The Wicker Man - Will's Review

I'm going to plough ahead carelessly with spoilers and opinions for this one, on the assumption that you've seen it; if you haven't, stop calling yourself a horror fan until you rectify the situation! And if you don't intend to, you may as well skip this one; it'll make little sense, as I'm talking here directly to people that have. 

I've heard the film described as anti-pagan, and also anti-christian, which is it? I guess that depends on your own stance, and whether you expect movies to support, or attack you. As far as I'm concerned it's anti- religion, with neither side coming off well; but then I'm atheist and generally expect to be validated, so maybe I'm falling into the same trap. 

Edward Woodward plays the part of Howie brilliantly; by which I mean he convincingly  portrays an arrogant, ignorant man, who believes the mythology spoon-fed to him, to the extent of yelling at other brainwashed people for the crime of believing different nonsense to himself. Worse than that though, his religion seems to be more about self-riotousness than true faith; he's compelled to argue, disagree, and become indignant, but never to we see him being charitable, or understanding, or any of the other 'positive' things that Christianity should bring. 

On the other side, Lord Summersisle, played equally masterfully by Christopher Lee,  could be argued to be using paganism to appease his people, showing little evidence of true belief himself; in any case neither crowd control nor faith is a good excuse for murder! 

Religious morality aside, The Wicker Man is unlike almost any other horror movie, to the extent that, but for the ending, it's almost difficult to classify it as one; certainly there's a slowly building atmosphere as the investigation into Rowan's leads Howie deeper into a conspiracy, but weather that atmosphere is one of dread is debatable, not even a thriller, for most of its runtime, The Wicker Man feels closer to a straight up drama than anything but with an undeniable, yet inexplicable 'edge'. Even the sight of Christopher Lee in drag, leading a procession of people in animal masks (which sounds hilarious on paper) manages to be terrifying. 

In fact my only real complaint is that, like (the original) Planet Of The Apes, the films shocking climax is blown right on the movies poster. 

Come to think of it, Apes ahead a shitty remake too...