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The Wicker Man Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 34 Reviews)

Truly a Great Film
Last week I had the chance to sit down and watch this truly excellent movie. The Wicker Man stars Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee and Britt Ekland. I was expecting a sort-of cheap gothic horror film (after all, Christopher Lee is in it) but I got something much better.

Edward Woodward plays a policeman from the Highland Police who has flown to the island of Summerisle to investigate a report of a missing girl. After discovering that just setting foot on the island is an adventure, Woodward is unable to find anyone who knows the girl who is missing. Even the girl's mother doesn't know who she is. A right puzzler. Forced to stay on the island, Woodward takes a room at the local tavern. Amidst the bawdy songs and lively music he begins to realize that the island folk are not quite what he is used to.

As his investigation takes him further along Woodward begins to suspect that the island is populated by sinners. By his definition he is right. The local population reverted back to their old religion during the early Victorian Era. They are now firmly entrenched in their old beliefs. To top it off it just happens to be May Day. Unable to drop the case, Woodward finds traces of the girl. He suspects that she is alive but captive and a soon-to-be sacrifice to restore the harvest. Woodward infiltrates the May Day celebration disguised as Punch. Then, at a crucial moment, he manages to grab the girl and flee. Then he learns the real truth.

From the opening credits showing the Scottish Isles and their sapphire waters and the accompanying Celtic music this movie is anything but a cheap horror film. Woodward plays the epitome of the Christian and the Authoritarian. Armored only with his belief in his god he must face a setting that, to him, is completely evil. Young girls being taught the significance of the maypole, naked women jumping through fire to help fertility, march hares in caskets and dozens of other examples. But it is Woodward who is the strange one. The people look at him as they would a simpleton. But Woodward, knowing that god and country are behind him, manages to keep going right to the conclusion of the film.

This classic confrontation of Christian against Pagan is so well done, framed by modern settings and Celtic music, that I can hardly say how good it is. Woodward's performance rivals his role in Breaker Morant and the young Christopher Lee's talent shows through so clearly that it is obvious why he was cast in so many roles. The story was written by the same man who brought us Hitchcock's Frenzy as well as the mystery Sleuth. If you have not seen this 1973 film, I urge you to do so.

CULT HORROR FAVOURITE.
Playwright Anthony Shaffer's deftly plotted town-with-a-secret plot is genuinely intelligent and suspenceful. It's built on solid philosophical conflicts: i.e. Christianity vs. paganism, piety vs. lust, reason vs. revelry. Scottish policeman Sgt. Howie (Edward Woodward) flies to remote Summerisle to investigate the reported disappearance of a young girl. Modishly coifed Christopher Lee is the laird of the island. Everything Howie finds challenges his strong religious beliefs in ways that neither he - nor the viewer - could have anticipated. Director Robin Hardy combines plain everyday realism with dream-like hallucinatory images. Woodward's stiff-backed performance gives his role the gravity and authority that the film needs to work. And it does work. Wonderfully. Be SURE the video version is the full 103 minutes.

High class horror.
Once again, the viewer must ignore the notorious Leonard Maltin's claim that The Wicker Man is not really a horror movie. Like countless other comments he's made, it misses the point. Sure, it's a thriller, but some thrillers are also horror films: the foreboding and mounting sense of eerie, pagan atmosphere, the deliberate pace, and the occult subject matter place The Wicker Man within the horror genre, albeit it in an unorthodox manner. It's obviously not Friday the 13th, which is a good thing.

Although some viewers don't seem to agree. One customer below refers to it as a "quick kill horror-thriller." What?! He also says it's "primarily a thriller, not a modern day Cliff notes version of Sir Anthony Frazer's GOLDEN BOUGH." What does it mean to be "primarily a thriller"? As if that is incompatible with an intelligent script and mythic/Jungian components! The Wicker Man's script contains both these things, although nobody ever said the film was the equivalent of Anthony Frazier.

Yes, in summation, thrillers can be horror movies and horror movies can have intelligent scripts. Sorry I haven't actually reviewed the film, but then I wouldn't go out of my way to make these points if The Wicker Man wasn't a film I respected. You can take that as a recommendation.

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