Devout Christian copper Sgt. Howie (Edward Woodward) journeys to a remote island community, located off the western coast of Scotland, to investigate the reported disappearance of a twelve year old girl; on finding that the locals follow a pagan religion, and discovering that their precious fruit crops had failed the previous year, Howie begins to suspect that the missing child has been chosen as a human sacrifice to appease the gods and ensure a successful harvest..
Unjustly ignored on its original release, The Wicker Man has since been acknowledged as a true classic of horror cinema, a status it most definitely deserves: rarely has a horror film achieved such an all-pervading aura of dread and culminated in a such a thoroughly gripping climax, leaving the viewer feeling so utterly emotionally drained as the end credits roll.
Although there is very little in the film that would qualify as 'horror' in the traditional sense (no gore, no cheap scares, no supernatural occurrences), The Wicker Man is undoubtedly a frightening experience, its increasingly unsettling moments of weirdness, which include several oddball song and dance numbers, creating a palpable atmosphere of dread that really gets under the skin. Howie is clearly being led a merry dance, the bizarre pagan rituals and occult happenings witnessed during his stay, coupled with obvious subterfuge on the part of the islanders, all indicating that something terrible is afoot.
Precisely what that is only becomes apparent in the film's final few minutes, but rest assured that it is a truly hideous revelation, one that will remain in the mind long after the sun has set on this marvellous piece of macabre cinema.
Unjustly ignored on its original release, The Wicker Man has since been acknowledged as a true classic of horror cinema, a status it most definitely deserves: rarely has a horror film achieved such an all-pervading aura of dread and culminated in a such a thoroughly gripping climax, leaving the viewer feeling so utterly emotionally drained as the end credits roll.
Although there is very little in the film that would qualify as 'horror' in the traditional sense (no gore, no cheap scares, no supernatural occurrences), The Wicker Man is undoubtedly a frightening experience, its increasingly unsettling moments of weirdness, which include several oddball song and dance numbers, creating a palpable atmosphere of dread that really gets under the skin. Howie is clearly being led a merry dance, the bizarre pagan rituals and occult happenings witnessed during his stay, coupled with obvious subterfuge on the part of the islanders, all indicating that something terrible is afoot.
Precisely what that is only becomes apparent in the film's final few minutes, but rest assured that it is a truly hideous revelation, one that will remain in the mind long after the sun has set on this marvellous piece of macabre cinema.