The Wicker man is a 1973 film distributed by Warner Bros. and Studio Canal UK, directed by Robin Hardy, and starring Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Ingrid Pitt, and Britt Ekland. This was a strange film that’s hard to categorize, it feels like part horror, part mystery, and part musical in a sense. The story follows a police sergeant, Sgt Howie, investigating a young girl’s disappearance on a small island filled with a cult like community of people who follow an ancient pagan religion. There’s a lot to unpack here, at its surface this movie just seems like a stiff cop taken advantage of by a sexually free, tribe like community of ancient-minded people. I believe it’s actually at least a bit deeper than that, this movie almost seems like it’s at its core, about religion. Howie is a very devout Christian man and he’s strong in his beliefs, while Lord Summerisle (portrayed by Christopher Lee) and his people are Pagans who worship the ancient religion very devoutly as well. We see the clash between the 2 religions yet the similarities as well, how such strong belief of any particular way of thinking can blind you from your own reality or make you dismiss things you don’t understand much easier, sometimes to your own detriment.
This film was strewn with musical numbers which you think would feel out of place given what the film was, but it really didn’t. Whether I liked it or not, some of these folk-like numbers were stuck in my head the day after viewing this film. It kind of added to the overall strangeness of the group and the uneasiness Sgt Howie felt with their practices. This wasn’t a typical “horror” movie in the sense that there wasn’t a lot of blood, gore, deaths, scary imagery, or jump scares. This movie relied on the overall uneasiness felt by Howie and the mystery of the disappearing girl to provide you with a chill throughout the experience. There was a decent amount of naked breasts and butts, as well as a lot of phallic symbol imagery displayed in this movie. Really driving home, the sexual freedom and worship of fertility represented by this community, in complete contrast and almost to the disgust of the virgin, Christian, police sergeant Howie. So if you’re not into that sort of thing or it makes you uncomfortable there’s your warning, but if you are then I suppose this could be right up your alley.
Overall, this was a good watch with a decently strong cast in their respective roles, some more than others. My personal favorite performance has to go to a young Christopher Lee portraying the devious, cunning Lord Summerisle. Which fun fact, he did this movie for free at the time just because it was so low budget, but he believed in the story so much he wanted to be a part of it and was willing to do it without pay in hopes that his name would help draw people to the film, what a guy! If you’re looking for a typical horror like movie then this wouldn’t be my first suggestion, but if you’re looking for a strange, retro, murder mystery like, indie film that will leave you on the edge of your seat guessing throughout then you should enjoy this one!
