The Wicker Man

**The Wicker Man** is a pre-cert UK VHS release by EMI in 1981. It was re-released by Thorn EMI Video on November 1984.

## Description

The survival well into the Christian era of the ancient gods and the old religions is a well-attested fact, with no less a personage than William Rufus, son of the Conqueror, among those claimed as sacrificial victims of such antique rituals. But that such pagan practises could have persisted to the present day would have seemed a ludicrous sacrilege to Police Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) hero of the Anthony Shaffer's terrifying occult thriller The Wicker Man (1973). In response to an anonymous appeal, Howie flies to the remote Scottish island of Summerisle to investigate the alleged disappearance of a girl-child. A devout Christian and a strict moralist who has kept himself sexually pure for his future marriage, Howie is dismayed by what he finds there. The islanders appear to hold Christian doctrines and morality in utter contempt, and practise a thorough-going paganism. His presence is treated almost with contempt by the entire community led by the Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee) himself. As for the missing child, his enquiries lead nowhere. Her very existence is at first denied even by her own family, and when her coffin is opened it is found contain only a dead hare. Gradually Howie, now virtually a prisoner on the island, is forced to horrifying conclusion - the missing girl has been set aside as a sacrificial victim at the forthcoming May Day festivities, to guarantee the revival of the island's failing harvests After spurning the lascivious advances of the luscious Willow (Britt Ekland) who flaunts herself naked before him to test his suitability for an as yet unsuspected role, the Seargent disguises himself and joins the May Day celebrations, hoping to snatch the child from the intented sacrifice. He does indeed finally discover her, but only to realize that she was never the proposed victim. Rather her role has been that of a bait in a deeply-laid trap, and it is in fact the virginal Howie who is placed in the terrifying 'Wicker Man'. JACK IBBERSON

A spell-binding, occult thriller by writer Anthony Shaffer. A policeman goes to a remote Scottish Island to investigate the disappearance of a local girl - but he discovers a lot more than he bargained for. The Islanders are throwbacks to a distant past, worshipping [sic] the ancient gods of Earth, Rain and Sun, led by their sinister overlord in erotic rituals and savage ceremonies of human sacrifice. Around the puritanical, holier-than-thou policeman they weave a web of hedonistic pleasure - and terror. And when he finally discovers what happened to the girl, his nightmare is only just beginning...

## Cast

* Edward Woodward as Sgt. Neil Howie
* Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle
* Britt Ekland as Willow MacGregor
	+ Annie Ross as Willow MacGregor (voice)
	+ Rachel Verney as Willow MacGregor (singing voice)
* Diane Cilento as Miss Rose
* Ingrid Pitt as Librarian
* Lindsay Kemp as Alder MacGregor (the landlord)
* Russell Waters as Harbour Master
* Aubrey Morris as Old Gardener/Gravedigger
* Irene Sunter as May Morrison
* Jennifer Martin as Myrtle Morrison
* Donald Eccles as T.H. Lennox
* Walter Carr as School Master
* Roy Boyd as Broome
* Peter Brewis as Musician
* Geraldine Cowper as Rowan Morrison
* John Young as Fishmonger
* Myra Forsyth as Mrs Grimmond
* Alison Hughes as Sgt Howie's fiancé
* Barbara Rafferty as woman with baby
* John Sharp as Doctor Ewan (longer version)
* John Hallam as Police Constable McTaggart (longer version)
* Tony Roper as Postman (longer version)