After a girl goes missing, a police sergeant is sent to an island in Scottland when people do not cooperate in his search and seem more interested in their Pagan rituals than in assisting him in helping a missing child.
Written by Anthony Shaffer and David Pinner (the latter is uncredited on the film) and directed by Robin Hardy, this horror classic mixes mystery and paganism along with a touch of insanity to create a film that is both mesmerizing and fascinating. The story here is written with the locals coming off odd, weird even, to the lead, but some of what they do what simply ahead of their times, while other things they do come off odd at first and increasingly so as the film advances. This is one of those slower burn type films, one that takes its time to establish the story and its characters, a film that, at the same time, isn’t afraid to cross boundaries, especially boundaries of its time. Of course, some of it comes off a bit dated these days, but overall, the story maintains entertainment value and really sticks to you on the second or third viewing. The film has aged decently well and a large part of that is the performances.
The film is led by Edward Woodward as Sergeant Howie, the fish out of water on this island, the odd man out. Woodward does fantastic playing a man who just wants to do his job but finds himself in a situation that makes zero sense to him, his beliefs, and with his education. He is a more puritan character thrown into a Pagan society that he does not understand. The main attraction here, especially for horror fans, is Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle who is absolutely fantastic. Fangirl for Mr. Lee here, not going to hide it. He is the main reason to check it out the first time, then his presence it like a gift on any future added viewing. Seeing him in a something most people wouldn’t think of him for (but absolutely should, his non-Dracula work is absolutely amazing) is a delight here. The rest of the cast is also good, but one must keep in mind the age of the film. That being said, the acting is solid here and definitely helps sell the film and the situations everyone gets into for the story.
And now onto the cinematography, something that is elevated by this rerelease. The cinematography by Harry Waxman looks great here. The team who did this rerelease did an amazing job at fixing up the color correction which in older releases looks a little off. The work by Waxman gets to take center stage and really is given the space to shine within the clean-up of the images. One of the extras on this set shows the differences between the version most of us have been used to seeing and the version now available. The difference in some scenes is almost literally night and day, details impossible to see before are right there to be viewed by anyone without any effort of messing with the screen’s brightness.
Of course, this new set comes with a slew of special features and getting through all of them is a task for fans to take on during a good harvest weekend, on their couch, with a blanket and some hot apple cider. The top features here are the “Robin Hardy’s Script: The Lost Ending” featurette, the interviews with Britt Eckland and Robin Hardy, but also the interview with both Robin Hardy and Christopher Lee which was shot in 1979 which is a lot of fun to watch for fans. The feature “Worshipping the Wicker Man” is a fun bunch of interviews with some familiar horror faces and few other people who all love the film and love talking about it. The features “The Wicker Man at 50” and “The Music of the Wicker Man” are also interesting, but more for the hardcore fans in terms of interest range. Other features include some classic extras that we’ve come to expect from just about any release such as a Behind-the-scenes gallery and trailers.
This is one of those really interesting rereleases that takes hours to get through all the extras, but these extras are worth the time. The steel book itself is absolutely stunning! Like look at that beautiful artwork and how the plastic sleeve adds to the artwork. It’s solid and it looks great on the shelf.