of this closed-off pagan community, generally peaceful but indulging in the rare bit of ritual of human sacrifice, is delicious. Woodward as Howie is on top acting form, as is the legendary Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle. Economical storytelling ratchets up suspense and mystery. Additionally, the film boasts one of the best and most fitting soundtracks I've ever heard, comprised mostly of in world folk songs rather than generic "spooky" music
Read the whole review on TMDBWell the cinema was packed as we all sat though what seemed like an interminable preamble of interviews with those connected with the film - including Britt Ekland - before it all started. Was it worth it? Well, I didn't really think so. Policeman "Howie" (Edward Woodward) arrives on a remote Scottish island after reports that a girl has gone missing. He is perplexed by the seemingly indifferent attitude of the locals who claim that she never existed or her mother who claims that she is six feet under in the graveyard. He becomes even more bemused by the general attitude of the villagers - led by their laird "Lord Summerisle" (Christopher Lee) and taught by their not quite "Jean Brodie" schoolteacher "Miss Rose" (Diane Cilento) to life in cereal, and to his presence in particular. Soon, his investigation starts to lead him a merry dance as he begins to suspect something way more sinister is afoot - and boy, is he correct. Thing is, though, can he find and save the missing girl and get to the bottom of this mystery. To be fair, it does offer us a more sophisticated, almost mythological, approach to an horror movie loaded with mysticism and pagan ritual. Indeed, I don't know that it
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