By Adrian Smith
A sequel to The Wicker Man was first proposed in the mid-1980s by Anthony
Schaffer, writer of the original. Titled “The Loathsome Lambton Worm”, it began
as soon as the first film ended, as Sergeant Howie is rescued from his fiery
fate by police from the mainland. He seeks justice and revenge and goes back to
Summerisle, ostensibly to arrest those responsible for his near martyrdom, but
instead becomes embroiled in a series of challenges, pitting the old gods
against his own Christian faith. The film was to end with Howie fighting a fire-breathing
dragon and then plunging willingly to his death from a cliff whilst tied to two
large eagles. It would have been terrible.
However that film, with its witches on
broomsticks and reliance on magical special effects, would have probably been far
better than this extremely belated follow-up. Thirty-nine years is a long time
to wait for a sequel, in which time Anthony Schaffer has died and Christopher
Lee has aged beyond the point of being able to take a major starring role in a
movie. Robin Hardy, director of The
Wicker Man, proposed his own sequel several years ago, originally titled
“The Riding of the Laddie”. Unable to find funding he wrote it into a novel,
retitled “Cowboys for Christ”. In 2008 a press release announced the imminent
filming of this official The Wicker Man
sequel, starring Christopher Lee and Joan Collins as leaders of a sinister
cult. Funding collapsed a mere two weeks before shooting began. Two years and
one major casting change later (due to Sir Christopher’s ill health and advanced
years), The Wicker Tree finally went
into production. It has taken a further two years for the film to find
distribution, which is always a worrying sign. Although Sir Christopher is
somewhat frail, he does play an unidentified old man who pops in for one flashback
scene to intone something about old religions. His reason for being there makes
no narrative sense, and is clearly just meant as a nod to fans of the first
film.
The plot follows the “Cowboys for Christ”
novel fairly closely. A former US country pop star has seen the light and
become converted to evangelical Christianity. Along with her reformed gambler
boyfriend, she decides that the most effective way to spread the good news is
to spend two years knocking on the doors
of disinterested Scots. I would have thought it more likely that she would have
recorded gospel albums and performed to sell out gigs. In some convoluted way
that is never fully explained, the two of them end up as the guests of Sir
Lachlan Morrison (a possible relation to Rowan Morrison, the missing girl from
the original film?), in the distant Scottish village of Tressock. He runs his
own nuclear power station, and apparently an accident ten years previously has
rendered all the men in the village infertile. For this reason Morrison has
encouraged the villagers to get into paganism in a big way, with the main focus
being May Day, where they have a Laddie and a May Queen. He uses his vast
wealth to search the world for suitably virginal candidates, and it doesn’t
take a genius to guess the intended fate for his Texan guests. Why he doesn’t
just spend some money on fertility treatment I don’t know. It would be much
simpler.
Before long they are enjoying village life, but is there something sinister going on beneath the surface? Sadly, the answer is, no not really. What this film is really lacking is the sense of queasy unease that the original offered. There are no mating snails, mothers breastfeeding in graveyards or toads used as cures for sore throats. There are no corn dollies or barley rigs, sexually-charged sexual bar maids, or anything that would indicate that this is an unusual community. There is one character who is clearly supposed to be the equivalent of Britt Eckland’s Willow, in that she seems to have had sex with every man in the village, but her story and motivations are muddled and unexplored. The village of Tressock is a poor replacement for the island of Summerisle, It is a non- threatening environment which just adds to the palpable lack of anything vaguely scary about the Texan evangelists’ situation. It is odd that the plot is so full of holes, given that Robin Hardy has been working on this for several years. Part of the trouble with making a sequel in theme only is that the audience is forewarned as to where the plot can go. We know the fate of Sergeant Howie in The Wicker Man, so we just spend the first hour of the film waiting for something similar to occur. It means the film is incredibly predictable and dissatisfying on almost every level. Hardy has attempted to put some sort of twist the way Tressock celebrates May Day, but it is not enough.
This was clearly a low budget production, and sadly it looks it. The locations don’t look genuine, and there is a distinct lack of suspicious-looking extras. The cast does their best under difficult circumstances. There is a decent score from John Scott, who is currently one of the busiest composers in Hollywood, with a career that goes back almost fifty years. Ultimately this is a film that nobody (with the exception of Robin Hardy) asked for, and nobody wants. Instead of watching this just go back and watch The Wicker Man instead, a film which is by no means perfect but still manages to grip and enthral the audience in a way The Wicker Tree can only dream of.
The Blu-ray and DVD features a perfunctory behind-the-scenes documentary including interviews with all the main players both in front of and behind the camera. There are also some deleted scenes, which were clearly deleted for a reason, and a trailer, which actually manages to make the film look quite good.
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