The Wicker Man: Challenging the Audience, Transcending the Genre

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5 word format

document in english

film studies

term papers

published 19/11/2007

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Summary

A horror movie does not work unless it is frightening. A meek horror film is as ineffective as an unfunny comedy or an uninteresting drama. If a horror film succeeds at being scary, then, by definition, the filmmakers behind it have accomplished what they set out to make. The difference between a good horror movie and a great horror movie, however, is its ability to transcend the genre. Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man (1973) is, today, universally accepted as one of the greatest genre movies of all time. It is a perfectly crafted horror film; frightening and engrossing. It is also much more than the horror movie. With its emphasis on music and songs, at times it approaches a musical. Moreover, its highly engrossing storyline and deep, well-rounded characters arguably make it a drama. However, The Wicker Man is, at heart, a horror film. Its ability to transcend the genre lies in its willingness to acknowledge itself as a horror movie, and its capacity to move far beyond such a simple categorization. An intelligent, thought-provoking work, it challenges the very ideals most audience members hold sacred. Taking on organized religion, sex, and morality, The Wicker Man deals with topics and ideas that most films are afraid to confront. Perhaps due to the fact that it was created under the simple classification of a “horror movie”, it is able to explore themes that most mainstream films shy away from. The Wicker Man stands as one of the greatest horror films ever made, but it is much more. Highly influential, thoroughly controversial, and inarguably provocative, it is an intensely brave movie that has the ability to transcend almost any label that can be attached to it.

The film begins in Scotland, where Police Sgt. Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) receives a mysterious letter from Summerisle; a small, reclusive island off the coast of the mainland.
Sgt. Howie is a deeply religious, intensely prudish police officer that lives and breaths by the word of the Bible.
As The Wicker Man progresses, however, these traditions seem less and less mysterious, and the audience begins to grow intensely interested in the belief system of the people of Summerisle.
That night, as Sgt. Howie is praying by his bedside, he witnesses Lord Summerisle standing with a teenage boy outside Willow's window.
The Wicker Man is, for the most part, even-handed in its representations of Christianity and the pagan-based ideology of the Summerislanders.
Sgt. Howie eventually discovers that Rowan Morrison is alive, but believes that she is in great danger.
It is not hard to see why The Wicker Man, upon its initial release, was largely praised by critics, and largely ignored by audiences.
The Wicker Man is a brilliant genre picture because it is atmospheric, frightening, and in the end, quite disturbing; all attributes of any successful horror film.