Number 620 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1973 folk-horror 'The Wicker Man.'
Police sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) is a devout Christian investigating the disappearance of a little girl on a remote Scottish Isle. There, he is is appalled to find the residents, led by Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee) have rejected Christianity in favour of a dangerous form of paganism.
Horror films generally fall into one of two cliches: over-reliance on jump-scares or over-reliance on gore. Thankfully, director Robin Hardy and writer Anthony Schaffer deftly navigated these cliches. Schaffer deliberately eschewed the latter cliche in favour of a tense, unsettling atmosphere.
From the moment that Neil Howie steps onto the island, it's obvious that somebody isn't quite right. Nobody seems to know who the missing girl is nor do make any effort to help him. Instead they prefer to have sex in public and teach children about phallic symbols in school. And it is all treated as completely normal which is what makes it so scary.
It's normal to everybody, but Howie who is horrified by the debauchery he witnesses. Woodward played the straight man, so to speak, with all the moral indignation that we would expect to see. But I think the true star was Christopher Lee who played the villainous Lord Summerisle.
Lord Summerisle is a cult-leader who has brainwashed the island's residents in happily following his every word even when it crosses ethical boundaries. They blindly follow their pagan beliefs, gaily singing and dancing through the film's most terrifying sequences. Nowhere is this more apparent than the film's chilling conclusion. I won't spoil it here, but this is a horror film, so there's no happily ever after.
As the film was made on a shoestring budget, Lee was more than happy to work for free. This really shows his dedication to his craft.
Folk-horror has made a resurgence with the likes of Midsommar and the Witch, but they all pay homage to the pioneering Wicker Man.
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