The Wicker Man (1973)

Who else is a big fan of the 70s horror masterpiece that is The Wicker Man? One of the more intelligent horror films ever made.... they simply don't make em like this anymore.... and of course.... for those who have seen it - one of the most shocking endings in the genre's history.

And for the record, I never even bothered to watch the remake with Nic Cage.... I've just heard how horrible it is.

Big fan of the Nicholas Cage Wicker Man like you.

I mean "The Bees!", so powerful!

yeah, it's really shocking to see that The Wicker Man does actually have a wicker man in it

“What’s in there? A shark?”

The Wicker Man (1973) is a fantastic movie; I love it. The atmosphere, the incredible strangeness of life on the island, the thrill of the discovery of the mystery and the shock of the conclusion are all amazing. And Christopher Lee is at his absolute best in this film.

The sequel, The Wicker Tree (2011), while made nearly forty years later was done by the same director and still featured Christopher Lee. While it is not as good as the original, it is still a very serviceable sequel and a decent movie in its own right.

Huge fan. Even got the soundtrack on vinyl and sometimes been known walk around in a Summerisle tshirt.

The remake was terrible. I did laugh, though.

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Love it. The ending is pretty terrifying.

This was the last film I cut for my 100. Terrific film which weaves an amazing atmosphere and, because of it (IMO), is able to stand up to multiple viewings.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

Never seen so much love for what I’d consider a standard horror with no frills. To me it didn’t hold up well..like say the exorcist, Texas chainsaw, rosemarys baby. Was it well received at launch? I’ve looked at rotten tomatoes and it does have a high critic rating. Some describe it as a cult favourite...would that mean it’s a divisive film or didn’t reach a mass market?

The Wicker Man is not as good as Rosemary's Baby, which can be argued, is right there with Psycho as one of the best thrillers ever made.

I don't know if it's as good as The Excorcist, probably not... but I prefer watching it to The Excorcist.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre is not quality imo, I find the entire franchise extremely overrated.

I'd take The Wicker Man over Chainsaw Massacre 7 days a week. I prefer it's intelligent, slow burn disturbing nature to Chainsaw Massacre's stupid jump scares anyday.

According to Where'sthejump.com a site that counts jumpscares in films TCM only has two minor ones - https://wheresthejump.com/jump-scare...massacre-1974/

It's really not about jumpscares at all, it has possibly the best use of sound in a horror film, it creates a truly terrifying and (kinda, for a horror film anyway) realistic scenario and has a very thrilling end chase.

I like both that and Wicker Man a lot but i think the Original TCM is at least the much better horror film.

The Wicker Man has 4 minor. You could even say it's more about jumpscares than TCM

https://wheresthejump.com/jump-scare...cker-man-1973/

Fair enough. I think the first Massacre is a great or more than great film and there's not just a reliance on jump scares. I can't say that about the sequels...which I generally disregard.

I'm just surprised at how many love this film on this site. Maybe it is a masterpiece as you say but this is really the first I have heard people rave about it and having watched it myself recently...I can't see the appeal.

LMAO. Can't believe someone made a jump scare tally site. lol!

As to The Wicker Man:

It is Christopher Lee completely unhinged. He completely gets to chew the scenery. His voice, his madness, his lines. Especially.... "For believing what you do, we confer upon you a rare gift, these days - a martyr's death."

It is the atmosphere created by the strange and unrelenting fantasy land which only gets weirder and weirder as the movie goes on. The bonfire rituals, the pagan orgies, the emphasis on parthenogenesis and pagan rites.

It is the realization that our protagonist is about to be burned alive.

All in all, it is the a really good confluence of many elements which could only work in the hands of an amazing director and an actor of such high caliber and camp as Christopher Lee.

So, all of this talk of The Wicker Man, I decided to watch it again. I pulled out my Blu-Ray of the movie and have been watching it for the last hour. Then, about an hour into the movie, when they started talking about May Day and they showed the date on the calendar as May 1st, I realized that it was May Day today! What a wonderful coincidence to be watching this movie on the day in which most of the action takes place. And the movie is even better than I remembered. It is the quintessential convergence of camp, sex, fish-out-of-water story and 1970's messing-with-your-expectations thriller.

In fairness, I think the 74 version of CSM warrants a re-watch. Maybe I'm not giving it enough credit.

It's a really well made horror and is a lot different from the later entries in the series.

It´s a good film. It somewhat suffered from the atrocious remake and its bad rep sometimes spills over to the original.

In fairness too, I'll check out the original Wicker Man again in some time. No doubt its a good movie although masterpiece is not a word I use lightly. I can only think of a handful that I would consider to be and not too many more I remember that others have ordained...