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October 26, 2009

Spooky Movie Week #1: The Wicker Man

Filed under: Movies — Miss Plumcake @ 1:00 pm

Thought we’d observe the week leading up to Halloween with a theme of spooky stuff. No, I don’t mean Karl Lagerfeld naked in a cold bath, but we’re bringing on some mini featurettes –including this one– to get you in the Halloween spirit.

The other night over a fortifying toddy I mentioned to a friend of mine I’d been doing some research on the the integration of nature religions into Celtic Christian worship traditions. He said “Oh, like The Wicker Man?” and I said “like the what?”

“Like The Wicker Man. That movie will freak your [redacted] out.” and then proceeded to mock me mercilessly for never having seen such a seminal flick. I then stole a line from my friend’s 7 year old and said “well YOU don’t even speak Latin.” and that shut him up.

Y’all, that movie freaked my [redacted] OUT.

Christopher Lee in The Wicker Man

The Wicker Man, 1973

Of course I realize I am quite possibly the last person on the planet to have seen the 1973 original –well, probably except for Twistie who lives in the cave not dissimilar to my own– and my whole history as a critic has made me want to deconstruct it and talk about the chiaroscuro treatments so I’m not going to tell you anything the rest of the world doesn’t already know but seriously?

This is a masterpiece.

Atmospheric and moody, it reminds me more of Polanski’s treatment of Macbeth than anything else. There’s not really any gore but there is some good old-fashioned 1970’s nudity. Good times.

6 Comments

  1. I’ve seen Wicker Man. I couldn’t stop pointing and giggling. Still, Christopher Lee in a kilt was worth it. The man seriously needs to wear more kilts.

    Comment by Twistie — October 26, 2009 @ 1:26 pm

  2. The remake was a serious error of judgment on the part of all concerned, and the less said about it the better.

    Comment by Jane — October 26, 2009 @ 2:19 pm

  3. Christopher Lee was dead-sexy in a psychotic way, but apart from the eye candy, this film is brilliant in every way. The remake is supposedly in so-bad-you’ll-laugh territory; the scenes I have seen had Nicholas Cage punching out a bear, so there you go.

    Comment by Sniper — October 26, 2009 @ 2:24 pm

  4. The first time I saw this movie (back in the 70s) it scared the bejesus out of me (or as my sister used to say, scared the big cheeses out of me)! Not real gorey or graphic, but just the super sinister nature of the whole thing completely wigged me out.

    Comment by gemdiva — October 26, 2009 @ 3:22 pm

  5. As I understand it, nobody should feel *too* bad about not having seen this one until the latelies. It was a true “cult hit” – seen by few, legend spread by word of mouth, star C. Lee called it his best ever, bad bootlegs spread underground – and meanwhile, the movie itself was tied up in Rights Hell for ages. It wasn’t until five or six years ago it got untangled for the first DVD release, and then it took the sublime awfulness of the Nic Cage version to really push the original into the public eye.

    Then again, the remake *does* have Cage punching out Leelee Sobieski *and* Cherry Jones. So that’s something (?).

    Comment by perletwo — October 26, 2009 @ 6:54 pm

  6. When I was in Scotland several years ago, I was similarly upbraided for never having seen this flick. I was so ashamed that my hosts felt compelled to arrange a screening of it for me. According to my fine Scottish friends, I could not comprehend the Scottish people without seeing this film. And they were right. Amazing stuff. Also: Anita Ekberg doing her funny/creepy/sexy seduction song? Genius. Rumor has it Rod Stewart (who she was dating/married to at the time) wanted that scene cut from the film. I guess he didn’t want to share he Swedish goddess with the world.

    Comment by Alexis — October 27, 2009 @ 2:48 pm

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