Customer Reviews

The Wicker Man (1973)

5 star:		(81)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

"The Wicker Man" is yet another cult film that delivers much less than it promises. The problem is that the director - despite being the writer's friend! - doesn't understand how to turn a script that's almost all atmosphere and "suggestion" into an effectively scary film.

A Sturges or Mankiewicz script has almost everything spelled out in the dialog; even an incompetent director couldn't totally ruin it. But a mystery/horror film that builds to a surprise ending needs to start that build at the very beginning and not let up. "The Wicker Man"'s direction is far too flat and literal for this to occur. And when the trap is sprung (so to speak) at the end, the film slogs to its conclusion, rather than rushing to its violent shock ending.

"The Wicker Man" would have been far more effective had it had been directed by Jacques Tourneur, who repeatedly demonstrated he knew how to scare an audience without actually showing anything. Take, for example, "Curse of the Demon." Even without the "literal" beginning and ending tacked on by the producer, the film is creepily suggestive and even frightening, even though we see little of the supernatural - until the end.

Another good example is "Mimic." The basic idea is so preposterous that the film can work only on atmosphere - and del Toro delivers. The build-up is so effective that we accept the ridiculous, biologically impossible monsters when they appear.

The two-disk "Wicker Man" set contains the heavily cut theatrical release on the first disk, along with an excellent documentary about the making of the film. The transfer is crisp, with very clean, natural color. The second disk is the longer, less-heavily-cut cut, with the deleted scenes inserted from a 1" videotape transfer of that version. The insertions are plainly visible, with no attempt to sharpen the image or correct the color balance.

The deluxe set comes in a nice wooden box. Perhaps, when your pet gerbil dies, you could put him in the box and incinerate it.

Not scary at all and not a horror movie at all... beautiful images, beautiful music and a wonderful reflexion about life, instinct, pulsions, spiritual practices and how Christianity has repressed all this.

A complete and utter TOTAL bore . English actors with lousy Scottish accents .Any moment I expected Chris lee to come out with "Hello THARE ... anyone for Tennis ?". Sorry, but the whole thing was just too fruity . The attitudes were all wrong . Rural Scotland is a severe environment which spawns a decidely "No Nonsense" outlook on life in those who dwell therein. Willowy lounge lizards from Chelsea wearing pink cravats would hardly fit in. In terms of being an even REMOTELY accurate depiction of Scottish Pagan and ancient mainstream religous practises this movie is purely and simply a bunch of fairytales. Christopher Lee was a fine actor . He did the "Horror Thing" brilliantly and with alot of style AS A GENERAL RULE but he was cut from the wrong cloth to play this role. The only decent performances came from the extras many of whom were locals in Scotland. But , unfortunately , when you've got a bad script and unconvincing lead actors your film is automatically on it's way to the cinematic dump master from the minute the cameras roll on day one. Throw all available copies on to your next bonfire.