The Wicker Man (Special Edition) > Reviews

Advantages: Great film, really tense, good ending
Disadvantages: No action, if you like that sort of thing.

...film, but if I got the chance (it’s a hard one to find) I would most definitely watch it over again. This is a complex film, perhaps more of a thriller than a true horror, since there is no supernatural element in it. But the sense of dread and foreboding which it builds up is excellent, the twist in its tail totally unexpected and the messages and issues which the film deals with are clear. Edward Woodward arrives on a small island investigating ... Read review

Advantages: An intelligent and literate chiller
Disadvantages: That the film has been so butchered down the years

The Wicker Man has a truly magical quality, and I've enjoyed introducing people to it down the years. To see people turn around at the end, eyes wide with astonishment, a slightly crooked smile, and to hear them croakily admit "That was amazing", is worth the hundreds of times I've seen Robin Hardy's brilliant 1973 take on the horror genre. To think, the film puts so many obsticals in the way of a jaded modern viewer of horror. It has a folk soundtrack ... Read review

Advantages: Disturbing, Erotic and Picturesque, as well as having some great music
Disadvantages: Some rather dodgy acting in places

The Wicker Man is a 1970's cult classic about the small Scottish island of Summerisle. It features the confrontation of a classical Christian doctrine with a more ritualistic, animal, pagan one that never gets named. It does so with almost comedic folk music and a smattering of tits. It's got my vote already. Our hero, a police officer called Sargent Howie, is sent to the island of Summerisle after receiving an anonymous letter claiming that a ... Read review

Advantages: The whole movie
Disadvantages: The soundtrack

The Wicker Man (1973) is one of the most well known and respected cult movies of all time. But why was it made, and what issues does it raise about the time of production? The Wicker Man was first conceived in 1972 when actor Christopher Lee (famous for his previous roles as ‘Dracula’ in the infamous Hammer Horror movies), Peter Snell (head of the film company, British Lion) and Anthony Shaffer (writer) first began talking about making ... Read review

Advantages: Suspense, chills and eerie goings on...
Disadvantages: None

...opinions was this one of The Wickerman, and here it is, rewritten… ********** Police Sergeant Howie, played by Edward Woodward takes a trip to the Scottish Isle of Summerisle after receiving a little note from said island informing him that a young girl has gone missing. Upon arrival he begins to see just how strange the natives truly are. They seem at first not to know of any such girl, even though the population is but a wee one and ... Read review

Advantages: See review
Disadvantages: See review

...Despite every other review in the world singing the praises of this little film I'm going to have to slate it - Sorry. That may be far more to the point than normal but I do have good justification. Police Sergeant Howie has come to the small island in search of missing schoolgirl Rowan Morrison and instantly smells a rat. The locals deny all knowledge of the girl despite glaring evidence to the contrary. Rowan's 'mother' claims she never existed ... Read review

Advantages: Well acted, atmospheric
Disadvantages: Hacked about by distributers

...who have not heard of the 1973 British film 'The Wicker Man'. My mum told me about it once when she watched it on late-night telly, and she told me that it scared the wits out of her. I first saw it when it was broadcast as part of the BBC2 'Moviedrome' season in, I think, 1988. When I saw it the first thing that I thought was: 'What on earth is she on about?' (Referring to my mum of course) The film is very good, but it all depends on which ... Read review

Advantages: Superior horror movie
Disadvantages: A bit too gruesome

'The Wicker Man' is probably the Scottish Tourist Board's most hated film! This 1973 horror classic came out of an idea from the novel 'Ritual' by David Pinner. However, the film's director, Robin Hardy (whose first feature film this was, incredibly), and writer Anthony Shaffer, worked out the original script and plot. Edward Woodward is the central figure in the film, as the middle-aged innocent of a policeman, Sergeant Neil Howie. His remit ... Read review

Advantages: Truly chilling film, made all the more disturbing by the possibility of something like this happening.
Disadvantages: The odd flash of 70's campness, but this is a minor, minor drawback

The film, made in 1973 and starring Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland and Ingrid Pitt, plays on one of our primal fears, solitude. Woodward is excellent as Sgt Howie, a naive but dedicated officer who arrives at the island of Summerisle to investigate reports of a missing child. The local community of Summerisle appear resistant to Howie's enquiries and he soon discovers the reason - the residents of Summerisle have rejected traditional ... Read review

Advantages: Creepy horror-musical
Disadvantages: Folk songs will make you want to burn somebody alive in a Man Shaped basket

...horror. Set in broad daylight, The Wicker Man features no maniacs in masks. There is nothing to make you jump, and no ominous score to get your nerves jangling...just that cheery folk soundtrack. We're clearly on strange ground here, and Hardy's peculiar tale of faith and human sacrifice remains one of the most disturbing horrors of the Seventies. Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) lands on a remote Scottish island to investigate the disappearance ... Read review

Advantages: The soundtrack. The acting. The screenplay.
Disadvantages: Terrible editing in the shorter version.

...on comparative religion, typical of the work of Anthony or Peter Shaffer (the screenwriter's brother, and writer of Equus and The Royal Hunt of the Sun, amongst others). The Wicker Man is brilliantly acted, the screenplay impeccably researched and well thought out and it is accompanied by a wonderful folksy soundtrack, containing elements of ancient folksongs, but which was composed specifically for the film. Warning: two versions of this film ... Read review

Advantages: A genuine "arty" film that is creepy and interesting
Disadvantages: a genuine "Arty" film

...mine. For those who have read the book - this film is a disappointment - the book is exceptionally unnerving. The film is, however, fascinating cinema as it charts the police officer's search for a missing girl only to caught in a pagan society where he is the sacrifice. The islanders who inhabit this Scottish island of Fair Isle are the actual inhibitants and the pagan customs the story describes are still held and respected today across ... Read review