The Wicker Man follows a detective going to a island based comune of what is basically a cult. The detective is searching for a missing girl. Of course the weirdos that live there act like they’ve never heard of the girl, despite the detective finding undeniable proof that she did live there. There are many twists and turns in the case which leads up to the detective trying to leave and bring in backup, but suddenly his plane will not start. He goes renegade and tries to stop everyone on the island from continuing their barbaric ritual of sacrifice for a bountiful harvest. Only to find the sacrifice isn’t what he initially imagined. I will not ruin the ending because it is truly great.
The acting is TOP NOTCH. Edward Woodward (above) plays the detective and he’s awesome. He is very authoritative and pious in his beliefs. So pious that Willow, played by the stunning Britt Ekland (pictured left) basically throws herself at him and he restrains himself. I can’t talk enough about how beautiful Britt Ekland is, stunningly gorgeous. His slow dive into being frantic is great. Playing opposite of him is the legend Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle the leader of the cult. He is charming and intimidating much like his portrayal of Dracula was many times before.
This movie is a slow burn, if you do not have patience to wait for it, then you won’t like it. It is a brisk 88 minutes long at least and there is enough going on to keep you interested. This movie deserves so much more attention! The Nic Cage movie is so bad and bizarre that any time you hear “The Wicker Man” you get the image of bees and Cage waffling women in the face with right crosses. I can’t speakly highly enough of this movie and please watch this before the remake because the ending is very similar. I give this an A.
