The Wicker Man is among other things including a soft core porn- a pretty decent horror movie. Sure there's no bloody killings, or a crazy killer on the loose but there ARE creepy religious people who wear animal masks and are naked a lot! A fair trade in my opinion.
Sergeant Howie is investigating the disappearance of a young girl on the remote island of Summerisle. Upon his arrival Howie finds that the townspeople do not know of the missing girl- nor do they seem to think she exists at all. Little by little Howie learns about the towns strange pagan religion where they teach children the importance of the phallic symbol and encourage naked fire dancing. Howie soon suspects the townspeople are plotting to sacrifice the missing girl in hopes that her sacrifice will allow their crops to thrive. Unfortunately things aren't exactly what they seem and Sergeant Howie is more important to the island than he ever imagined.
So pretty much what scares me the most is the cult of creepy religious people. They dance naked and dress in funny costumes and perform head chopping ceremonies? The scene where Howie is trying to get in his sea plane and get out of there and a bunch of the townspeople are looking at him from the shore with those really scary animal masks that totally remind me of that uncomfortable scene in The Shining. I just don't like animal masks I guess....but what it really comes down to is- I don't like creepy people!
Then there's the ending. I can tell you I rarely feel compassion or sympathy for characters these days- mostly because if they're really worth a damn the director or writer has the sense to keep them alive (Except for Buster in Misery! RIP). But in this ending scene I truly truly felt terrible for Sargeant Howie and really felt his despair and anguish. When all the people are holding hands and singing a joyous creepy song and he's singing a hymn-it really may be one of the most powerful scenes I've ever seen. It gave me chills and made me feel like crying. For christs sake he was just trying to find a missing girl! Good grief creepy people do you have to be so mean? Who cares about your crummy apples anyways?
Oh and Christopher Lee boy do I love to see Saruman in his young days- and dressed as a woman nonetheless!
I wanted to show the clip of the ending but it's disabled! So here's the trailer whomp whomp
Great movie and great review!Have a look at another cult movie:"El Baron Del Terror" back from 1962 and Director Chano Urueta.I really had a great time reading your words.Amazing
ReplyDeleteI really liked this movie, I liked how all the islanders would just randomly burst into song, and the bartender's daughters wacky naked dance, wtf? haha. BUT, when I found out that the cute animals were actually killed in the movie it ruined my experience and now that's the only thing I took away from this movie which is really upsetting.
ReplyDeleteThe Wickerman is well made but its disturbing. The druids are a sick cult who sacrifice people and animals. Some of the farm animals in the Wickerman were burned alive and a dead rabbit is shown. Its offensive. A bizarre scene is shown with a group of boys singing and dancing around a phallic maypole while inside a classroom a woman teacher talks about the penis as a source of regeneration. Seeing and hearing this for the first time is baffling. The 2006 remake is just as disturbing.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that the animals being burnt alive is true. You can find interviews with the director and other people involved in the film that specifically deny this and say that the RSPCA was there for filming those scenes. It still sounds like the animals did not have a good time and were very frightened, and I hate this movie because of it, but I do not believe it is true that the animals were actually killed.
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