Director: Robin Hardy.
Starring: Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland, Christopher Lee, Diane Cilento.
Running Time: 94 minutes.
Certificate: 15.
Synopsis: Police Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) journeys on a doomed investigation to Summerisle, where a young girl has vanished in a community that hides more than its fair share of secrets.
The true classification of Robin Hardy’s 1973 British classic THE WICKER MAN has been the subject of a long-running debate amongst film types. Mostly celebrated as a horror, some refer to it instead as a mystery or thriller, arguing that its final, horrific moments do not an entire horror film make. In truth, it combines elements of all three genres, though what cannot be contested is its status as said classic, cult or otherwise.
And yet, if you were to survey at random a room full of people who had at some point in their life sampled the pleasures THE WICKER MAN has to offer, it is rather unlikely that it would transpire that they had all watched the same version (see also: a room full of BLADE RUNNER fans). For this haunting tale of pagan rituals has seen releases in many forms over the past forty years, culminating in this – the ‘final cut’.
The story of THE WICKER MAN’s production is quite infamous; the original 102 minute director’s cut is, it seems, lost forever (it’s mostly buried under a motorway, wouldn’t you know – film reels are apparently cheaper than concrete), and thus the original 88 minute UK release in 1973 was born. Hardy has since decried this version as making little narrative sense, whereas the original 94 minute US release gave a more complete sense of his original vision.
This version is finally making its way to UK shores, and while you’ll have to look more than a little closely to see the true differences between this and the 2001 director’s cut (though there’s nothing as obvious a change as BLADE RUNNER saw between releases), there are a few key changes which, somehow, have improved THE WICKER MAN even further.
Most notable of these is the earlier introduction of the deliciously sinister Lord Summerisle, serving to more logically and firmly establish Christopher Lee’s character. But this, like the inclusion of more of Paul Giovanni’s soundtrack in the haunting, hypnotic ‘Gently Johnny’, is something we’ve seen before in recent cuts of the film. Still, if you’ve only seen the 1973 version, then this will definitely be worth catching in cinemas.
If you’re expecting a recommendation to otherwise pass, then clearly your adoration for THE WICKER MAN is not as total as it should be. This is a film that will always be worth watching on the silver screen at any opportunity, and so it is a little difficult to decry this version’s release, despite its few additions to recent cuts – not least for the particularly fantastic high-definition remastering (which should merit picking this up on Blu-ray). Sadly, less can be said of the sound quality, but this does lend it something of a nostalgic twinge for those so inclined.
Still, it doesn’t look like this will be in cinemas for long, with a limited release before the Blu-ray arrives on shelves. THE WICKER MAN is a true classic, and this version features neither a man pouring bees (how do you pour bees?) nor Nicolas Cage in a bear suit, so it would be an insult to cinema to ignore it.
THE WICKER MAN: THE FINAL CUT is released in UK cinemas from Friday 27th September, and will be released on DVD/Blu-ray from Monday 14th October.
