A deeply religious people

You should be reading a proper process post, but we’re months away from when I last sat down and watched ‘The Wicker Man’, so my memory is a bit hazy on the whole affair. The Nic Cage remake had me laughing on the floor for a good 10 minutes; the original, 1973 classic from Robin Hardy (which this is about) stuck to such a degree that the last dream I can remember having involved me and these two asking a parade of mask-wearing pagans if they’d seen a girl named Rowan Morrison.

Yeah.

Instead, I’ve unearthed a few scraps that go a long way towards explaining just what’s going on under the hood in this poster. It’s hard not to be conscious of the fact that the last 40 years of imagery advertising this film has been, for the most part, centered around the large, burning effigy referenced in the title. And with that, recognizing that people become deeply attached to the familiar. Rocking that boat without a modest explanation is usually a recipe for, at best, a misunderstanding of intentions. At worst, people call you names on the internet. I’m hoping to avoid some of the former.

Below is an excerpt from an email I’d sent to a friend, which sums up best what I was aiming to do. A lot of those early thoughts were worked out in a sketch which, what do you know, is also below.

As for Wicker Man, the poster pulls from a lot of different places, but the main thrust plays off of the Christian story of the serpent offering an apple from the tree of knowledge and the consequences that come from taking that deceptive offering. It felt like it synched up with so much that was going on throughout the film. Howie is a devout Christian who, after being deceived and learning the truth about Summerisle, finds himself cast out of the world, alone in a burning effigy, crying out for God. The island of Summerisle is famous for it’s apples, stemming from an earthy crunchy set of beliefs. That society is ultimately rotten, however, given the foundations that it’s based on. The fish mask on the snake is a nod to the final act of the film which, well…is more than a little bizarre.

UK Quad screenprint. On sale tomorrow from FrightFest Originals.