'The Wicker Tree' DVD Review

An inferior but sporadically successful sequel to The Wicker Man.

Beth Boothby is an internationally renowned pop singer and born-again Christian from Texas who belongs to a missionary group seeking to spread their beliefs to the "heathens" of the world. She and her fiance Steve head to Scotland to spread the word, and making little progress going door to door in Glasgow, wealthy industrialist Lachlan Morrison and his wife Delia invite them to bring their message to heir small village of Tressock. The locals want the couple to head their annual pagan May Day celebration, but little do Beth and Steve know that the Scots have sinister plans for their naïve guests.

The Wicker Tree is best viewed as a companion piece to the classic 1973 film The Wicker Man -- it successfully captures many of the elements that made the original so enduring while avoiding many of the elements that made the 2006 remake so unintentionally campy -- rather than a sequel, because as a direct follow-up, it pales in comparison to the first movie. Still, thanks to the involvement of original director Robin Hardy (who both wrote and directed The Wicker Tree), it manages to recreate the psycho-sexual-darkly-comedic atmosphere while revisiting the Christianity-versus-paganism theme and even introducing the concepts of environmentalism and shifting allegiances within the ranks of the pagans. However, these intriguing plot points are never fully developed and simply wither and die, as does a subplot involving a local policeman investigating rumors of a nearby cult. Similarly underdeveloped is the cult's mythology and what exactly their rituals entail and symbolize. The surprisingly sloppiness of the script undermines what is otherwise an entertaining -- though thoroughly unsurprising, if you've seen the original -- return to this Wicker world.

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the distributor. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.