Burnt Offering: The Cult of the Wicker Man (2001) (TV)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Directors:

Andrew Abbott
Russell Leven

Writer:

Mark Kermode (writer)

Release Date:

29 December 2001 (UK)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

The cast and main players in the crew come together to discuss the making of cult British horror film The Wicker Man...

Cast

Roger Corman	...	Himself
Britt Ekland	...	Herself
Seamus Flannery	...	Himself
Robin Hardy	...	Himself
Mark Kermode	...	Himself
Christopher Lee	...	Himself
Ingrid Pitt	...	Herself
Anthony Shaffer	...	Himself
Peter Snell	...	Himself
Edward Woodward	...	Himself

Runtime:

UK:50 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Anwoth, Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland, UK

Company:

Nobles Gate

Great collection of little stories and memories presented in a well structured film

The cast and main players in the crew come together to discuss the making of cult British horror film The Wicker Man. They discuss the adaptation of the source material, the casting process and the difficult shoot which dealt with everything from a summer film being shot in late autumn and the troubles of the actual wicker man itself.

Everyone knows the film The Wicker Man, even people who haven't seen it will often still be aware of the iconic ending. I have seen it several times but, until I saw this documentary, I was not really aware of the stories behind the making and releasing of the film. In terms of the casting process the film skims over the who's and whys of the process before getting into the more interesting shoot.

Each person has a story to tell. Some of the cast have stories that the others contest (eg Woodward's tale of revolving apple trees) but they are all interesting. The weather hampers the shoot and it is to the cinematographer's credit that he never really lets the audience see that the film was made in dark, overcast conditions! The most interesting tale of on set fighting comes from Ekland who is clearly still angry that the producer's used a body double without her knowledge - not only angry at that, but angry over the fact that the double has a `much bigger ass than me'!

The tales of studio power games are a lot more interesting than they would sound if I described them. Head of the studio at the time Deeley comes in for attack from all sides - to the point that he calls Lee `paranoid' for suggesting that Deeley either destroyed or hid the extra negatives for the longer version of the film. Attempts at the end of the film to look at the wider influence of the film on festivals etc is time wasted, but happily this is only a few minutes long.

Overall this is a good documentary (as indeed most of those featuring Kermode seem to be) It gets the cast together with plenty of good stories and also brings everything out in an interesting manner. So many `making of' films are dull and full of smiling talking heads doing publicity work that it is always nice to hear little stories or memories from shoots no matter what film it is! Should be seen by all fans of the film.