Over the weekend I watched "The Wicker Man."
It is both utterly awful and stunningly brilliant.
I will pull no punches. This film is terrible. The story is linear and predictable. It is yet another retelling of the common urban British fear that the yokels are up to no good. The protagonist is utterly unsympathetic and his actions make no sense. I must admit I am an American, but there is something incredible about an unarmed lawman going to the uttermost fringe of the nation without any backup or means to get help. Clearly I've watched too many westerns.
Christopher Lee is of course brilliant and I can understand why he cherished this movie. Certainly it was on his (posthumous) recommendation that I purchased it.
And this is where the movie is brilliant. It is the epitome, the ne plus ultra of late 60s/early 70s film making. The music alone is beyond parody. Christopher Lee actually appears in a lace and kilt ensemble that makes Austin Powers look tame.
If you watch this movie expecting it to be genuinely scary, suspenseful and – to put it bluntly – any good, you will be profoundly disappointed.
No, the proper way to watch this is with a group of friends who are heavily inebriated. Sing along with the songs! Laugh along with the locals!
Now it was my singular misfortune to watch this movie alone and stone sober, but had I been lit up, I would have enjoyed it every bit as Zardoz (which is also wonderful to watch while wasted).
Chateau Lloyd 
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