As a long time fan of ‘The Wicker Man’, I’d found it rather odd that its thematic sequel ‘The Wicker Tree’ is often noticeably absent from Wicker discourse within the ‘Wicker’ fandom. In fact, before watching this film I actually reached out to several of my friends who are massive ‘Wicker Man’ fans, and most admitted they hadnt bothered to check it out. And the ones who had didnt really have much good to say about the film other than ‘…Well, its a movie…thats for sure.’
So going into this one, I didnt really have any kind of idea what to expect, other than a lot of people I knew actively deciding up front that it probably wasnt going to be as good as ‘The Wicker man’…so why bother? And y’know what? Sometimes, the status quo is right on the money.
As mentioned this is a thematic sequel to ‘The Wicker Man’…so essentially it deals more in the themes of ‘old gods’ and murderous cults rather than it being a direct continuation of the antics on Summerisle. and while Christopher Lee does get a VERY brief cameo (mild spoilers) noone involved in the production honestly knew or cared enough to decide if Lee was supposed to be playing Lord Summerisle…or just a guy.
The plot in this instance centers around ‘born again’ puritan Christians Beth and Steve. The pair are famous musicians on the Christian circuit and have decided to act as missionaries sharing the good word of the lord to a small Scottish village. On arriving at the village from Dallas Texas. The locals greet them with warmth and friendliness…But it becomes apparent quite quickly that things are all they seem in the village. An accident involving the local power plant has rendered the village completely infertile, with very few children. And the villagers have their eye on Steve to help ‘increase’ the population…Testing both singers vows of celibacy.
And…from that point onwards, this essentially just turns into idle chatter at a village feight, until the last 10 minutes when it all goes a bit traditional cult murderey…and indeed as the credits rolled I too had to concede that; Yes. This was indeed ‘A movie’.
The quick answer to why this film ended up the way it is, is the way most of these movies end up the way they do…Money. Robin Hardy had been trying to sell a Wicker man sequel for years, and eventually managed to get a deal agreed with ‘British Lion’ (the company that funded the original Wicker Man.) Unfortunately; there was a communication breakdown and Hardy thought this was going to be a multi million pound film production…and as such; he produced a script that reflected that budget…Only for British Lion to bring him crashing down to reality that this very much was NOT the case…At which point, the cuts began.
I dont honestly know how much of this movie was torched before production began, but I do know that a LOT of the bigger ideas that DID make it into the final movie, had to be scaled down to a ‘Direct to Tubi’ level consistency. From there, things go from bad to worse.
The script is painfully beige. Watching this actually gave me a greater understanding of the careful ‘Yin/Yang’ balance that the original ‘Wicker Man’ script had. The bones of the work, a carefully crafted drama mystery with horror elements via Anthony Shaffer. Peppered liberally with some eccentricities and finesses from Hardy. The two elements complimented each other creating a simultaneous believable work, with fantastical; but non the less grounded elements.
The Wicker Tree by contrast is all Hardy. And the end result is a plodding and beige feature that borders on cringy in places, with unmemorable, flat and lifeless characters with ‘gimmicks’ to try and push things along. The joy of ‘The Wicker Man’ was that of the unknown and the isolated. We didnt know what Sgt. Howie was walking into as an audience, and the characters of Summerisle keep their cards very close to their chests. only revealing dribs and drabs of key plot, and a LOT of red herrings, until Howie is in such a position that he’s trapped. Fully aware of what he’s tangled himself up into, horrified, and totally unable to escape.
Here? the main characters spell out the entire plot of the movie in the first 30 minutes, and the rest of the film is watching the main characters (who arnt aware) slowly eek into a situation we knew IN FULL over an hour prior to the finale.
The pacings slow and unpleasent. Not in a ‘slow burn’ way…in a ‘we’re killing time’ way. the acts are consistent…but take an age to transistion. Quite honestly? there were moments here where I didnt even recognise an act change because that little happens in the film.
There are moments where I really got a sense of what had been cut from the film. Moments with characters, where it felt like something much more grand must have taken place in the script. But rathat than rework it to make it work better in the context of the budget and time they had for this production. they just…deleted the expensive bit, but left the residues in place. Leading to a very dislocated viewing experience.
Dialogue isnt as memorable or interesting as the original film, the core characters are fairly unremarkable, to the point that our main characters end up feeling like B-tier characters in a movie ABOUT THEM.
I think the fundamental issue with this movie really is that we just…dont get the same sense of helplessness or isolation that the original movie instilled. In that film we followed Howie as a mainlander falling into this world of strange islanders, where nothing quite made sense, until it was too late to understand the danger. Here? we’re chummy with the islanders, we spend more time with the islanders than the main characters. And it means that…rather than us feeling a sense of unease or dread about them. It really does feel like (up until the final 10 minutes) we’re just hanging around with the locals of any village or town in the north of Britain.
Thats not even getting into the fact that NON of the characters are remotely likeable. Howie was not a particularly ‘likeable’ character in the Wicker Man…but we at least could associate and relate to him from the perspective of ‘hes a guy trying to enact the law, and in his own mind, while he may be arrogant about his faith. He isnt ACTIVELY an unlikeable person’. Beth and Steve by contrast come across as grifters, con artists. We dont see enough of their genuine selves to gain any kind of appreciation or likability for them. I personally believe this was Hardys attempt at a bit of lampooning or critiquing of Evangelist culture in America…or that he just…didnt much care for Americans as a cultural movement. I kind of have to take that stance based on how unlikeable he makes every American character in this movie.
Visually the things a bust as well…from a directoral standpoint, I dont have *TOO* many gripes, this is fairly competently shot, but its basic. this is very much ‘Direct to streaming’ fodder with very little in the way of sincere unique creativity. its painting by numbers folk horror. Nothing you wouldnt find in any low to lower medium budget horror film from around this window of time. For any other Low/No budget production, i’d have been kind of ‘Meh’ on that and given it a pass…But with this being a sequel to a film that I widely consider to be one of the best horror films ever made? Its beyond disheartening and quite dissatisfying.
Not helped either by the colour grade. Where we trade 70s vibrant and lush multicolour horror of Green rolling hills, roaring red and orange fires, the blues of the sea and skies and the vibrancy of the budding flowers…for that scourge of 2000’s horror…the desaturated ‘brown grey’ colour grade. everythings washed out, nothing pops, nothing looks interesting, it all blends into a sludge of mediocrity…which only further reinforces the kick to the nads that this film did to me.
The cine is pretty ‘mid’ too…we have very little in the way of interesting composition, and overreliance on weird plug in filters and POV shots and nudity that feel less ‘Steamy erotica’ and more ‘Babestation’ in its execution. I was…dissapointed to say the least. Matched with an edit that felt clunky, poorly planned and executed in a way that left me feeling really kind of depressed.
While the direction and cine are kind of bland, but ultimately passable. Its the combination of the script and performances that really let this film down. The ONLY solid performance in this whole film is Honeysuckle Weeks as ‘Lolly’ one of the cultists essentially playing the ‘Britt Eckland’ role in this movie. Shes good! she seems to have nailed the assignment of not playing things too cartoony, but having a degree of unpredictable eccentricity about her performance. Whenever she was on screen, I did genuinely wonder what direction her performance was going to take. Which I see as a good sign.
Unfortunately; the rest of the cast end up largely flailing. With Brittania Nicol and Henry Garret as Beth and Steve really failing to do anything other than make me wonder if Robin Hardy had ever heard an American accent before. They’re stiff, have very little on screen chemistry and neither of them really convinced me that they believed anything they were saying or doing. Graham McTavish as Lachlan Morris establishes himself as ‘the bad guy’ more or less immediately; and then fails to really do anything that would cement the fact he’s supposed to be the ‘bad guy’ for this movie. Underwhelming, underutilised and lacking any real ‘show stealing’ moments. He’s no Christopher Lee…and while I know they’re big shoes to fill…It didnt really even come close to me.
The rest of the supporting cast range from middling to poor. With a major issue really being that these cast member just dont really seem to understand the tonal balance of how to play a cultist trying to lure someone in. They either play it completely straight, which doesnt work because its missing that feint unhinged element that lets the audience know somethings a bit amiss…Or they play it completly doolally. which again, doesnt work because NOONE would chat to a guy who only talks in riddles, who has a pet raven that attacks people and only listens to records about how its wrong to eat people…If I were in that situation, i’d have been halfway to Yorkshire before sundown.
And; as an aside. Thats ANOTHER problem this film has…it simply CANNOT resist back referencing ‘The Wicker Man’…even though this is really only supposed to be a thematic sequel. Giving the main villains of this film the last name ‘Morrison’, giving Lachlan Morrison Christopher lees tweed jacket to wear for most of the movie. bringing back (more affordable) cast members from the Wicker man for cameo appearences. direct references to Summerisle and music stings are all WAY too prevelent and on the nose. I dont mind one…maybe two passing nods to a previous film. But its SO blatant and on the nose here that its impossible really for me to think anything other than ‘Hey…I should stop watching this sub par attempt at a Wicker Man sequel…and just go WATCH the Wicker Man’…
The final nail in the coffin for this one really is the soundtrack. The original Wicker Man reworked and modernised classic folk songs from history into a mesmorising and beautiful score that still holds strong to this day. The Wicker Tree vaguely tries to do something similar, but with gospal music. and it SUCKS…SO SO bad. most of the reworkings of gospal numbers sound muddy, poorly arranged and flat. they dont add anything to the film, if anything that just make things feel all the more cheaper. The original songs are dire. vaguely religious themed works that dont gel with the language of the singer….and Beths ‘pop’ song from when she was just making it into the industry, really truely had me biting my knuckle for the 3rd party embarrassment. its a stink bomb of a score, a truely awful work in my opinion which…when mixed with all the other elements, really truely acts as the millstone around the neck of this movie.
Had ‘The Wicker Tree’ had zero ties to ‘The Wicker Man’…Had it just been some low – lower medium budget offering from an indie film maker. I’d have probably still disliked it. But I could have been kinder given its attempt at trying to create folk horror with unknowns at the healm.
But this had talented people behind it. Christopher Lee personally campaigned to drag top level cast members into this. And because it tries to shore itself up to the Wicker man SO intently…without really TRYING to match the quality or flare of ‘The Wicker Man’, it makes the fall from grace SO much more dissapointing to me. I knew every single beat of this movie from about 20 minutes in, and I didnt get a single thing wrong. I dont consider that a good sign when watching a film. A rushed, poorly made production that desperately needed cash to put it even remotely into ‘good terratory’. I absolutely cannot recommend this one to anyone. I say this earnestly…You’ll have a MUCH more enjoyable time watching the 2006 Wicker Man remake than this.
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-wicker-tree/
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