The Wicker Tree (2012)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Having watched the original "The Wicker Man" and I'd read all the bad reviews for "The Wicker Tree" but I had to see it for myself. Massive spoilers below. After watching it, I thought that many of the reviewers missed it for what it really was - a much deeper movie than most realize. The underlying theme is religion - as neither the "born again" Christians nor the pagans come off in a positive light. Both Beth and Steve are portrayed as being extremely naive born again Christians - in their introductory scene at the Texas gospel church, their introducer's spiel makes it quite clear how little they all know about the pagans or Scotland for the matter as a nod to the innate provincialism of Christianity. (to say nothing of other religions as well!) Sir Lachlan's answer to Delia's question whether or not he really believed in their religion is a nod to Marx's well known quote "Religion is the opiate of the masses" - and it's true for both the pagans and the born-again Christians in the film. It's Sir Lachlan who dupes the pagans along to hide the fact that it's the nuclear plant that's responsible for the infertility all along. Sir Lachlan is just cynically leading along the townsfolk in believing that religion will be the answer to their ills - that is why there wasn't really much in way of outrage when Beth shoves him into the Wicker Tree and sets him on fire...deep down they all suspected his heart wasn't really into their beliefs. The film also plays on the hypocrisy that comes with religion on the part of both Beth's and Steve. They wear "promise rings" but the TV show scene of Beth's earlier musical career and her nearly succumbing to her old ways while watching it as well as Steve's cheating on Beth by having sex with Lolly aptly sums up the hypocrisy inherent in religion and the fact that religion is too artificial to contain human nature. The songs play a important part, particularly when the pagans change "There is Power in the Blood" into their horrifying chant when they corner Steve as the Wee Laddie in the castle and tear him apart and devour his flesh and blood as a nod to the maenads of ancient Greek myth. And it's also an allusion to how many pagan holidays have been converted to Christian ones. (Christmas, Halloween and Easter in particular) I think Hardy fully intended it to be a black satire on the nature of religion and I think he succeeded and it's a pretty relevant message in light of how modern religion and politics strive to demonize their opponents as being anything but a fellow human being which is exactly how Beth, Steven and the pagans perceive each other. Steve and Beth out of sheer naivete and ignorance while it's more of a thin veneer of civility by the pagans. To them, Beth and Steve are every bit the dumb animals like a goat or sheep that'd ordinarily be sacrificed. In which case the verse "the precious blood of the Lamb" takes on a very grim pagan undertone to it.

Did we really think writer/director Robin Hardy could better "The Wicker Man", that masterpiece of horror, which along with William Friedkin's "The Exorcist" defined the genre in the 1970's? It was a tall order, but he did come up with one surprise - he more or less repeated himself.A couple of born-again Christians, 'Cowboys for Christ', Beth Boothby (Brittania Nicol) and Steve Thompson (Henry Garrett), cross the Atlantic on a mission to spread the Lord's word to the spiritually challenged flock in Scotland. After meeting a local laird, Sir Lachlan Morrison (Graham McTavish), they are directed to Tressock, a community that has an infertility problem caused by a leak from a nuclear power plant.The innocent couple become central to the town's May Day festivities, involving human sacrifice to get the community's seed germinating again. All conspire against them except for Lolly (Honeysuckle Weeks), the head groom on Sir Lachlan's estate.We know how it will end because there was no mercy for Edward Woodward in the first version so we don't expect any for Beth and Steve in this one.The problem with knowing the basic premise is that the only tension comes in seeing how the ritual will be carried out. However, for some reason, Hardy holds back - we see nothing that compares to the anguish of Edward Woodward locked in his blazing wicker prison in the 1973 film. The Wicker Tree itself is an artistic looking number, but it doesn't project the menace of the giant wicker cage of the original.Where the "The Wicker Tree" breaks from "The Wicker Man" is in the attempts at black humour; the naive Beth and Steve are treated as somewhat comic characters, as is Beame, Sir Lachlan's head man, who is involved in a number of jocular bits of business such as being stabbed up the kilt with a broken glass; it's hard to know quite how to take this movie as it changes mood at odd times.The film doubles up on a couple of elements from the original, namely the number of sacrifices and the amount of nudity. Honeysuckle Weeks sheds her "Foyle's War" khakis and everything else for a couple of airy romps, including a brave effort in a chilly Scottish stream.Although it's nice to see Christopher Lee back for a little homage, the biggest problem with "The Wicker Tree" is that it pays just too much homage to the original movie. The most important sacrifice of all would have entailed letting go of the old plot and heading off in a new direction.Instead of a lop-sided remake, maybe a follow-up to the original would have been a better option - by 2011, the number of disappearances on Summerisle would have reached epic proportions with the supply of wicker also running dangerously low. At least that approach may have provided a few surprises.

This film in a capsule.First 60 minutes: Bad country singing. Lots of Bible bashing. Dodgy Scottish accents ahoy. Awful acting, even from the extras. Gratuitous nudity in a bed. Gratuitous nudity in a stream. A LOT of pointless talking. Christopher Lee in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. I'm sure there was more, but I must have nodded off.Last 30 minutes: Hey-ho, things are looking up. A cat just drunk some poisoned milk. (sniff,sniff). And look, here's an American girl shoving a bit of broken glass up a Scotsman's kilt. Ho, ho. And there's her cowboy boyfriend, being devoured by a bunch of naked cannibals. FINGER LICK'IN GOOD!! And don't forget about the...Oh, who am I trying to kid... it's just dreadful twaddle. It makes The Wicker Man from 1973 look like The Greatest Film Ever and the 2006 remake of that movie... well, let's not go crazy now... 3/10

I have watched all of Foyle's War, and I have never seen Honeysuckle Weeks as I have here. Unlike Brittania Nicol who played Beth Boothby, she did not use a body double for her scenes.This was supposedly a remake of The Wicker Man and, while it was good, it certainly can't come up to the standards of either version, not the 1973 version with Edward Woodward, or the 2006 version with Nickolas Cage and Christa Campbell.There are a lot of sexual innuendos, as well as a very funny sex scene.Unfortunately, what is going to happen here is very obvious, and there is no element of surprise as there was in the previous films.