The Wicker Man
Film
8p.m.
A puritan Police Sergeant arrives in a Scottish island village in search of a missing girl, who the Pagan locals claim never existed.
When a girl goes missing on the remote Hebridean island of Summerisle, Sgt. Howie is dispatched from the mainland to assist in the search; a devout Catholic, Howie is appalled at the island community’s archaic rituals, sexual liberation, and pagan belief system.
Community leader Lord Summerisle (an imperious Christopher Lee) explains to Howie how the islanders have adopted the ways of the ‘old Gods’ to bring prosperity to their people. But these gods must be appeased if next year’s crops are to yield a bountiful harvest. Steeped in a singular atmosphere, the film builds inexorably to a terrifying climax.
DIR: Robin Hardy, 88 mins, UK, 1973
1973 folk-horror endures to this day as a masterpiece of the form The Guardian
