Sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) is a police officer and a devout Christian. Howie received a letter from a resident of Summerisle Island concerning a missing child named Rowan Morrison (Gerry Cowper). Howie flies his small seaplane to the privately owned island to find out what is going on. When he gets to the island he comes up against a wall of silence. No one will admit that Rowan Morrison actually exists. Even Rowan’s mother, May (Irene Sunter), disavows her existence.
Howie, in addition to being stumped by the locals regarding Rowan, is appalled at the religious fervor the islanders have to Celtic pagan gods. Much of the island religion focuses on bountiful harvests and procreation. Many phallic symbols are seen, and the young residents of the island openly frolic naked and have sex in the open. Currently the people of Summerisle are preparing for their May Day celebrations where they offer sacrifices to their gods in hopes of having a plentiful crop.
After running into a brick wall with the locals, Howie visits the owner of the island, Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee). Summerisle tells Howie that the island was first purchased by his grandfather, a Victorian agronomist, who found a way to grow apples on the remote Scottish island. The original Summerisle introduced the villagers to the pagan rituals. Eventually the population of Summerisle also came to embrace the pagan ways.
Howie finds out that Rowan does exist but is stumped as to why the entire island says she doesn’t. Eventually he surmises that it has something to do with the harvest being horrible the year before. Vowing to get to the bottom of whatever is going on, Howie decides to return to the mainland and return with reinforcements. When he gets to his plane, Howie finds out that it won’t start. Trapped on the island, he decides to infiltrate the locals’ May Day celebration. Unfortunately, Howie ends up the main star of the Summerisle Wicker Man celebration.
“The Wicker Man” was released in 1973 and was directed by Robin Hardy. It is a British folk horror film. The film was loosely based on the novel “Ritual” by David Pinner. In 2006 and American version of the film was done starring Nicholas Cage. In 2011 Hardy directed a companion piece film called “The Wicker Tree” which is commonly referred to as a spiritual sequel.
The movie is part dopey and part horrifying. The pagan rituals are silly and ridiculous, at least until they’re not. There are lots of songs and dancing that make the film look a little childish, but when the actual sacrifice begins, it’s really creepy. I’ve seen a lot of criticism about the movie being called a ‘horror’ film. There are a lot of psychological thriller and mystery aspects to the film, but in my book, burning someone alive is horror.
Britt Ekland was pregnant with her son Nicholai Adler when she did her naked dance. Whether or not she knew at the time that she was pregnant is still up for debate. She only agreed to be filmed from the waist up so a body double was used for the scenes where she is shown from the back. Who the body double was is also in question. Some say it was Lorraine Peters and some say it was a stripper from Glasgow that was hired to do the scene.
The movie was shot mostly in Scotland. The Culzean Castle in Ayrshire and Floors Castle in Roxburghshire were also used as shooting locations.