Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Majorthebys Charming and brutal

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Leofwine_draca ...and NOT in a good way. THE WICKER TREE is one of the most awful sequels in existence, a completely terrible movie made all the worse by the fact that THE WICKER MAN is one of the best British horror films in existence. I truly have no idea what Robin Hardy was thinking when he wrote and directed this; it looks like the man's talent left him many, many years ago.This time around, the action is set on the Scottish mainland, where a couple of American evangelists have turned up to preach their usual guff to the residents of a village. The American characters are one of the worst things about this; the acting is horrendous and they're saddled with the kind of goofy charm of an American PIE movie, not a supposed horror movie like this. They're completely at odds with the rest of the production.Elsewhere, the main thrust of the story of the first film is copied almost word for word, with a couple of (poor) twists to differentiate things. There's time for an extensive sub-plot to graphically portray what the "riding of the laddie" is all about, but I wonder why they bothered because it's hardly profound. Christopher Lee was meant to star in this but had to pull out due to ill health, with the reliable Graham McTavish (RAMBO) stepping in; Lee still appears but only in a brief greenscreen cameo. For once I'm glad he didn't appear for longer and debase himself with a leading role here.Former child actress Honeysuckle Weeks turns up, unrecognisably aged and forced to strip for the majority of her running time; you have to feel for her that things have come to this. But it's the tone of THE WICKER TREE that is so very, very wrong; that a sequel to one of the classics of British CINEMA, let alone the horror genre, made by the same writer/director of all people, should totally miss the mark and become this kind of mess. All you can do is shake your head and cry.

one-nine-eighty Somebody told me that "The Wicker Tree" is a spiritual sequel to "The Wicker Man"... I laughed in their faces!!! This film is an adaptation of the directors (Robin Hardy) own book "Cowboy for Christ". While the subject matter is similar enough for you to guess the way the plot unfolds and the eventual outcome there are enough changes to make this a film in it's own right. In fact to compare it directly to "The Wicker Man" feels as if I am doing a disservice. Two born again Christian's are sent on a evangelism/missionary journey to Scotland to save the heathens (in this case Pagans) who have forgot the word of Christ (comically when Scotland first appears in shot a subtitle advises that Scotland borders with England just in case the audience doesn't know.) While doing missionary work things go horribly wrong, they are set up as sacrifices by the local populous. One of the things that annoyed me is that not once do any of the stars (the American's) ask what is going on - or what is this random religious ritual you have signed me up to and what happens? If they had of asked it may have been made clear what was going to happen and they could have escaped... instead the "American's" just go ahead with everything which is suggested... "You will be the May Queen and you will be the Laddie"... "Ok Mr Scottish man, but what does that involve?"The setting is really nice albeit typical to a film which features Pagan themes. The acting for most part was slightly believable (apart from the cliché of the village idiots). I wondered if the Scottish accent was maybe too thick for some American audiences as a sex scene gets provided with Subtitles from Scottish to English (?!) - even subtitling some of the sexy groans/sounds :DA few things that annoyed me....The film was to quick to flirt between ideas and stories without delving in and exploring.Continuity was an issue.... in one scene our "Cowboy" goes from checked pants to stripy pants and then back again. Poor cover ups - during the subtitled Sex scene it was obvious the woman was naked but the man clearly had black pants on.The Pagan leader (MacTavish) is also the "Monty Burns" of the village. The waste from his factory has made most of the populous infertile. This wasn't explored enough so it's only briefly mentioned however this could have been the theme of sub plots and side stories. What annoyed me more than it not being explored was how the film quotes contemporary TV, i.e. the Simpsons, the film expects the audience has an understanding of the cartoon and all the characters... perhaps in this day and age everybody knows the animated cast but that doesn't mean it should be referenced as a way of describing a person/situation, this is cheap.One of the woman in the film, evidently cast as the village whore of the village, she has a sudden change of heart during the film trying to save the 'cowboy' from his demise. There is no clear motivation for this change of heart other than maybe she's fallen in love with him based on a brief encounter they shared. Prior to this change of heart she was a driving force behind the events of the village. Christopher Lee - I rented this film, on all the advertisements I read prior it was clearly stated that Christopher Lee was cast - don't get me wrong, he does appear. His appearance is for approximately one minute and is in the form of a flash back - he must have been laughing all the way to the bank for this role. I later discovered that perhaps his appearance was cut short due to health reasons however the marketing behind the film still wanted to make a big song and dance about Lee's appearance. Don't be fooled looking for him. Maybe MacTavish stepped into the role which was supposed to be for Christopher Lee - if so then he did a sterling job in fairness.Don't be confused to think this is a Horror, it's very short from that description. Instead of delving into themes within the film and exploring them the film is very light hearted and almost comical at times. Finally, the conclusion of the film sets up a situation for a sequel... please please please don't let this happen.

t_atzmueller This Film has been sitting on my shelf for almost two years, and I have been reluctant to watch it until a few days ago. The reason: The original "The Wicker Man" counts among my favorite films. Sure, occasionally I give the tepid Remake with Nicolas Cage a gander, just out of glee or what in German is called "Schadenfreude". But "The Wicker Tree" was the real deal, a sequel in spirit, filmed by the original director Robin Hardy and claiming a cameo appearance by Sir Christopher Lee.Even the hardened Fans must admit that "The Wicker Man" was a great film not because of Hardys skill as a director, but despite of them. "The Wicker Tree" was bad – not as in "so bad it is good", like the remake, but bad as in pointless. It is a virtual retelling of the original story without any of the elements that made the original great. The amazing music, the quirky characters, the foreboding atmosphere, last but not least the eroticism – none of it has made it into this film. Let's start off with the protagonists: where Officer Howie had a naivety about him that made his character amiable, we get two bible-thumbing trailer-trash bumpkins that are about as uncharismatic and non-likable as they come. Anybody who has ever travelled south of St. Louis will probably know that kind of people and will agree: these people are more annoying that Jehovah Witnesses on a field-trip. But director Hardy paints them so unsympathetic, it's almost embarrassing. One almost couldn't wait until they would cart them off to the Wicker Man (in this case a Wicker Tree) – and here comes the major letdown and spoiler: the "heroine" actually survives the movie.The second reason for watching "The Wicker Tree" despite low expectations and better knowledge was that I'm a devoted Sir Christopher Lee fan and a completist in that regard. Supposedly Sir Christopher's guest-role should have been a little longer but apparently ill health prevented that. The cameo lasts by my estimation a little less than a minute (I didn't time it though) and adds absolutely nothing to the story. To mind sprang Oliver Reeds cameo appearance in Ken Russells "Lisztomania" (Reed walks in through one door and Reed exits through another door).To summon up the review in two words: utter disappointment. A fellow reviewer has ended his report such: "Fans may be tempted to watch this based on their admiration for the original. Please don't." I can only add that I've watched "The Wicker Tree" based on my admiration for the original and can do nothing but pass on the warning.3/10

MBunge The worst thing about The Wicker Tree is that it's not even the worst attempt at exploiting the original horror classic. The remake of The Wicker Man starring Nicholas Cage is at least so awesomely point-and-laugh terrible that you can enjoy mocking it. This thing is merely another lame horror flick to throw on the ever-growing pile. Robin Hardy turns in a thoroughly pedestrian job as a director but came up with a stupid, shallow and simplistic script that works best as an unintentional love letter to Anthony Shaffer, writer of the first film. I hate to put it this way but The Wicker Tree looks, sounds and feels like the work of an old man who is well past his creative prime and no one had the decency to tell him. If this move had failed spectacularly, you could credit Hardy with perhaps trying to be bold and imaginative. As it is, it's hard to view this as anything more that a much delayed cash grab.Beth Boothby (Brittania Nicol) is a Christian country singer who, along with her cowboy fiancée Steve (Henry Garrett), travels from Texas to Scotland as a missionary to revive the faith of a small village. Let me stop right here and point something out because I think it gets at the heart of what's wrong with this film. Hardy was bright enough to realize that England has become such a religiously neutered society that he would have to go far afield to find representatives of Christianity to square off against the forces of paganism. However, he didn't bother to think about how that kind of cultural shift would affect anything else. Paganism in a post-Christian 21st century should not be at all the same thing as during the 1970s when church-going was still part of the established order of life in the UK.Let me draw an analogy. Organized crime still exists in America but is, by all accounts, a shell of what is once was. If you made a movie about the Mafia today which didn't acknowledge that reality, that portrayed the Mob as the same sort of pervasive and powerful force it was in the 70s or during Prohibition, you'd end up with a silly and contrived bit of nonsense. Tony Soprano could not be Michael Corleone. Yet, other than bringing in Yanks as his designated Christian victims, Hardy didn't put any thought at all into how the passing of time and cultural and economic changes would require re-imagining the Wicker Man story.The whole of The Wicker Tree is a constant reminder that Hardy didn't think things through when he wrote this screenplay. I mean, the original was set on an island that was physically cut off from civilization. That's the sort of detail that helps the viewer suspend disbelief and accept a pagan cult surviving in secrecy. The Wicker Tree not only takes place on the mainland, it's set in a village near a nuclear power plant. There's nothing isolated or secluded about such a location that would make avoiding public scrutiny easy. And while the original Wicker Man left open the question of what happens after the human sacrifice of a police officer and even hints that things aren't going to turn out well for the murderous cult, this flick ends with an epilogue that expects us to believe that not only can a minor celebrity vanish from a Scottish village with no one caring but that the gruesome death of the founder and leader of the cult would have absolutely no effect on anything. Oh, and it expects you to believe that a human being exposed to flame burns like gas-soaked tissue paper.Anyway, Beth and Steve arrive in Scotland. The pagan villagers want to kill them. They do. The end. Believe me, I put as much thought into those four sentences and Hardy did with this script.Topping it all is that while the original seemed like its pagan cult was at least based on some real and coherent religion, The evil faith in The Wicker Tree appears to be nothing more than horror movie tripe that Hardy just pulled out of his butt. I'm no expert and maybe it is drawn from historical truth, but it's presented so poorly and idiotically that it comes off like made up crap.Now, Honeysuckle Weeks does take her top off and there a good bit of nudity at the end but it is mostly of the real world nudist variety where you kind of wish the folks had kept their clothes on. There isn't anything that's even inadvertently worth seeing here. Watch the original. Watch the remake and turn its awfulness into a drinking game with your friends. Don't waste your time on The Wicker Tree.