The Wicker Tree (2010/2012)

When two young missionaries (Brittania Nicol, Henry Garrett) head to Scotland, they are initially charmed by their engaging baron Sir Lachlan Morrison (Graham McTavish) and agree to become the local Queen of the May and Laddie for the annual Tressock town festival. But the couple is not prepared for the frightening consequences of their decision and the very disturbing secrets they are about to discover about Tressock's seemingly friendly townspeople.

Written and directed by Robin Hardy as a companion piece to his 1973 classic cult thriller The Wicker Man, The Wicker Tree also features Jacqueline Leonard, Honeysuckle Weeks, and Clive Russell, with Christopher Lee, the star of Hardy's original film. The film is also produced by Peter Snell, who returns as producer from the original, along with Peter Watson-Wood and Alastair Gourlay.

Production Notes

Veteran actor Christopher Lee has described the plot of Robin Hardy's new film The Wicker Tree, which Hardy based on his best-selling 2006 novel Cowboys For Christ, as "erotic, romantic, comic, and horrific enough to loosen the bowels of a bronze statue."

A return to the themes he first explored in his classic cult thriller The Wicker Man more than thirty-five years ago -- telling the eerie tale of a hedonistic Scots community which makes a human sacrifice -- The Wicker Tree inhabits the same territory as The Wicker Man. Intertwined themes of power and sex, of Christian and pagan religion, of bawdy comedy and romantic love, build insistently to a climax of unimaginable horror, all originate from the terrifying imagination of Robin Hardy, director of the cult classic The Wicker Man.

A Spiritual Companion Piece

Since his directorial debut in 1973 with The Wicker Man, Robin Hardy has had a career on both sides of the Atlantic as a screenwriter, producer, director, playwright, artist and novelist. In addition to the novel The Wicker Man, co-written with Anthony Shaffer, his fiction includes The Education of Don Juan, Don Juan's New World, and Cowboys for Christ, on which The Wicker Tree is based.

But for the better part of nine years, a spiritual companion piece to The Wicker Man has been lurking in the back of Hardy's mind. And after many years of interacting with the enormous fan base for his work, Robin felt that there was a huge appetite for another film in the same genre. Not a sequel or a prequel, but a story inhabiting the same territory. The book Cowboys For Christ was the result.

According to Robin, "Right now, the horror film genre is in search of a new style. People are looking for something a bit different, and this thriller film fantastique is based on the idea that you can incorporate ordinary life -- songs, music, humor -- where underneath something sinister lurks. In this film, I want to show how sympathetic characters can unwittingly be drawn into a seemingly friendly, hospitable community in which something frightful is going on underneath the surface."

The Wicker Man - An Instant Cult Classic In 1973

"Welcome, fool. You have come of your own free will to the appointed place. The game is over."

In 1973, The Wicker Man opened to acclaim in both the U.S. and U.K. and turned the occult thriller into a genuine cult classic, creating a genre all of its own, and topping numerous polls throughout the world as one of the must-see films of all time. The Boston Globe called it "pure, brilliant, spine-tingling fun." Sight and Sound dubbed it "infinitely more provocative and original than almost any horror film of its era."

Director Robin Hardy explains: "The English press called it a horror film because of its ending and because they didn't know what else to call it. The French called it a 'film fantastique,' a rather more apt description, it seems to me!"

Edward Woodward starred as the hard-nosed, deeply Christian police sergeant Neil Howie who finds his beliefs tested to the limit when he is summoned by an anonymous letter to investigate the disappearance of a young girl on the shores of Summerisle, a remote island off the harsh coast of Scotland. An outsider from the moment he arrives, he observes the islanders' bizarre customs and lifestyle with increasing incredulity. Eventually he meets the patrician Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee), who explains that they are a culture separated from the rest of Britain, a society free of Christians. Howie is deeply offended and suggests the girl has been murdered as part of a bizarre ritual. He attempts to leave the island to report his suspicions to the chief constable of the West Highland Constabulary, but finds that his plane has been sabotaged. Cleverly attempting to catch the islanders at whatever twisted game they are playing with the girl (who he discovers is still alive, but destined to be sacrificed), Howie is instead snared by the islanders with terrifying results.

The Wicker Man started life in 1972 when some highly talented film makers were on the lookout for a suitable project on which to collaborate. Hardy's atmospheric use of location, unsettling imagery and haunting soundtrack gradually build to one of the most terrifying and iconic climaxes in modern cinema.

In 1977 the acclaimed Cinefantastique Magazine devoted almost an entire issue to The Wicker Man with 37 pages of photos, dubbing the film "the Citizen Kane of horror films." The extensive article, which coincided with the American release, was written by David Bartholomew, who commented: "Director Robin Hardy's fascinating mixture of horror, eroticism and religion is a thoughtful, challenging and highly provocative experience. Christopher Lee, who plays the lord of the island, thinks it's the finest film he's ever made -- and he's right."

For the back story of The Wicker Man, Hardy researched what kind of society would be found if the island discarded Christianity and returned to the propitiating religion of their Celtic ancestors. The main resource was the Golden Bough series of 12 books written by Sir James George Frazer. These detail how the early myths, rites and pagan beliefs fed into modern 20th Century life. Meanwhile, Paul Giovanni and Peter Shaffer, Anthony's twin, examined the pagan origins of many Scottish folk songs. Hardy states, "Both twins had an absolute fascination with people devising elaborate games at somebody else's expense. The plot started to develop into an elaborate game with Lord Summersisle as the magus."

Hardy spent several months studying Celtic paganism: "The Wicker Man itself is quite real. The Druids used the structure to burn their sacrificial victims. Historically, in Julius Caesar's diaries in 55BC, he noted that Roman prisoners of war were taken by the British tribes and burned as sacrifices in huge Wicker Men. Sacrifice is common to every pagan religion in Europe... It was a completely universal practice. Even today, the Christian consumption of the blessed body and blood of Jesus signifies the gods demanding that people offer up to them sacrifices which were particularly valuable to them."

Shaffer was quoted as saying: "Our intent was to do an unusual picture in the horror vein, one that hopefully works on the accumulation of details, clues that point to the pagan beliefs of quite contemporary people. To a certain extent, you are meant to put it together for yourself. I feel you must leave something for your audience to do."

Hardy adds: "Although this is in the horror vein, the film was not a conventional horror film as we know them today. There is no blood in The Wicker Man, no torn flesh."

When, after several drafts, the screenplay for The Wicker Man was completed, Shaffer offered it to Peter Snell. At the same time he showed it to Christopher Lee, who read it and urged Snell to take it on: "Snell was so impressed with the story that he presented it to the Board of British Lion who were also enthusiastic and said, 'All right, we'll do it, provided that the budget be kept low.' And that was it," recalls Lee.

So it was that Robin Hardy was signed up to direct his first theatrical feature film. Hardy recalls that Snell was the "ideal producer, who trusted one completely, was supportive and non-interfering." He was also constantly needed back in London to run British Lion, so spent two thirds of the time on location. Snell most vividly remembers "spending many, many weeks riding the bloody sleeper up and down from London!"

The original film played for a long time in London on double bills, eventually moving to a single billing at the Odeon Haymarket in London's West End. Then, in April 1974, the film was entered in the Third Festival of Fantastic Films in Paris, where it won the Grand Prize.

However, this film making its way around the world was edited from Robin's initial vision, so after several years, he set out to find the missing footage. He quickly discovered that his original footage was missing from the British Lion vaults. But all was not lost, as Robin explains: "Through various circuitous channels, with the help of the original editor, we were able to obtain 93% of the film. Then the great Roger Corman came through for us. He'd kept the print we'd sent him and he'd only screened it once. So frame by frame we were able to restore the seven minutes that had been lost. That forms the Director's Cut DVD, which was released only about eight years ago."

Meanwhile Robin, with the help of a student group from Tulane University Media Department, set about distributing the film in the USA. Money was raised to finance the restoring of his Director's Cut. Christopher Lee and Robin took the film from city to city across America. Starting in San Francisco and covering every major city, cinemas were rented and wonderful reviews were bestowed by what Variety calls 'boffo business.'

It took a generation for the film to be recognized as a great work of art and more than 36 years later it is more popular than ever.

The music from The Wicker Man has been used and adapted by countless pop and folk groups. Several books have been written about The Wicker Man, and an annual music festival named after the film has taken place near Kirkcudbright in Scotland in recent years. The film is shown in a tent at each event and there are tours of some of the film's locations. The festivities end with the burning of a Wicker Man. The Burning Man Festival in America is said to have been partly inspired by The Wicker Man, as was the annual Beltane Fire Society Festival in Edinburgh.

A Word from Christopher Lee

Christopher Lee appears in a pivotal supporting role in The Wicker Tree. However for many fans of this veteran actor, (who has made almost 200 films on four continents and recently finished his first singing album), he's instantly recognized for his towering performance as Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man.

Lee himself believes that Lord Summerisle is one of his best roles and The Wicker Man certainly the best film in which he has appeared. He says: "It was terribly disappointing to have to pull out of the bigger role of Sir Lachlan Morrison, a laird who resembles the late Lord Summerisle in more ways than one. I had been looking forward to it for so long -- and was going to sing a great deal too."

Lee has been associated with the project for more than a decade, but an accident on set of another film stopped the 87-year old actor from making the trip to Scotland. Robin Hardy reworked the script to ensure he could appear in the film. He plays a mysterious stranger who talks about his philosophy that informs the pagans in the film to a young man. "It was important that Christopher should be in the film," said Hardy. "It's an association with the first film. His character in the new film is something out of the past. The audience either knows the previous film or knows exactly who he is, or they don't. I think, in the context that I have written it, it won't matter."

Christopher enjoyed being reunited with Hardy and producer Peter Snell: "It is very strange and something that could only happen in the film business. The Wicker Man has been shown all over the world and has become one of the best British films ever made, a true cult. Whenever anyone brings it up in conversation it is always the same: 'What a wonderful, wonderful film!'"

He continues, "Now we are all some thirty-six years older and it's somewhat miraculous that we are all still around and, from my point of view, marvelous to be back with them again, because it's almost as if we made The Wicker Man just a few months ago. I am devoted to the whole idea of appearing in The Wicker Tree. It's a very happy feeling because we know each other extremely well and consequently for me doing this scene has an association with enormous success."

Making the New Film

Robin successfully coaxed producer Peter Snell out of retirement and they joined forces with Peter Watson-Wood and his partner Alastair Gourlay to bring The Wicker Tree to the big screen. This was important to Robin in order to make the film that he felt was necessary to properly evoke the images and themes of the original film and also play upon the new ideas in his novel.

He says: "I've never been into the filmmaking infrastructure. What I write doesn't come across on the page to the average studio executive. So much is in the visuality and the music. What I do breaks the rules. In Hollywood, by the end of the first act, something major must happen. In my scripts, it doesn't. I like to slowly build dread and suspicion. It isn't until the end of the second act that you're certain that something awful is happening. You fear it -- but you don't know what 'it' is. It's not like whodunit but what the 'dunit' is going to be. The final act is, as Shakespeare would say, 'Horror on horror's head.'

"We have assembled a wonderful and exciting cast," says Robin, "And our great discovery was Brittania Nicol, who came over to the UK just a few short weeks before we saw her. She really stood out in the auditions -- her singing voice and range secured her this, her debut film role."

Nicol welcomed the opportunity to show off her remarkable vocal range: "Pop music has been a big part of Beth's life, but she rediscovers this pure voice, which is great fun; I got to sing country, pop, a Bach canticle, and folk."

Hardy continues: "Keith Easdale, our composer, talks about her voice's 'raw purity,' a quality you don't get with over-trained voices which can be too theatrical. It ranges from a pure and wonderful bluegrass hymn in the American church at the beginning through a Bach canticle -- and a raunchy pop song. We are very lucky to have her."

Robin Hardy asked the talented and versatile Scottish actor Graham McTavish to play the lead. He says: "I feel in some ways a great responsibility to Christopher Lee, to Robin and to the legacy of The Wicker Man. As someone who was inspired by that film, it's tremendously exciting and challenging to fill the shoes of Christopher Lee -- and I only hope I can do it. For an actor, Lachlan is a role you seize with both hands."

He describes Lachlan as: "In some people's eyes, the villain of the piece. He is a charismatic leader, a man who wants the best for his community and is adept at manipulating those around him. He's sincere but misguided."

Graham McTavish might have the best take on this new incarnation: "The Wicker Tree doesn't fit easily into a genre. It has music, dancing, comedy, a type of horror, drama. I am a huge fan of The Wicker Man and have seen it many times, most recently in my hotel room in Scotland while we were filming. I happened to turn on the television late at night and there it was. I thought I would watch the first five or ten minutes to remind myself of the sense of it, but I ended up watching the entire film again. I think it is extraordinary, one of the most disturbing films I've ever seen. It just manages -- and I hope this new film will do the same -- to instill a sense of unease."

Music

For The Wicker Man, composer Paul Giovanni believed that if the music was wrong, the whole film would become ludicrous. He and Hardy also feared that if they put in too much singing and dancing, despite carrying through the fact that a pagan society was full of music, the film would turn into a musical. The fact that the film's soundtrack is still played today is testament to how well they judged their audience.

Hardy was determined his new film should incorporate music into its very fiber as well noting that "what most people won't realize is that there are some twelve songs in The Wicker Tree and they're integral, propelling the story." Producer Peter Watson-Wood agrees: "The music forms the spine of the film. Robin skillfully weaves it into the film from the very beginning, hiring a very talented and imaginative composer, Keith Easdale, who even dons a kilt and performs on screen."

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