The Wicker Man (1973) Is An Awesome Quote Horror Unquote Movie

31 10月 2023

this movie is a musical about a british christian who gets offended by paganism.

i don't know much about this movie, but i was curious about the genre of "folk horror" and i knew this was an influential british film -- and well, this movie reaffirms my suspicion that classic british movies are just very strange and cool.

the protagonist is a devout christian cop and he's trying to investigate this missing girl, but he ends up being spooked by epic folk music inspired by celtic and middle english stuff in this mysterious island. the whole movie is just him being horrified that children are learning about phallic symbols and teens are just fucking in the night.

i think this movie is supposed to be like "woo (neo-)paganism", but i was more fascinated by christianity's failure to give meaning to these villagers and how honestly the "heathen" pagans are having a good time. you get long sequences of pretty good folk music and it makes the moralizing weak, ineffectual, and foolish. the movie seems to recognize this as they keep reminding the protagonist that he doesn't understand the nature of sacrifices.

the movie is also quite gorgeous, even if parts of the film are lost. i was lost in the plethora of colors and music. i vibed with this movie so hard that the ending was actually quite shocking.

i don't think people outside the united kingdom have seen or heard about the movie (besides the infamous nic cage version), which is a shame because this film is an extremely enjoyable title. i was laughing and mesmerized throughout the entire thing. it's a movie that feels like a cousin of House (1977) in terms of how uninterested it is in spooking people and instead going for moods you don't expect in a horror movie.

and that's the kind of stuff i like. i hope people who share similar sympathies as i do get to see the movie and drawn into the strange world of the Wicker Man.