The Wicker Tree (Blu-ray)

39 years ago, Robin Hardy cranked out one of the most influential and stunning horror films that have ever come out of the UK. A stunningly crafted, gritty piece of terror, The Wicker Man spent 80 minutes creating an uncomfortable atmosphere of dread before kicking your legs out from under you with its now infamous finale – in the process making potential holidaymakers shit themselves at the idea of going to Scotland.

After a ton of other horror films (and a pretty horrendous remake) have threatened to drown out the memory of Robin Hardy's classic, it should come as a delight that the man himself decided to turn his little idea into a trilogy of loosely tied films revolving around paganism in Scotland, continuing his trilogy with The Wicker Tree.

The Wicker Tree sees a pair of evangelical Texans heading to the bonnie old Scotland to spread the word of the Lord before they head home to get hitched. Welcomed to a sleepy village with open arms, they're taken in by the local nobility and de-facto ruler before things eventually go sour and they find themselves being offered up to the sun god as a pair of human sacrifices.

Despite not being seen as a remake or a fully-fledged sequel, The Wicker Tree plays out like a half arsed retread. Even featuring Sir Christopher Lee popping up as the mysteriously credited "Old Gentleman” to give the film some clout, The Wicker Tree lacks everything that made The Wicker Man such a classic. Gone is the grittiness, gone is the foreboding dread-drenched atmosphere and instead it simply plays out for three-quarters of the runtime like a long, dull episode of Emmerdale before the locals strike and the film finally steps into horror territory. Despite a solid enough finale, The Wicker Tree lacks the punch of its predecessor and stands as an ultimately unnecessary sequel that does the original's legacy more harm than good.

In terms of the high definition transfer, it's nice and clean though none too sharp other than during close ups. The colour palette is generally nice and vibrant while the dark colours remain clear too. In terms of audio, things are again pretty good. However, the track is hardly stretched until the finale, when all the screaming starts. As for the rest of the disc, you get a ‘Making of' featurette, a bunch of ridiculously dull deleted scenes and a trailer that makes the film look as if it's going to be scarier than The Exorcist on speed. In all, it's a pretty crap disc for a film that's not only bad in its own right, but made worse on account of the further damage it's done to The Wicker Man name. We can almost forgive the Nic Cage remake...almost.

Special Features:
‘Making of' documentary
Deleted scenes
Trailer

Reviewer: Jordan Brown