10 Best The Wicker Man Moments
8. The Abandoned Church
After a morning’s frustrating investigation, Howie suspects Rowan Morrison has met her demise. The villagers have remained largely deflective, but their references to reincarnation and returning to the earth has led Howie to search for a grave. He finds himself at what used to be the island’s church. The interior is long gone, bereft of any Christian imagery. Instead, he is surrounded by more confusing sights: graves adorned with tree sapling and umbilical cords, a woman breast-feeding whilst holding an egg, and the remains of apples rotting on what would have been the church’s sanctuary.
A circle for definite, with Easter and the Eucharist replacing the concept of rebirth and sacrifice as represented by the egg and apples, for the space to then be reclaimed by the pagan rites.
Such nuance is lost on Howie, and he is nothing short of enraged by these sights, hastily making a crucifix before he takes his leave. Howie’s faith runs deeper than the culture he has been brought up in; it’s an intrinsic part of himself, the foundation of his morality. He cannot live and let live, everything about Summerisle disgusts him. One wonders how his fate would have turned out if he didn’t take other people’s faith so personally…
7. Chop Chop
In Howie’s final bid to save Rowan Morrison, he disguises himself with a Punch costume to infiltrate Summerisle’s May Day celebrations. Howie witnesses the dancing and frivolity typical of festivals all around the world, but the holiday takes a sinister turn once the party reaches the stone circle of the island. The six swordsmen that trailed behind Punch in the march now come to the forefront, forming a pentagram with their blades to begin the game of Chop.
Although the use of nursery rhymes in horror has become a cliché, in this instance the juxtaposition of “Oranges and Lemons” with an actual Russian Roulette situation is terrifying. Until this moment, the horror of The Wicker Man has been a gradual build up of dread, but as the game starts the tension is racked up tenfold. Has Howie been discovered? Is this the moment of sacrifice? Or do the residents of Summerisle just regularly delight in death games? Regardless, the point of view of a player surrounded by the blade pentagram has you feeling for your throat to double check that you haven’t lost the game yourself.
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6. The Maypole Song
This is easily one of the most unusual and iconic scenes in the movie.
It seems innocent enough at an initial glance – the maypole is an ongoing tradition across Europe and is associated with several Christian holidays including Pentecost, The Ascension and Corpus Christi. Such a sight in a strictly Christian sense could still disturb an individual like Howie – the history of Christianity in Scotland has been greatly influenced by Puritanical philosophy, hence the use of a Maypole could be frowned upon as it could be equated with idolatry. However, a continued watch of this supposedly quaint traditional dance, we find ourselves sharing in Howie’s discomfort and even horror.
It would be ignorant to deny the real Maypole’s pagan origins, as most people would recognise the concept of celebrating the arrival of Spring. Still, there is an uneasiness at witnessing the dancers, most of whom are young schoolboys, frolic around the Maypole to a song depicting human reproduction:
“And on that bed there was a girl,
And on that girl there was a man,
And from that man there was a seed.”
Unusual, yes, but not necessarily troubling. It is only when we overhear the words of the teacher in the nearby classroom confirming to her class of schoolgirls that the Maypole represents the image of the penis which is venerated in their religion that we truly understand the nature of this practice.
This moment possibly bears more relevance to today than it did in 1973 – in the midst of a culture war, today’s society has become terrified of, and obsessed with, the idea of children’s corruption and loss of innocence in the classroom, particularly regarding sex education. Whether there is justification in the current moral outrage, it would be hard to argue against an outcry over the encouragement of young girls to venerate phallic symbols.
