Viewed – 15 October 2013  Blu-ray

The Final Cut

When many people discuss favourite all time horror movies, often this much admired 1973 cult classic gets a mention.  Edward Woodward plays a Police Sergeant following up a mysterious letter about a teenage girl going missing on a remote Scottish island.  On arriving at the island that seems to have a close-knit community, overseen by the wealthy Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee) – Woodward begins to suspect there’s more to the case than meets the eye.

I have always wanted to see this, being a long time horror enthusiast, and often try to seek out those old classics that you keep hearing so much about.  Edward Woodward is a fine actor but is wasted here, given little to do than look relatively sane amongst a cast of oddballs.  Christopher Lee offers up an imposing, charming performance, that’s creepy but so unashamedly mad, it comes off more pantomime than scary.  Britt Ekland is clearly meant to be some sort of seductress, but with a Scots accent that was dubbed by another actress, and even a body double for her famously bizarre nude dance, she barely made an impact.  Director Robin Hardy’s movie is meant as an exploration of strange religious beliefs, pagan rituals and isolated communities – which might have been fascinating if it wasn’t for such amateurish production values, and only passable acting, leaving this viewer puzzled as to the movie’s almost-universal acclaim.  A twist towards the end was interesting, and I did find the final reveal of the enormous Wicker Man disturbing – but that was at the end – everything else was borderline laughable.  And really, what was all that singing about?

This recently released 40th Anniversary Blu-ray holds 3 cuts of the movie, and although I haven’t sat through the other versions (I may take a look) this Final Cut is meant to be the most complete, fully restored version.  Which is disappointing when presented with an often poor image quality that occasionally looked like an 8mm home movie, and a serviceable but sometimes muffled soundtrack in basic 2 channel stereo.  I have seen movies older than this that look way better, but then again it could all be down to how well preserved the original negative was, and the low-budget of the movie itself.  Fans will be happy to find a wealth of extras, including a documentary called ‘burnt offerings’ featuring and written by critic Mark Kermode, exploring the movie’s troubled treatment by the distributors.  Add to this a commentary on the director’s cut, a restoration comparison (apparently the movie can look even worse!) and the soundtrack on CD (oh dear…) and this remains a flawed but bumper package.

Verdict:

(the movie):  2 /5

(the Blu-ray):  3 /5

Related articles

• The Wicker Man – The Final Cut Review (thepeoplesmovies.com)
• A cult horror classic revisited (hispanicbusiness.com)
• The Wicker Man – review (theguardian.com)
• Robin Hardy’s interview following The Wicker Man: The Final Cut on Sept 17th (neilmcglone.wordpress.com)