Written by Anthony Shaffer
Directed by Robert Hardy
Sergeant Howie: "I believe in the life eternal, as promised to us by our Lord, Jesus Christ."
Lord Summerisle: "That is good. For believing what you do, we confer upon you a rare gift, these days - a martyr's death."
I felt like watching some British horror this week and of course, it was time to give this one another go. It's been a long while since I've watched this and to be honest, I probably should've watched it last month. Would've been more fitting tbh.
With this film, our protagonist was Sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) of the West Highlands Constabulary. The dusappearance of a girl named Rowan (Geraldine Cowper) has brought him to the island Summerisle and his life would be made difficult by the locals.
In the pub, he has to fight of the advances of the landlord's (Lindsay Kemp) daughter, Willow MacGregor (Britt Ekland) as she attempted to seduce him throughout the film. By the end of the film, his resistance to her dubious charms didn't work in his favour.
Then there's the local schoolteacher (Diane Cilento), who was teaching the kids material that Neil deemed inappropriate while also lying about Rowan being a student. Add a series of photographs of young girls as the May Queen and a grave for Rowan and things were definitely weird about Summerisle.
It didn't help that the mysterious Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee) also added to the weirdness of the surroundings before Neil realised that the locals were doing ritual sacrifices on May Day to save their crops. This was where Rowan factored into things but it was Neil's attempts to rescue her that delivered the brutal twist.
It wasn't Rowan that was the intended sacrifice. Nope, it was Neil instead. Being a virgin (he was staying faithful to his wife to be), a man of authority who came to the island willingly and was made a fool. None of these helped Neil and the last scene where he was sacrificed ended this film on a brutal note.
- Other prominent actors in this movie, included Ingrid Pitt, Roy Boyd, Irene Sunter and Aubrey Morris.
- A US remake came out in 2006 while a spiritual sequel titled, The Wicker Tree with Christopher Lee and Lesley Mackie (Daisy) came out in 2011.
- Standout music: The chilling use of Middle English folk song, Sumer Is Icumen In.
- Chronology: April 30th and May 1st.
The Wicked Man does make for a chilling early summer horror with plenty of shocks and nice reveals. The second half of this movie in particular and that last scene were especially chilling.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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