The Wicker Man

This has been called the ‘Citizen Kane’ of horror films, and I can’t argue with that. Since I first watched it maybe ten years ago, it has remained at the very top of my short list of all-time favorite Horror movies. And after watching it again recently, its power, strangeness, and novelty still hold. Written by the screenwriter who also wrote, ‘Sleuth’, that ingenious and complex exercise in cruel mind games, Anthony Shaffer delivers here a somewhat less complex game-like script, but vastly more cruel. It is, in my opinion, one of the cruelest films ever made, at least by a major studio. Edward Woodward’s excellent performance as Sgt. Howie only heightens this aspect. You can literally feel his spirit deflate on screen at the end when he finally realizes he’s the hunted, and not the hunter, that he really is, as it turns out, The Fool. That he is not only to be sacrificed to the cult’s sun god inside that abominable Wicker Man, but has been mind-fucked for the sheer fun of it by them as well. Almost every move Sgt. Howie makes has been calculated ahead of time by the sinister and playful pagan cult. He is a dead seal in a game of ‘seal toss’ for a pod of Killer Whales.

Beautifully directed, masterfully scored– it really is one of the oddest musicals in cinema history, complete with catchy Celtic tunes– and intelligently written all equal: one disturbing but also quite fun horror film.

Be sure to check out the extras on the Anchor Bay release. The background information on the film is pretty interesting stuff. Apparently Edward Woodward actually had goat urine rain down on him in his scene inside the Wicker Man. A fun fact.