New movie reviews, DVD reviews, interviews, and all things film.

Follow Me

• Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
• Safe House ***
• The Vow **1/2
• The Innkeepers ***1/2
• The Woman in Black ***
• The Grey ***
• Man on a Ledge ***
• Underworld Awakening **
• Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos ***
• Haywire ***
• Beauty and the Beast ****
• Contraband ***
• The Divide *
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ****
• The Devil Inside **
• The Iron Lady **
• A Separation ***
• Pariah ***1/2
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close ***
• The Darkest Hour **
• More

• Anonymous
• Essential Killing
• Lady and the Tramp
• La Jetée
• Sans Soleil
• Story of a Love Affair
• 3
• A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas
• 2011: The Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays
• More

• 2011: The Year's Best Films
• Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays
• San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards
• Interview: Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender
• Interview: Simon Curtis
• Interview: Werner Herzog
• Interview: John Cho
• Interview: Roland Emmerich
• Interview: Stephen Bishop on Moneyball
• Interview: Nick Swardson
• Interview: Lynn Hershman Leeson
• Interview: Lone Scherfig
• Interview: Jesse Eisenberg & Aziz Ansari
• Interview: Wayne Wang
• Interview: Andre Ovredal on 'Trollhunter'
• Interview: Ewan McGregor & Mike Mills
• Interview: Kelly Reichardt (Examiner link)
• The 54th San Francisco International Film Festival - 2011 Coverage
• Interview: Emma Roberts
• Rainn Wilson & James Gunn (Examiner link)
• Interview: Tom McCarthy
• Interview: Abigail Breslin (Examiner link)
• 2010: The Year's Best Films
• 2010: The Year's Best DVDs & Blu-Rays
• Interview: Sofia Coppola
• Interview: George A. Romero
• The Decade's Ten Best Films: 2000-2009
• My Top 100 Films [Updated]
• My Top 60 Directors [Updated]
• Christmas Movies
• Essential Halloween & Horror Movies
• Cult Movies
• Actress Interview Gallery
• More Features and Interviews

• Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, by Alonso Duralde
• Not Quite a Memoir: Of Films, Books, the World, by Judy Stone
• James Agee: The Library of America Collection, by James Agee
• Just Making Movies, by Ronald L. Davis
• More Books

• Home
• Reviews A-C
• Reviews D-F
• Reviews G-J
• Reviews K-M
• Reviews N-Q
• Reviews R-T
• Reviews U-Z

The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

SEARCH MOVIES / CELEB

The Wicker Man (1973)

Rating: 4 Stars (out of 4)

Island Girls

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy The Wicker Man on DVD

Robin Hardy's and Anthony Shaffer's horror film recently made the BBC's list of the 100 greatest British films ever made. Edward Woodward plays a puritan cop who arrives on a remote island to investigate the disappearance of a young girl, but the townspeople seem to know nothing about it. Christopher Lee appears as the mastermind behind it all. Hardy made his directorial debut with a sure, curious touch, and Shaffer -- the twin brother of Peter (Amadeus) Shaffer -- crafts a brilliant screenplay, unfolding in perfectly sculpted waves and including fascinating subtexts. Though Anchor Bay's DVD looks great and comes with an interesting making-of featurette, it still doesn't provide the elusive full-length version running 102 minutes. This is the edited 88-minute version originally released in the U.S. Anchor Bay has also released a 99-minute "Limited Edition" that still isn't quite complete, but closer.

Starring: Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland, Christopher Lee, Ingrid Pitt, Diane Cilento
Written by: Anthony Shaffer
Directed by: Robin Hardy
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 88/102 minutes
Date: October, 2001