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Critics Consensus: This intelligent horror film is subtle in its thrills and chills, with an ending that is both shocking and truly memorable.
Critic Consensus: This intelligent horror film is subtle in its thrills and chills, with an ending that is both shocking and truly memorable.
All Critics (49) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (44) | Rotten (5) | DVD (16)
Anthony Shaffer penned the screenplay which, for sheer imagination and near-terror, has seldom been equalled.
Robin Hardy's 1973 cult horror film passed through several distributors, several versions, and several bankruptcies, picking up a powerful reputation along the way.
The Wicker Man's genre-bending, thematic daring, and tortuous history have made it the U.K.'s definitive cult movie.
Essentially, it's an insane guilty pleasure, still enjoyable for its delightfully eccentric casting and for the funniest, creepiest pub scene in British movies outside of next week's reissue, Withnail & I.
Like many of the best horror/thrillers, The Wicker Man works because it surprises audiences, relying on carefully-nurtured suspense rather than cheap, theatrical shocks.
A genius conflation of the on-screen pagan versus Christian (and provincial versus federal) dichotomies into an equally combustible cinematographic battle of the sensibilities
Christopher Lee, who plays the lord of the island, thinks it's one of the finest films he's ever made -- and he's right.
A truly unique horror movie, one of the odd handful throughout history that doesn't really seem to have been influenced by anything and has no obvious heirs, not even its own remake.
Adult chiller about modern pagans -- no Hogwarts.
A mordant study of theological anxiety
The gothic ambiance and mood synonymous with the era's familiar tales of unholy menace is wholly absent. If there is evil here, it doesn't know it's evil.
It remains a fine example of occult horror that remains with the viewer well past its conclusion.
This popular British cult film follows a devout Christian policeman to an island where the locals are all believers of some ancient pagan Earth god. And "horrors". That's it. The shocker. An island of sex fertility nuts. Atmospheric and moody, it's those charms that carry the thing. It's different, that's for sure.
Super Reviewer
Extremely audacious for the time it came out, this creepy cult classic should be remembered for the many intelligent questions it raises about religious intolerance and blind faith, while offering us also a memorable performance by Christopher Lee and a terrifying, unforgettable ending.
Unusual to be sure. An unsettling drama with mystical overtones, excellent performances.
It's very difficult to have anything incisive to say about this horror film, because it is so strange and otherworldly. An English policeman, who has rigorous moral and religious attitudes, arrives at a secluded island where a town of people celebrates public sex and nudity, sexual education, and unconventional methods of communication and discourse. The policeman finds these heathens wanting and tells them so at every opportunity. He is looking for a missing child, who he believes has been murdered by this island of cultists, and so he has little patience for them. Throughout the movie there are interspersed scenes of sexual congress in the fields of the lush isle, and gleeful pagan music. There's no religion, which chafes the officer, and lends to outbursts aimed at all manner of people. It's strange that he has no patience for these people, when they exist throughout England, but it does lend to a tension that keeps us guessing throughout the entire film. The twist was obvious from the outset, and the symbolism of these pagans leans more towards fanatical Christianity's worst fear, but otherwise it was definitely an unsettling film.
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