Please come, say "How do?"
In 1966, actor David Pinner had an idea for a horror movie that future Death Wish director Michael Winner was interested in bringing to the screen... but Pinner only got as far as writing a treatment before the project fell apart. So he turned the treatment into a novel, published under the title Ritual in '67. A few years later, screenwriter Anthony Shaffer was planning to make a horror movie with director Robin Hardy and actor Christopher Lee, and felt that the concept of Ritual would be a good foundation for their film. So Shaffer purchased the adaptation rights from Pinner and Ritual became what it had initially been intended to be - a movie. This movie just happened to be called The Wicker Man, and didn't strictly follow the story as Pinner had written it.
The Wicker Man stars Edward Woodward as Sergeant Neil Howie, a Scottish policeman who receives a letter from the island of Summerisle reporting that a twelve-year-old girl named Rowan Morrison has been missing for several months. He goes to the island to investigate, and while some of the locals are reluctant to allow Howie to step onto the island because it's private property, they're unable to stop him since he's a man of the law on official business.
Howie isn't on the island long before we start to realize there's something intensely creepy going on here. Rowan isn't the daughter of the woman the letter said she was the daughter of. Some people say Rowan doesn't exist, a little girl says she's a hare. But Howie is able to find her name in school records, proving that a teacher and a classroom full of young students just lied to him about there being no Rowan Morrison. Whatever strange things are happening on Summerisle, the entire community is in on it.
Howie is a very religious Christian man, so religious that he doesn't believe in sex before marriage and is therefore a virgin even though (if the character is the same age as the actor) he's in his early forties. So he is shocked and appalled to find that Christianity is not practiced on Summerisle. There are no priests or ministers. On this island, famous for the fruits and vegetables grown there, the people practice paganism, praising gods other than Howie's in hopes of good harvests. They practice alternative medicine, have orgies in fields, jump naked over fires. And there's some serious "free love" going on here that Howie is not comfortable with.
The film is deeply unnerving due to the fact that everyone is so cheery and nonchalant about the disappearance or possibly death of this little girl Howie is searching for. He is determined to either locate Rowan or find out what happened to her, but everyone is weird and unhelpful. The viewer is invested in seeing this mystery solved, but there's a building tension and dread because it's apparent that the answer is probably not going to be a positive one.
And in the midst of this creeping horror, Shaffer and Hardy made the unexpected choice to make The Wicker Man a musical of sorts. The people who hang out at the inn where Howie's staying are always singing songs, Summerisle residents sing while performing their rituals out in nature, and there's a standout moment where the innkeeper's daughter Willow (future Bond girl Britt Ekland) attempts to seduce Howie by dancing naked on the other side of his room wall while singing a song... If you watch The Wicker Man, "Willow's Song" will probably stick with you for the rest of your life. That has certainly been my experience since the first time I watched the movie many years ago.
Christopher Lee (who was the villain in that Bond movie Ekland was in) has a great role as Lord Summerisle himself, the leader of the community and the grandson of the man who bought the island and turned it into a pagan source of fruits and vegetables. Lord Summerisle is prominent at the May Day festival that sets up the ending of the movie, one of the most unforgettable downer endings of all time.
The Wicker Man is a classic that will weird you out and get your skin crawling, a definite must-watch for fans of the horror genre. I would recommend avoiding the 2006 remake; it's baffling how they managed to bungle that one so badly that it's only good for providing unintentional laughs.
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