ramonmercado
CyberPunk
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The travails and times of The Wicker Man.
Like all the best cult films, The Wicker Man has been dividing audiences from the moment it slipped into Britain's cinemas 50 years ago.
The story of a Christian police officer sent to a remote Scottish island community to investigate the disappearance of a local girl has been described as "the Citizen Kane of horror movies" - and derided as one of the 10 worst films ever made.
The project started off well. It was written by Anthony Shaffer, hot off the hit play and film Sleuth, and its big horror star Christopher Lee said it was one of the finest screenplays he had ever read. But things started to go wrong when it went into production. The budget was too low, its island setting had to be recreated on the mainland in Galloway, and a story centred on the importance of spring and pagan May festivals had to be shot in October.
A further row over editing and a lacklustre release as a B-movie alongside Don't Look Now in 1973 almost smothered the film before it was born.
"In contemporary terms, that would be like a Steven Spielberg film going straight to video, virtually unthinkable," wrote Edward Woodward, who played the police officer, in the foreword to Allan Brown's book Inside The Wicker Man.
But just as the film deals with the rebirth of nature every spring, The Wicker Man did not die.It was reborn in small second-run cinemas, on TV, on video and DVD, and over the years its reputation grew. Academics and a growing fan base pored over its themes and strange quirks. After all, how many films deal with paganism, Christianity, murder and rural isolation with a cast including Scottish comedy greats, screen horror icons, two international sex symbols - plus songs and dances? ...
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-65470238
Like all the best cult films, The Wicker Man has been dividing audiences from the moment it slipped into Britain's cinemas 50 years ago.
The story of a Christian police officer sent to a remote Scottish island community to investigate the disappearance of a local girl has been described as "the Citizen Kane of horror movies" - and derided as one of the 10 worst films ever made.
The project started off well. It was written by Anthony Shaffer, hot off the hit play and film Sleuth, and its big horror star Christopher Lee said it was one of the finest screenplays he had ever read. But things started to go wrong when it went into production. The budget was too low, its island setting had to be recreated on the mainland in Galloway, and a story centred on the importance of spring and pagan May festivals had to be shot in October.
A further row over editing and a lacklustre release as a B-movie alongside Don't Look Now in 1973 almost smothered the film before it was born.
"In contemporary terms, that would be like a Steven Spielberg film going straight to video, virtually unthinkable," wrote Edward Woodward, who played the police officer, in the foreword to Allan Brown's book Inside The Wicker Man.
But just as the film deals with the rebirth of nature every spring, The Wicker Man did not die.It was reborn in small second-run cinemas, on TV, on video and DVD, and over the years its reputation grew. Academics and a growing fan base pored over its themes and strange quirks. After all, how many films deal with paganism, Christianity, murder and rural isolation with a cast including Scottish comedy greats, screen horror icons, two international sex symbols - plus songs and dances? ...
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-65470238
