If 1979 was a great year for horror films (and it was: Alien, Phantasm, and Werner Herzog's great Nosferatu: Phantom Der Nacht were all released in 1979), 1973 could lay claim to a couple of memorable efforts as well. The one everyone knows is The Exorcist. One that's not so well-known, and almost didn't see the light of day, is a peculiar Gothic erotic/horror/musical/who-done-it called The Wicker Man. I just finished watching the 88 minute "theatrical" cut from Anchor Bay's 2-DVD boxed set, The Wicker Man: Limited Edition. Packaging on this set is almost as unique as the film: the discs come bundled in a pine box complete with metal hinges and a brass-colored metal locking clasp, with the Wicker Man logo apparently burned onto the front. Most unusual.
The same could be said for the film. As I've literally just finished watching it for the first time, I don't yet know quite what to make of it. It has moments of true dread, which is more than most horror films ever achieve. It is also strikingly ambiguous -- are we supposed to identify with the uptight, prudish police Sergeant Howie or find him to be a narrow-minded "square" (this is a film from 1973, afterall)? Similarly, are we supposed to envy and admire the possibly psychotic, free-love and pagan-ritual obsessed members of the secluded hippie-cult community on Summerisle Island, or are we, like devout Christian Sergeant Howie, supposed to find them repulsive and profane? In the end, is there a difference between his faith and theirs, in either effectiveness or intensity?
Structurally, the film is all over the map too, and not necessarily to its disadvantage. It begins as a typical homicide investigation/murder mystery, and ends with an affecting cry of dread. Along the way, the story is sometimes advanced through song and/or dance as it would be in a musical. Throughout, the horror at the core is shrouded not in darkness and shadow, but in cheery, brightly lit outdoor scenes that are teaming with lush vegetation, constant cheerful references to "the regenerative impulses", open copulation outside the community pub, and constant stonewalling from the community. Talk about ambiguity! But it mostly seems to work, lending the film a very eerie, surreal quality that helps make the movie's disturbing end-point that much more horrifying.
Although it's been years since I read it, The Wicker Man's depiction of a cheerful and alluring, yet totally alien community, reminded me at times of Frank Herbert's The Santaroga Barrier, one of his better lesser-known novels (which predates The Wicker Man by some 6 years). The credited writer on The Wicker Man is none other than Anthony Shaffer, who co-wrote another literate dark-fantasy film: the remake of The Return of Martin Guerre -- 1993's Sommersby -- which I also recommend.
This is not a film that will appeal to all tastes. Indeed, it is so naive on the one hand, and covers topics of such controversy on the other, that the film is likely to alienate and annoy more people than it pleases. However, if you have a taste for the extremely odd, and are looking for a film which is both seductive and horrifying in about equal measure, well then, this is your film!
One final note: Anchor Bay seems to have had a production problem with the theatrical cut DVD. I've personally had 2 copies that wouldn't play, and others on various home theater Internet forms are reporting problems with defective discs with this title as well. So buyer beware; this is a disc you might want to rent rather than buy.
Copyright 2002 Ray Cole