The Wicker Man (1973)

Film: The Wicker Man (1973)

Stars: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Brit Ekland, Diane Cilento

Director: Robin Hardy

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

All October long, The Many Rantings of John is running a marathon dedicated to the Horror classics of the 1960's-90's that I'm seeing for the first time this month.  If you want to take a look at past titles from previous horror marathons (both this and other seasons) check out the links at the bottom of this article.

While we are doing this month's films chronologically in terms of publication, the films were not viewed by me, necessarily, chronologically (in fact, the penultimate film I saw months ago).  As I'm watching, learning a bit more, I've found that while the 1980's horror scene was incredibly influenced by Halloween, and therefore was about oversexed young people getting slaughtered by various monsters, the 1970's horror scene in some ways reflects our current one.  Instead of a focus on a final girl, we instead get the "elevated horror" movies that would eventually inspire films like The Babadook, Hereditary, and Midsommar.  That is surely the case with a movie like The Wicker Man, which would be remade (and frequently mocked on the internet...I haven't seen the remake with Nicolas Cage but from the outset he does feel like a bad choice for this type of material), but is far more prevalent in terms of atmosphere and playing with form to other, more lauded horror films than its 2000's direct reimagining.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about Neil Howie (Woodward), a police sergeant and more important to the story, a devout, militant Christian, who goes to the island of Summerisle to investigate the disappearance of a young girl named Rowan.  On the island, despite the letter, no one, not even her parents, seem particularly concerned about the missing girl, and in the beginning they pretend she doesn't even exist.  Equally disturbing to Howie is that the island practices pagan religions, rather than being Christian like he is.  Two figures seem to gravitate the most toward Howie: a beautiful young woman Willow (Ekland) with whom he is sexually frustrated but cannot touch as a result of his religion, and Lord Summerisle (Lee), who is the noble who oversees the town, and whom he has a deep-seated mistrust.  The mistrust is warranted, but not for the reasons he thinks.  It isn't a case where, as Howie suspects, they plan to sacrifice Rowan to their god, but instead they plan on sacrificing Howie, someone they view as a fool but with the power of a king (i.e. he works for the law), and because of his religion, he is a virgin.  At that point, he starts to break down, in many ways denying his faith when faced with his own mortality, but it doesn't matter.  He is burned alive in a large wicker statue of a man, hence the title.

The film, if you've seen Midsommar first, is clearly inspired by it.  The idea of a man coming into a village, assuming that he has figured it out & is far more clever than the people who live this life everyday, is present in that film as well as this one.  But where Midsommar has a great metaphor for grief & betrayal, I don't quite think this one works as well.  This film in many ways is about religious intolerance, which is interesting and something that as someone raised in the Christian faith, I will admit it took me a second to catch on (to my embarrassment).  At one point Summerisle says something akin to the fire gods making young women become pregnant, which is scoffed by Howie until it's pointed out that the centerpiece of Christianity is a god making a virgin woman pregnant.  Later, when it's clear that Howie is far more sexually obsessed with his desire for Willow than he is with his religion (even though he cannot consummate the relationship), it shows the strange juxtapositions of his conflicts, and makes them seem quite silly in the grand scheme of things.  

But it doesn't really work for me.  I saw the twist coming very far in advance, perhaps because of Midsommar but also because it's the only logical option here.  Rowan has to be a red herring...taking her literally would make no sense, as why is she the only exception to the rest of the town that is devout to their view of Lord Summerisle?  I am going with three stars because there's nothing particularly bad about the film even if I found it unsuccessful, and I get what it inspired, but I feel like it meanders too much and I think occasionally just decides to be atypical less because it aids the story and more to just confuse the viewer.  This is definitely one of those 2.5 star movies, but as I don't do half stars here, we'll go with three.

Past Horror Month Reviews (Listed Chronologically): The Golem, The Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, Frankenstein, Freaks, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, The Invisible Man, The Black Cat, The Bride of Frankenstein, Mad Love, The Raven, Werewolf of London, Dracula's Daughter, Son of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man Returns, The Mummy's Hand, The Invisible Woman, The Wolf Man, Cat People, The Ghost of Frankenstein, Invisible Agent, The Mummy's Curse, The Mummy's Tomb, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, Phantom of the Opera, Son of Dracula, The House of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man's Revenge, The Mummy's Ghost, The Uninvited, House of Dracula, She-Wolf of London, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, It Came from Outer Space, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy, Revenge of the Creature, The Creature Walks Among Us, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, The Blob, The Innocents, The Masque of the Red Death, Night of the Living Dead