THE WICKER TREE (Anchor Bay, 2010) D: Robin Hardy, w/ Brittania Nicol, Henry Garrett. Rating: N Blu-ray package: NN Rating: N
If you’ve seen the original Wicker Man, you know exactly where this is going, so getting there needs to be more than half the fun. Sadly, that’s not the case. Where the original offered taut suspense and a shocking climax, this spin-off ambles along with comedy, lots of music and some sex but no tension whatsoever.
This time, the outsiders who stumble into the Scottish village of happy pagans with a dark secret are a pair of born-again Christian evangelists. They’re young, in love and sworn to chastity until marriage. That doesn’t last.
Music and scenery provide more viewing pleasure than acting and story, though Honeysuckle Weeks is fun as the lovely Lolly, and Christopher Lee shows up for a cameo.
Robin Hardy, who directed the 1973 original and wrote as well as directed this one, points out in the extras that this is not a horror movie. It isn’t much of anything else either.
EXTRAS Making-of doc, deleted scenes. English, Spanish audio and subtitles.