The Wicker Man: The disturbing cult British classic that can't be defined

The Wicker Man: The disturbing cult British classic that can't be defined Alamy Crime thriller, disturbing fantasy, or folk horror – the 1973 cult hit The Wicker Man refuses categorisation. "It changed music, art and film," wrote British Film Institute curator William Fowler in a 2013 appreciation Why I Love The Wicker Man. The finale sees Howie trapped – while dressed as the violent "Fool" figure Punch – then burned to death inside a towering wicker man figure as a human sacrifice to pagan harvest gods. Alamy When he discovers that the missing girl didn't exist, Howie is burnt alive as a human sacrifice The Wicker Man can also be watched as a challenge to orthodox religion – not least when Lord Summerisle defends his pagan ethos by wryly questioning Howie's Christian worship of "the son of a virgin impregnated by a ghost".