Charmed by the residents of Tressock, Scotland, two young missionaries accept the invitation to participate in a local festival, fully unaware of the consequences of their decision.Charmed by the residents of Tressock, Scotland, two young missionaries accept the invitation to participate in a local festival, fully unaware of the consequences of their decision.Charmed by the residents of Tressock, Scotland, two young missionaries accept the invitation to participate in a local festival, fully unaware of the consequences of their decision.
- Danny
- (as John Paul McGilvray)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaRobin Hardy had originally written the part of Sir Lachlan Morrison for Sir Christopher Lee. However, while filming The Resident (2011), Lee injured his back after tripping over power cables on set. Although extremely disappointed, Hardy cast the actor who was originally playing Beame, Graham McTavish in Lee's role, with actor Clive Russell taking over the part of Beame. Still wanting to include Lee, Hardy quickly wrote a cameo role for him. He appeared as Sir Lachlan's mentor in a flashback.
- GoofsWhen Steve is laying in bed his shorts are white with red and blue plaid pattern. When we see him through the eyes of the raven, they are dark blue overall, and after the raven leaves they are back to the red, blue and white plaid shorts.
- Quotes
[last lines]
Old Gentleman: But can fate be altered? This is a question that every religion has tried to answer, and the answer is almost certainly no. But we keep trying...
Old Gentleman: Poor wee laddie... catching him is a game of chance!
- ConnectionsFeatured in Diminishing Returns: May Day Special(?): The Wicker Man (2021)
- SoundtracksFollow Me
Lyrics by Malcolm Dudley Hillier
Music by John Scott
Arranged by John Scott
Performed by Brittania Nicol and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Produced by John Scott
Courtesy of JOS Records
A couple of born-again Christians, 'Cowboys for Christ', Beth Boothby (Brittania Nicol) and Steve Thompson (Henry Garrett), cross the Atlantic on a mission to spread the Lord's word to the spiritually challenged flock in Scotland. After meeting a local laird, Sir Lachlan Morrison (Graham McTavish), they are directed to Tressock, a community that has an infertility problem caused by a leak from a nuclear power plant.
The innocent couple become central to the town's May Day festivities, involving human sacrifice to get the community's seed germinating again. All conspire against them except for Lolly (Honeysuckle Weeks), the head groom on Sir Lachlan's estate.
We know how it will end because there was no mercy for Edward Woodward in the first version so we don't expect any for Beth and Steve in this one.
The problem with knowing the basic premise is that the only tension comes in seeing how the ritual will be carried out. However, for some reason, Hardy holds back - we see nothing that compares to the anguish of Edward Woodward locked in his blazing wicker prison in the 1973 film. The Wicker Tree itself is an artistic looking number, but it doesn't project the menace of the giant wicker cage of the original.
Where the "The Wicker Tree" breaks from "The Wicker Man" is in the attempts at black humour; the naive Beth and Steve are treated as somewhat comic characters, as is Beame, Sir Lachlan's head man, who is involved in a number of jocular bits of business such as being stabbed up the kilt with a broken glass; it's hard to know quite how to take this movie as it changes mood at odd times.
The film doubles up on a couple of elements from the original, namely the number of sacrifices and the amount of nudity. Honeysuckle Weeks sheds her "Foyle's War" khakis and everything else for a couple of airy romps, including a brave effort in a chilly Scottish stream.
Although it's nice to see Christopher Lee back for a little homage, the biggest problem with "The Wicker Tree" is that it pays just too much homage to the original movie. The most important sacrifice of all would have entailed letting go of the old plot and heading off in a new direction.
Instead of a lop-sided remake, maybe a follow-up to the original would have been a better option - by 2011, the number of disappearances on Summerisle would have reached epic proportions with the supply of wicker also running dangerously low. At least that approach may have provided a few surprises.
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Hình Thụ Liễu Gai
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $7,750,000 (estimated)