The Wicker Man: Difference between revisions

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[[File:wickerman.jpg|frame|[[Iron Maiden|Your time will come, your time will come...]]]]

Two films. There are tropes for both on this page. Robin Hardy's original film was made in 1973 with [[Christopher Lee]] as Lord Summerisle. It's a sort of suspense/horror/folk musical. Neil LaBute remade it in 2006 with [[Nicolas Cage]].

To sum it up it in the nicest terms possible: The original is generally considered to be an influential [[Cult Classic]] within the horror film genre, and the remake is mostly viewed as inferior, and is probably better remembered for its moments of [[Narm|unintentional funniness]] than for being scary.

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* [[The Bad Guy Wins]]: Though thanks to Howie's final speech, only till the apple harvest fails again. If you look at it that way, (see [[Taking You with Me]] further down) you could arguably say that Howie was the real winner.

* [[Batman Gambit]]

* [[Better by a Different Name]]: Because of [[Christopher Lee]], Ingrid Pitt and [[Fan Service|Willow]] some like to name this "The greatest [[Hammer Horror]] that wasn't made by the Hammer Studio.

* [[Bonnie Scotland]]

* [[But I Would Really Enjoy It]]: Howie doesn't believe in sex before marriage, and is therefore still a virgin in middle age. Willow does her best to seduce him {{spoiler|and fails, though Howie is literally trembling with desire.}}

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* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Lord Summerisle quite often.

* [[Death by Sex]]: Inverted, {{spoiler|the pious virgin is killed, and losing his virginity just might have made him an unacceptable sacrifice.}}

* [[Deliberate Values Dissonance]]: Lion's share of the movie's creepiness comprises of this.

* [[Doomed Moral Victor]]

* [[Double Entendre]]: The song Willow sings to seduce Howie is almost nothing but these.

{{quote|''How a maid can milk a bull!.... And every stroke a bucket full."}}

** Milk a ''bull''? There's really only one way to take that.

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* [[Faceless Goons]]: "Take those masks off!"

* [[Fake Nationality]]: None of the four leads are Scottish.

* [[Fan Service]]: Would you like to watch Britt Ekland [http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xfv73j_britt-ekland-naked-in-the-wicker-man_sexy dance naked?]

* [[A Fete Worse Than Death]]

* [[Filk Song]]: [[Bruce Dickinson]]'s "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGRi3RQ-_gU Wicker Man]" ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZkAQoa1plM&ob=av2e the one] he co-wrote after rejoining [[Iron Maiden]] - quoted in the caption above - [[Word Salad Lyrics|less so]])

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* [[Intercourse with You]]: ''[[Fan Service|Heyyy, hoooo, who is there?...]]''

* [["I Want" Song]]: Most of the songs, except the hero's song, which is the 23rd Psalm, starting "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."

* [[Jerkass]]: Lord Summerisle, the island inhabitants, and some of Howie's co-workers from the original version's beginning. Despite his [[Affably Evil|affability]], Lord Summerisle probably reigns supreme in this category; as the co-workers are minor, the inhabitants genuinely devout, and Howie at least genuinely wants to do the right thing. Summerisle has no real excuse.

* [[A Man Is Not a Virgin]]: Subverted (in the original, but not the remake), using the audiences' expectations against them.

* [[Looping Lines]]: Britt Ekland could never master a Scots accent, so they just dubbed over her, and they did a very good job of it.

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* [[No Except Yes]]: {{spoiler|"Now you can wrap it up any way you like, but you are about to commit ''murder.''"}}

* [[Nothing Is Scarier]]: There are no real "scares" to speak of, no monsters...the town and its inhabitants are just really, really creepy.

* [[Nude Nature Dance]]: Towards the middle, Christopher Lee sees a group of young women dancing around a fire, nude.

* [[Oh Crap]]: This is one of the few films where the main character can shout "Oh Jesus Christ!" and have it come across as a true, in-character [[Oh Crap]] moment.

* [[Peek-a-Boo Corpse]]: But it's in a coffin.

* [[Punctuated ~~for~~ Emphasis]]: "THEY. WILL. NOT. FAIL."

* [[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!]]: "THEY. WILL. NOT. FAIL."

* [[The Radio Dies First]]

* [[Religious Horror]]

* [[Scenery Porn]]

* [[The Scream]]: "[[Big No|NO!]] For the love of God, THINK WHAT YOU'RE DOING!"

* [[Sex Is Evil]]: Well, on Summerisle it is.

* [[Shown Their Work]]

* [[Smug Snake]]: MacGregor the innkeeper. What a loathsome creature he is.

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**** Perhaps it means {{spoiler|Howie came to the island of his own free will.}}

* [[X Meets Y]]: ''[[Arthur Machen|The White People]]'' meets ''The Lottery''

* [[You're Insane!]] / [[Only Sane Man]]: "You're all raving mad!"

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* [[Everything's Worse with Bears]]: The infamous bear suit Cage dons in a scene.

* [[Everything's Worse with Bees]]: '''[[Memetic Mutation|NOT THE BEES!!!]]'''

* [[Gender Flip]]: Lord Summerisle was rewritten as Sister Summerisle

* [[In Name Only]]: Robin Hardy's attitude toward the remake.

* [[Lady Land]]: The island.