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Inside The Wicker Man: How Not to Make a Cult Classic
Inside The Wicker Man is a treat for all cinemagoers, exhaustively researched and achieving a near-perfect balance between history, trivia and serious analysis. Allan Brown describes the filming and distribution of the cult masterpiece as a 'textbook example of How Things Should Never Be Done'. The omens were bad from the start, and proceeded to get much, much worse, with fake blossom on trees to simulate spring, actors chomping on ice-cubes to prevent their breath showing on film, and verbal and physical confrontations involving both cast and crew. The studio hated it and hardly bothered to distribute it, but today it finds favour with critics and fans alike, as a serious—if flawed—piece of cinema. Brown expertly guides readers through the film's convoluted history, attempting along the way to explain its enduring fascination, and providing interviews with the key figures—many of whom still have an axe to grind, and some of whom still harbour plans for a sequel.
260 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
August 14, 2021
I’ve been reading about the film The Wicker Man for some time. Difficult to classify, it has been overlooked by the mainstream to become a cult favorite. Among the devoted is journalist Allan Brown. Part of the reason the movie is so compelling is that it has had a most unusual cinematic history. The studio that produced it (British Lion) turned against it but gave it a subdued release anyway. This, however, was only after severely editing it to the point that the version most audiences have seen is the truncated theatrical release.
Not only that, but after the film was made the negatives were lost, making a clear restoration next to impossible. Three versions now circulate. Brown treats all of this with a combination of research, interviews, and gossip. Speaking with several of those involved with the film, he gained some useful insights. Still, the book has a number of errors, suggesting that a bit more research might’ve added to it’s strengths.
This isn’t the place to summarize the movie and I really don’t want to give any spoilers because the ending makes this film. Brown’s is an unusual book. Part reference, part story, part illustrated memento of the movie, it touches several bases. It includes script from deleted scenes now lost, shooting locations for those who want to go on pilgrimage, and letters from Christopher Lee. Brown tries to retain fairness throughout, given that memories change with time. He has also provided the near-definitive tome for those who can’t get enough of the film. I’ve made some further comments here: Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.
Not only that, but after the film was made the negatives were lost, making a clear restoration next to impossible. Three versions now circulate. Brown treats all of this with a combination of research, interviews, and gossip. Speaking with several of those involved with the film, he gained some useful insights. Still, the book has a number of errors, suggesting that a bit more research might’ve added to it’s strengths.
This isn’t the place to summarize the movie and I really don’t want to give any spoilers because the ending makes this film. Brown’s is an unusual book. Part reference, part story, part illustrated memento of the movie, it touches several bases. It includes script from deleted scenes now lost, shooting locations for those who want to go on pilgrimage, and letters from Christopher Lee. Brown tries to retain fairness throughout, given that memories change with time. He has also provided the near-definitive tome for those who can’t get enough of the film. I’ve made some further comments here: Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.
May 20, 2012
The Wicker Man (1973) is a unique film. Made on a shoe-string budget under very difficult conditions and based on a script by Anthony Shaffer which eschews clear-cut depictions of good and evil in order to examine the nature and excesses of two competing forms of faith. There was, however, a lack of faith from the production company which had put up the money for the film and so it ended up being savagely cut and dumped on the wrong end of a double bill for its British release. In the United States it was initially barely released at all, but, later in the decade it had begun to develop a small cult following and so, through the efforts of enthusiasts, some of the lost footage was restored and the film became a limited sensation among young movie-goers, especially in college towns. It's reputation has continued to grow over the years so that it is now rightly regarded as one of the treasures of British cinema.
But almost as interesting as the film itself is the story of its production and trouble it had finding its way to an audience. This is the subject of Allan Brown's book which is a must for fans of the film, but also highly recommended for those who are interested in the nature of film-making. It is truly exhaustive in the detail with which it recreates each day's filming - the personality clashes, the controversies and the technical and other challenges. And the sad tale of what happened to the film once it was completed is also clearly laid out - practically disowned by producers; slammed by some critics; a source of conflict between small-time distributors; championed tirelessly at his own expense by one of its stars - Christopher Lee; having its negative lost - the most likely explanation being that it is now buried under a freeway; its longest cut available because Roger Corman, who only wanted it if he could have it cheap and cut it to the bone, neglected to dispose of his preview copy.
What makes this more than a thorough reference book on an important film, however, is that Brown writes about the significance of the film with great passion and insight and that he has a biting and iconoclastic wit.
On the film's prescience :
A change, however, was coming, and The Wicker Man, in its obliquely visionary way, signalled an early warning. Before long, the consensus would be shattered, the boundary between civility and barbarity less defined, increasingly porous. Cities ceased working effectively, so towns expanded. As they bit into the green belt, the ire of countryside communities was roused. In the process, it became clear that urban and rural were not merely geographic contrasts but implacably opposed mindsets. Harshening social conditions and intellectual evolution made religious observance seem at best a luxury, at worst an irrelevance. Yet some innate need for belief had to be answered somehow, and it was, by an explosion of neo-orthodoxies, such as Buddhism, and the Charismatic movement. The recent resurgence of Islam and its disjunction with Western Christianity would have made sense to Anthony Shaffer. Meanwhile, it would come to suit the purposes of some to allege that the union between England and Scotland was politically anachronistic, even if popular support for this contention was debatable at best. Catalysed by the feminist revolution, the sexes went to war, as did science and religion, each convinced it possessed the only plausible explanation for the human condition.
These oppositions - urban versus rural, science versus religion, nation versus region, men versus women, pew-bound religion versus the heathen relativism of the new faiths - are woven through The Wicker Man like the red bands in tartan. It is the films clairvoyance which guarantees its longevity. However far we go, the Wicker Man is always further down the track, further up the hill, waiting for us, just as it waited for Sergeant Howie.
On The Exorcist :
There is little in The Exorcist that merits serious textual consideration. It certainly says nothing interesting about the nature of good and evil; being a film concerned with the supernatural it never could, for the supernatural is the invention of the chronically impressionable and the callously fraudulent. In the end, all The Exorcist argues is this: certain individuals possess convictions so strong they are willing to lay down their lives for others, as the priests Karras and Merrin do for the seemingly possessed Regan. Yet the point is scarcely worth expressing: it is implicit in every war film ever made. In reality, The Exorcist attracts the serious attention only of those who respond to the sight of crucifixes violating teenage vaginas.
On Neil LaBute's notorious 2006 remake starring Nicholas Cage :
The remake is a truly astonishing film, one which emits the authentic bat squeak of lunacy. Viewing it is like watching men in boxing gloves attempt to steer a circus clown's jalopy away from the edge of a precipice.
And Christopher Lee comes in for quite a ribbing over a letter he wrote to Cinefantastique when one of their writers criticised him for a habit of playing "depthless" characters :
It is often repeated that Lee considered Lord Summerisle the finest role he ever played. I recall asking him which was the second best. He mulled for a moment, then said Doctor Catheter. In Gremlins II.
As an added bonus, the book contains a detailed summary of the script for Peter Shaffer's proposed sequel to The Wicker Man, which would have been a very different kind of film full of explicitly depicted supernatural beings including a dragon. Passing mention is made of the actual sequel The Wicker Tree (2010), written and directed by the original film's director, Robin Hardy, but the author had not actually seen it at the time of publication.
But almost as interesting as the film itself is the story of its production and trouble it had finding its way to an audience. This is the subject of Allan Brown's book which is a must for fans of the film, but also highly recommended for those who are interested in the nature of film-making. It is truly exhaustive in the detail with which it recreates each day's filming - the personality clashes, the controversies and the technical and other challenges. And the sad tale of what happened to the film once it was completed is also clearly laid out - practically disowned by producers; slammed by some critics; a source of conflict between small-time distributors; championed tirelessly at his own expense by one of its stars - Christopher Lee; having its negative lost - the most likely explanation being that it is now buried under a freeway; its longest cut available because Roger Corman, who only wanted it if he could have it cheap and cut it to the bone, neglected to dispose of his preview copy.
What makes this more than a thorough reference book on an important film, however, is that Brown writes about the significance of the film with great passion and insight and that he has a biting and iconoclastic wit.
On the film's prescience :
A change, however, was coming, and The Wicker Man, in its obliquely visionary way, signalled an early warning. Before long, the consensus would be shattered, the boundary between civility and barbarity less defined, increasingly porous. Cities ceased working effectively, so towns expanded. As they bit into the green belt, the ire of countryside communities was roused. In the process, it became clear that urban and rural were not merely geographic contrasts but implacably opposed mindsets. Harshening social conditions and intellectual evolution made religious observance seem at best a luxury, at worst an irrelevance. Yet some innate need for belief had to be answered somehow, and it was, by an explosion of neo-orthodoxies, such as Buddhism, and the Charismatic movement. The recent resurgence of Islam and its disjunction with Western Christianity would have made sense to Anthony Shaffer. Meanwhile, it would come to suit the purposes of some to allege that the union between England and Scotland was politically anachronistic, even if popular support for this contention was debatable at best. Catalysed by the feminist revolution, the sexes went to war, as did science and religion, each convinced it possessed the only plausible explanation for the human condition.
These oppositions - urban versus rural, science versus religion, nation versus region, men versus women, pew-bound religion versus the heathen relativism of the new faiths - are woven through The Wicker Man like the red bands in tartan. It is the films clairvoyance which guarantees its longevity. However far we go, the Wicker Man is always further down the track, further up the hill, waiting for us, just as it waited for Sergeant Howie.
On The Exorcist :
There is little in The Exorcist that merits serious textual consideration. It certainly says nothing interesting about the nature of good and evil; being a film concerned with the supernatural it never could, for the supernatural is the invention of the chronically impressionable and the callously fraudulent. In the end, all The Exorcist argues is this: certain individuals possess convictions so strong they are willing to lay down their lives for others, as the priests Karras and Merrin do for the seemingly possessed Regan. Yet the point is scarcely worth expressing: it is implicit in every war film ever made. In reality, The Exorcist attracts the serious attention only of those who respond to the sight of crucifixes violating teenage vaginas.
On Neil LaBute's notorious 2006 remake starring Nicholas Cage :
The remake is a truly astonishing film, one which emits the authentic bat squeak of lunacy. Viewing it is like watching men in boxing gloves attempt to steer a circus clown's jalopy away from the edge of a precipice.
And Christopher Lee comes in for quite a ribbing over a letter he wrote to Cinefantastique when one of their writers criticised him for a habit of playing "depthless" characters :
It is often repeated that Lee considered Lord Summerisle the finest role he ever played. I recall asking him which was the second best. He mulled for a moment, then said Doctor Catheter. In Gremlins II.
As an added bonus, the book contains a detailed summary of the script for Peter Shaffer's proposed sequel to The Wicker Man, which would have been a very different kind of film full of explicitly depicted supernatural beings including a dragon. Passing mention is made of the actual sequel The Wicker Tree (2010), written and directed by the original film's director, Robin Hardy, but the author had not actually seen it at the time of publication.
October 4, 2020
Ever so slightly marred by the occasionally snide tone directed at participants, which gives the overall effect of making this book feel like a somewhat mercenary endeavour, rather than driven by passion for the source material. It is, however, painstakingly researched, well written and engaging. The story behind the film is inherently fascinating but Allan Brown teases from it even juicier conflicts between the key players that add another layer and a Rashomon-esque quality to every tale told by those behind it. He also unravels some pretty complicated legal knots to make this a story that stretches from its inception, via the making, right through to the mire of its complicated afterlife. Brown has good access to many of those involved but appears not to lean on any one version of events too heavily and always returns to the cold, hard, unassailable facts of the production paperwork to support its structure. It loses focus somewhat towards the end of this revised edition as it repeatedly doubles back on itself covering similar ground, proposed sequels and misguidedly covering the remake — but the addition of Anthony Shaffer’s treatment for the proposed Wicker Man II is a neat appendix that makes fascinatingly grim reading.
April 30, 2020
If you're a fan of the film then you'll find this book totally immersive and full of fascinating facts and anecdotes - if a little over the place in terms of the flow (jumping from day-by-day accounts of filming to genre analysis and discussions on religion and paganism) and a bit too hung up on the specific details of distribution rights in the US. The author tries his level best to be impartial, but Robin Hardy comes across as a total arse in this book, mainly through the anecdotal evidence of others involved in the film, and Schaffer the artistic hero. Whatever your view on where the seeds that led to this film were sewn (poor David Pinner gets another hiding for 'Ritual' here as well) or who was ultimately responsible for its genius, this book has enough to keep you hooked right to the end.
June 13, 2024
i love you the wicker man forever. wonderful book for if you love the wicker man forever.
June 1, 2024
Exhaustively researched account of the making of and history of the Wicker Man. It’s really a discussion on the death of the British film industry in the 1970s.
It’s worth it for Anthony Schaffer’s screenplay for Wicker Man II in the appendices; it’s’ complete batshit and truly awful.
It’s worth it for Anthony Schaffer’s screenplay for Wicker Man II in the appendices; it’s’ complete batshit and truly awful.
August 14, 2019
This book is not just about the making of a great film, it is a snapshot of a particular moment in time where art, culture and business in the UK were metamorphosing. As well as telling the fraught story of the cult film The Wicker Man, the book captures a chunk of social history and the ways of getting things done in times now gone by.
The book is split roughly into four parts; i] the making of, ii] the selling of, iii] the revisiting of The Wicker Man and a fascinating extended appendix of bits that didn't fit into the main body of the work. The Wicker Man is a film that gripped me from the first time I viewed it, probably in the early days of Channel 4 which must have launched many into the dark and obscure corners of cult cinema. While I was aware that WM had a bit of a tough life the extent of its struggle for life had not been clear to me until I read this book. There would be a gripping film in a film about the making of the film. Allan Brown does an excellent job of clearly setting out the challenges faced by the cast and crew in making the film for a film company that really wasn't interested in what it seems to have considered something of a bastard child best strangled at birth and which it effectively sent quietly off in embarrassment to an orphanage at the earliest opportunity. That a copy of the partially complete film survived to blossom is something of a miracle given the forces ranged against it and that so much of the shot material disappeared is a tragedy.
One of the great things about the Wicker Man is how it builds the horror without the gore (gore is all well and good but is often a cover for poor storytelling). As the San Francisco Examiner described it WM is a film to be commended "for its ability to establish a chilling climate of terror in a contemporary situation without deus ex machina intervention of monsters, demons or existential beings" (given the proposed sequels apparent intention to head in that direction it is probably very good that it never materialised). Brown suggests that WM could perhaps be seen better as a science-fiction film than horror having as it does crop failure, scientific experimentation against a backdrop of hippieism of the time. Without the "overreaching reliance on technology, there is no harvest to fail on Summerisle" says Brown and there would be "no requirement for Howie". The film also subverts the classic horror formula of sex leading to "death, or types of death, or things worse than death" in that Howie rejects Willows advances thus retaining his virginity which makes him the perfect acceptable sacrifice. Also on the subject of sex "Summerisle may be a haven of licentiousness, but on the mainland sex is farcical and tawdry, rendered sickening by the strictures of repressive moralities".
Religion is also a horror regular, and particularly so in WM but the usual Good vs. Evil script is not followed. Instead argues Brown the unifying theme of WM is that all religions are "merely social constructs. Mankind it says just made this stuff up, some of it we made up 2000 years ago, the rest we made up in times immemorial". Brown convincingly argues that WM is an "essay on moral philosophy" a "resounding plea for tolerance, for the reason that all religious difference is socially constructed. It is an argument for civilisation over the cruelty and barbarism of nature, deeply humanist in its message". Further Howie and Summerisle "do not believe different things but different versions of the same thing".
The WM is now an established cult classic despite the best efforts of many to bury it and the "bloody" struggles and bitter falling-outs between many individuals and organisations who became embroiled in its production and promotion. It has even risen above the cheap attempts at remake described beautifully here as "...like watching men in boxing gloves attempt to steer a circus clowns jalopy away from the edge of a precipice. It's a farcical anthology of vanity and B-movie cliche cross-pollinated with a back issue of Spare Rib"!
The body of the book is complemented with interviews with the cast and crew as well as extensive documentation. Brown attempts to tease out the truths but is not afraid to leave uncertainties as uncertainties. There are also excellent photos from the shooting together with a few more recent shots.
This is an excellent book, primarily for making the casual viewer think more deeply about the film and beyond Brit's tits, but also for the devotee who will find much fascinating detail and thought given to all aspects of WM from its gestation to its death and rebirth. That the WM was reborn into a cult classic having been written off as a dud denied a proper release and cut to shreds for the release it had is a tale here well told.
In conclusion says Brown, WM "in its obliquely visionary way, signaled an early warning" in anticipating "that certain debates in society would come to assume a disruptive energy" where "before long, the consensus would be shattered, the boundary between civility and barbarity less defined,increasingly porous" and the myth of "a land of warm ale, cricket greens, of old maids cycling to communion through autumn mists" blown away.
The book is split roughly into four parts; i] the making of, ii] the selling of, iii] the revisiting of The Wicker Man and a fascinating extended appendix of bits that didn't fit into the main body of the work. The Wicker Man is a film that gripped me from the first time I viewed it, probably in the early days of Channel 4 which must have launched many into the dark and obscure corners of cult cinema. While I was aware that WM had a bit of a tough life the extent of its struggle for life had not been clear to me until I read this book. There would be a gripping film in a film about the making of the film. Allan Brown does an excellent job of clearly setting out the challenges faced by the cast and crew in making the film for a film company that really wasn't interested in what it seems to have considered something of a bastard child best strangled at birth and which it effectively sent quietly off in embarrassment to an orphanage at the earliest opportunity. That a copy of the partially complete film survived to blossom is something of a miracle given the forces ranged against it and that so much of the shot material disappeared is a tragedy.
One of the great things about the Wicker Man is how it builds the horror without the gore (gore is all well and good but is often a cover for poor storytelling). As the San Francisco Examiner described it WM is a film to be commended "for its ability to establish a chilling climate of terror in a contemporary situation without deus ex machina intervention of monsters, demons or existential beings" (given the proposed sequels apparent intention to head in that direction it is probably very good that it never materialised). Brown suggests that WM could perhaps be seen better as a science-fiction film than horror having as it does crop failure, scientific experimentation against a backdrop of hippieism of the time. Without the "overreaching reliance on technology, there is no harvest to fail on Summerisle" says Brown and there would be "no requirement for Howie". The film also subverts the classic horror formula of sex leading to "death, or types of death, or things worse than death" in that Howie rejects Willows advances thus retaining his virginity which makes him the perfect acceptable sacrifice. Also on the subject of sex "Summerisle may be a haven of licentiousness, but on the mainland sex is farcical and tawdry, rendered sickening by the strictures of repressive moralities".
Religion is also a horror regular, and particularly so in WM but the usual Good vs. Evil script is not followed. Instead argues Brown the unifying theme of WM is that all religions are "merely social constructs. Mankind it says just made this stuff up, some of it we made up 2000 years ago, the rest we made up in times immemorial". Brown convincingly argues that WM is an "essay on moral philosophy" a "resounding plea for tolerance, for the reason that all religious difference is socially constructed. It is an argument for civilisation over the cruelty and barbarism of nature, deeply humanist in its message". Further Howie and Summerisle "do not believe different things but different versions of the same thing".
The WM is now an established cult classic despite the best efforts of many to bury it and the "bloody" struggles and bitter falling-outs between many individuals and organisations who became embroiled in its production and promotion. It has even risen above the cheap attempts at remake described beautifully here as "...like watching men in boxing gloves attempt to steer a circus clowns jalopy away from the edge of a precipice. It's a farcical anthology of vanity and B-movie cliche cross-pollinated with a back issue of Spare Rib"!
The body of the book is complemented with interviews with the cast and crew as well as extensive documentation. Brown attempts to tease out the truths but is not afraid to leave uncertainties as uncertainties. There are also excellent photos from the shooting together with a few more recent shots.
This is an excellent book, primarily for making the casual viewer think more deeply about the film and beyond Brit's tits, but also for the devotee who will find much fascinating detail and thought given to all aspects of WM from its gestation to its death and rebirth. That the WM was reborn into a cult classic having been written off as a dud denied a proper release and cut to shreds for the release it had is a tale here well told.
In conclusion says Brown, WM "in its obliquely visionary way, signaled an early warning" in anticipating "that certain debates in society would come to assume a disruptive energy" where "before long, the consensus would be shattered, the boundary between civility and barbarity less defined,increasingly porous" and the myth of "a land of warm ale, cricket greens, of old maids cycling to communion through autumn mists" blown away.
September 2, 2018
INSIDE THE WICKER MAN is, as the title would suggest, an engaging behind-the-scenes look at the making of the cult classic. Brown's story is mainly based on interviews with key personnel and the focus of the structure is on the difficulties of shooting on location under constrained circumstances, not to mention the film's chequered post-production history. It's not a perfect read, too bogged down with primary sources seemingly 'plonked' into the book at random to pad it out, some repetition (tighter editing would have been better) and some of Brown's personal opinions are unnecessary (why feel the need to slag off THE EXORCIST along the way?). But for anybody who's a fan of what I personally consider to be one of the greatest British horror films ever made, this is engrossing stuff.
November 23, 2017
The last word on The Wicker Man. Covers everything from its genesis through its production & its troubled post production and onwards to it becoming the premier British folk horror movie.
All the main participants are quoted at length - and it acknowledges the fact that their recollections don't always converge (the writer & director particulate are at odds).
There is also quite a lot of 'bonus material in the book - from a 'screenplay of a proposed sequel (frankly awful) to contemporaneous film reviews (so many of which give away the ending).
If you like the film this is a must read - if you want to watch it this is a valuable companion.
All the main participants are quoted at length - and it acknowledges the fact that their recollections don't always converge (the writer & director particulate are at odds).
There is also quite a lot of 'bonus material in the book - from a 'screenplay of a proposed sequel (frankly awful) to contemporaneous film reviews (so many of which give away the ending).
If you like the film this is a must read - if you want to watch it this is a valuable companion.
May 8, 2018
As someone who wrote a well-acclaimed piece of entertainment, which failed to reach an audience due to backstage issues and industry apathy, I related all too well to the saga of Hardy and Shaffer and their cult film. Though some of the wheeling and dealing could be dry, the colorful cast of characters, including garrulous Christopher Lee, kept the showbiz story fast and furious, and often funny. Details about the never-made "Wicker Man II: The Loathsome Lambton Worm" were also an interesting look at a movie that probably is better off never having been made.
December 15, 2023
Having recently watched the movie again, I noticed quite a lot I had missed in earlier viewings, especially how Summerisle and Howie are both sides of the same coin in religious fervour.
The book spreads thin the information available about the making of the film and also seems to constantly be chasing its tail. This is because it seems like no two recollections by the people involved seem to match. The contributors appear to be unreliable.
Having said that, it's an interesting read and a good accompaniment to the movie.
The book spreads thin the information available about the making of the film and also seems to constantly be chasing its tail. This is because it seems like no two recollections by the people involved seem to match. The contributors appear to be unreliable.
Having said that, it's an interesting read and a good accompaniment to the movie.
July 1, 2025
Excellent, comprehensive overview of and insight into the Wickerman (in my opinion the GOAT of British cinema): the eccentricities of its subject matter, troubled production history, and subsequent commercial after-life (such as it was). The forensic accounting of the real life sites across the southwestern Scotland seaboard where filming took place is invaluable to any obsessives planning a tour of the area (guilty as charged).
"I think I too, could turn and live with animals..."
"I think I too, could turn and live with animals..."
June 25, 2020
I was excited to read this book as I am a huge fan of the film. It doesnt disappoint as it gives you a real feel of how difficult a passage it has had and also what a fine cast , along with a lot of local help, was involved in its creation.
It does get a little repetitive in places and contradictory but it really is a book for a fan.
Great insight which doesnt taint the film for you at all.
It does get a little repetitive in places and contradictory but it really is a book for a fan.
Great insight which doesnt taint the film for you at all.
November 7, 2022
I really enjoyed this nonfiction work on the making and afterward of the film The Wicker Man. It was a quick read and always kept me going back for more. I do like that they included a synopsis of the proposed film sequel. One small gripe is that the author get get repetitive, telling a story or event several times in different chapters. Beyond that, a lot of fun.
November 1, 2018
A fascinating look into the creation of one of my favorite films.
July 31, 2019
A very informative and very funny oral history of the weird production of this uncanny classic, and its unexpected legacy. The unlikeliest of circumstances often breed the most original art.
August 30, 2022
Boring, didn't finish.
May 29, 2023
Fascinating!
Great book, just back from tour of the film locations. A must read book for fans . Amazing film / book
Great book, just back from tour of the film locations. A must read book for fans . Amazing film / book
April 16, 2024
Brown's account of the difficult birth of the classic film, 'The Wicker Man', is detailed and well written in such a way as to keep readers informed and entertained throughout.
October 30, 2024
I will admit I scimmed over some of the more boring parts about it's distribution and financing issues but overall a interesting, well researched and entertaining look at an enduring cult favourite
January 27, 2017
Thoroughly enjoyable, with many fascinating facts about the production.
August 9, 2024
Was expecting more of a Room level fiasco on the production, yes it was chaotic but not the most severe, the most interesting bits come with the different/lost cuts.
September 16, 2019
Everything you ever wanted to know about the "Citizen Kane of British horror films" - told in idiosyncratic, suitably eccentric style. There is a very rough chronological through-line but the narrative leaps about more than a naked villager over a May Day bonfire. Brown is however always an engaging and witty narrator (except, of course, for a gratuitous and unforgivable crack at The Exorcist in one of the later chapters) - equally at home navigating the complexities of the film's unfortunate production and distribution as discussing The Golden Bough and the history/theology of pagan ritual in Britain. Books about films can often be disappointing, but this one is not - and its eccentricity seems the perfect blend of form and content.
June 29, 2013
This book is a fascinating account of how a film, mishandled and sliced to bits by producers, rose to great importance because of its indisputable quality. The Wicker Man is one of my favorite films, miscast as horror; in fact, it's one of the few films unafraid to be genreless. It exists in its own little world. Allan Brown is able to show how this fascinating blend of ideas came partially from enormous creativity, partially from the chaotic circumstances of its production. Accidental purposeful art.
The book does get mired in production minutia at times, really gathering steam in the second half as the film begins to ascend. Also, it is unfairly dismissive to Roeg's Don't Look Now, especially as it suffered from many similar studio difficulties. However, an excellent read and a model for how to write a book about a troublesome film like this.
The book does get mired in production minutia at times, really gathering steam in the second half as the film begins to ascend. Also, it is unfairly dismissive to Roeg's Don't Look Now, especially as it suffered from many similar studio difficulties. However, an excellent read and a model for how to write a book about a troublesome film like this.
March 22, 2016
Lots of great info. Various editions have slight variations so a real scholar of the movie would have to look at them all. The pics in the editions I have (Sidgwick & Jackson 2000 paperback and Polygon ebook 2012) are not the highest quality and with things like production documents, some are unreadable. I wish higher quality photos were used.
I also don't like his overly opinionated style. Facts get obscured. That said, this is the best book, so far, that you'll find to discuss all of the details of this movie. There's lots to discover in this movie. I'm still discovering things after first having seen it in the early 1980s.
I also don't like his overly opinionated style. Facts get obscured. That said, this is the best book, so far, that you'll find to discuss all of the details of this movie. There's lots to discover in this movie. I'm still discovering things after first having seen it in the early 1980s.
September 13, 2010
More than you ever wanted to know about the making of the 1973 British shocker. It more or less confirms the rumor that Anthony Shaffer was the real auteur of the piece, although budget constraints and editing decisions left the original screenplay only partly realized. Brown's careful research illuminates the difficult conditions under which the film was shot, the unkind distribution process that led to its inauspicious debut in America, and its endurance as a cult classic. Nine appendices round out the volume.
April 20, 2016
An excellent subject matter does not always lead to a great book. Thankfully, Allan Brown's thorough, almost exhaustive, dig into the amazing story and colorful cast of characters (on and off screen) of my cult favorite is more than rewarding for the dedicated WM fan. Having just watched the Final Cut version of the film on Blu-Ray, reading this book simply completed the perfect WM experience. Heartily recommended to... well you know who you are ;)
December 7, 2013
This book is extremely well researched, well written and a fascinating account of how a film can go wrong through no fault of its own. It is readable and hard to put down. I love the movie since I saw it in my youth and now have a completely new appreciation for it, thanks to Mr. Brown.
June 21, 2015
An excellent in depth look at the making of the classic 1973 film The Wicker Man. Brown's opening chapters are quite pretentious, but after these there are some truly superb interviews with cast & crew. There are also chapters on the novel & the fans, as well as some great photographs.
May 6, 2024
I love THE WICKER MAN, but did not care for the author's style. There is one sentence where he mentions Alfred Hitchcock's weight for some reason and that was NO.
But. I still liked all the background info.
But. I still liked all the background info.
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