The Wicker Man

Well the cinema was packed as we all sat though what seemed like an interminable preamble of interviews with those connected with the film - including Britt Ekland - before it all started. Was it worth it? Well, I didn't really think so. Policeman "Howie" (Edward Woodward) arrives on a remote Scottish island after reports that a girl has gone missing. He is perplexed by the seemingly indifferent attitude of the locals who claim that she never existed or her mother who claims that she is six feet under in the graveyard. He becomes even more bemused by the general attitude of the villagers - led by their laird "Lord Summerisle" (Christopher Lee) and taught by their not quite "Jean Brodie" schoolteacher "Miss Rose" (Diane Cilento) to life in cereal, and to his presence in particular. Soon, his investigation starts to lead him a merry dance as he begins to suspect something way more sinister is afoot - and boy, is he correct. Thing is, though, can he find and save the missing girl and get to the bottom of this mystery. To be fair, it does offer us a more sophisticated, almost mythological, approach to an horror movie loaded with mysticism and pagan ritual. Indeed, I don't know that it fits well into that genre at all - it's more of a psychological thriller populated by a decent cast of household names. The thing for me is the story. I just found it all a bit weak; it takes far, far too long to build up anything like an head of steam and is really rather over-scored with music that is left do too much of the heavy lifting when it comes to generating the sparing senses of peril this film elicits. Perhaps it isn't fair to look upon it critically forty years later, when so many of our sensitivities have been eroded away, but I really couldn't figure out quite what all the fuss was about. It's now a cult film - and maybe that says it all? Worth a watch, but a television leaves nothing missing, I'd say.