By John Walsh

Titan Books

The definitive guide to the making of the landmark horror movie The Wicker Man, lavishly illustrated and packed with insights into this classic chiller. 

With the beautiful, 50th anniversary 4K transfer of Robin Hardy’s cult classic The Wicker Man recently added to our media collections, what better time for the ubiquitous John Walsh to pen a ‘making of’ book?

The introduction included a quote by director Robin Hardy expressing his amazement that the movie is still being discussed 50 years later, and while I can’t subscribe to it being the ‘Citizen Kane of horror movies’, it has been remarkably successful and influential. Walsh takes full advantage of his access to the StudioCanal and Film Finance archives, bringing excellent stills to this book, reproduced here in high quality and frequently as double-page spreads.

After a discussion with writer David Pinner, whose novel Ritual is frequently cited as inspiration for the movie, there are chapters on wicker men in history, actors Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland – she’s fed up with signing photos of the bare bottom of the ‘Glaswegian stripper’ body double – Ingrid Pitt, writer Anthony Shaffer, designer Seamus Flannery and director Robin Hardy.

Further details and images follow about the construction of the titular wicker man itself, the shoot, music and the release. There’s also a very useful graphic showing how the three different cuts of the movie differ.

Verdict: Great work from Walsh, who fuses top-notch archive material with contemporary interviews, creating a worthy companion piece to the movie on its half-century anniversary. 9/10

Nick Joy

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