The Wicker Tree (2010)

This long awaited sequel (which hits DVD and Blu-ray stateside this coming Tuesday) to the 1973 cult classic The Wicker Man sees Robin Hardy return to the director’s chair as he adapts his own novel Cowboys for Christ.

There’s no denying that The Wicker Man is a weird film, so I was expecting this to be weird. I was not however expecting it to be so awful.

Newcomer Brittania Nicol stars (if you could call it that) as the terribly named Beth Boothby, a born again Christian and singing sensation who used to be akin to the likes of Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan before she found God. After belting out her back catalogue, Beth and her beau Steve set off from America to come to Scotland to preach the God Lord’s gospel to the local heathens (and let’s face it – there are plenty of us). The pair arrives in Tressock and agrees to partake in a local celebration unaware that they may be in grave danger.

I don’t mean to be rude but this was garbage. Robin Hardy has obviously been allowed to make the film the way he wanted to which is great and I did like Jan Pester’s cinematography as well as a few of the performances from the more recognisable cast members, but the leads were awful - outdoing even Dick Van Dyke’s mockney accent in Mary Poppins.

The other thing which really annoyed me was the soundtrack. It was hardly the calibre of The Landlord’s Daughter!

OVERALL SUMMARY
If you stick with it Brittania Nicol redeems herself but the whole thing descends into farce and by that point I’d have quite happily re-watched Nic Cage’s shitty remake of the original film again and that’s something I never thought I’d admit to.