31 Horror Movies in 31 Days: The Wicker Man

The Wicker Man (1973)

Directed by Robin Hardy

Staring Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt, and Christopher Lee

            A young girl goes missing in a sleepy island village in Scotland.  Their request for help brings Police Sergeant Howie to investigate.  What the Sergent soon realizes is that this village is not quite normal.  The townsfolk seem to practice an old pagan religion, tying their hopes for good crops to the old ways.  Howie, a devout Christian, is mortified at this.  He also cannot get any help finding the missing girl.  No one will give him good information and even her family is not cooperating.  The deeper he goes into this case, the harder it will be for Howie to walk away.  Soon, even he will have to answer to the old gods and confront the Wicker Man. 

            The ultimate movie about a killer town, The Wicker Man has not aged all that well.  The general tone and a lot of the scenes really do work at unnerving you.  But, there are some scenes that are just awkwardly funny by today’s standards.  The part in the very begging where the whole town sings and fornicates in unison was probably supposed to creep out viewers.  Now, it is so out of place and pretty hilarious.  That does not mean that every scene is a laugh riot.  Most of the movie works as it should.  The scene where Howie confronts a classroom of small children about their beliefs is quite unsettling.  And of course, the finale of the film with Howie meeting the titular Wicker Man is chilling.  The story is meant to scare by showcasing the alien nature of this town, but now it comes off as uneven storytelling. 

Also, the acting is fine for the most part.  The real stand outs are Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee.  Woodward sells Howie’s convictions as a Christian man and his horror as a stranger in a pagan land.  And Christopher Lee could make anything creepy if you gave him a few minutes of screen time, so his Lord Summerisle is excellent. 

            It is a classic, but questionably so.  The scares still hold some power, but some of them are only powerfully funny.  At least it is not the Nicholas Cage remake.  But then again, so many movies are not the Nicholas Cage Wicker Man.  Watch this for an education in horror film history, but do not expect greatness. 

6 out of 10

31 Horror Movies in 31 Days: Silent Hill

Silent Hill (2006)

Directed by Christophe Gans

Staring Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean, Laurie Holden, and Deborah Kara Unger

            There are some towns that are naturally more dangerous than others.  People behave with hostility toward strangers.  You do not go out after dark for fear of what might happen.  Ash is falling from the sky.  Silent Hill is that kind of town.  You do not need to have played the games to know what is going on, but it would help.  All you really need to know is that Silent Hill is like any other dying, bad town.  Instead of an increase in crime or drug use, there is giant pyramid headed man chasing people with a big knife.  That makes Silent Hill far more interesting than the typical rustbelt burg.

            It starts with a little girl named Sharon.  She has frequent night terrors and sleep walking fits, always while saying the name “Silent Hill”.  Her adopted parents are worried for her well being.  So, her adoptive mother Rose (Mitchell) decides to take Sharon to the place of her problems.  It turns out Silent Hill is an old coal town exactly like Centralia, PA.  A mysterious accident started a coal fire underground and caused a mass evacuation of the town.  As soon as the two drive into Silent Hill, they get into a car accident when Rose swerves out of the way of a ghostly image of her adoptive daughter.  Rose loses Sharon and has to search Silent Hill for clues to her whereabouts and her past.  But there is a lot more wrong with this situation.  The streets look like they have been abandoned for years and ash keeps falling from the sky.  And then the creatures start to show up; twisted versions of people and children intent on tearing, slashing, and melting anyone in their way.  Rose has to search for Sharon while avoiding monsters, dealing with a doomsday cult hold up in a church, and find out why the apparition looks like Sharon.  And she has to find shelter when darkness comes, because that is when things get hellish.

            It takes all of twenty minutes before seeing the best part of Silent Hill, its visuals.  The town looks derelict and dangerous all in one shot.  And when the darkness turns into the hell dimension, every surface peels and burns like dry paper.  The whole world takes on a certain rusty hue and an industrial look.  It is a great effect that makes for a more intimidating environment.  The creature effects are also excellent.  Faceless, scalpel wielding nurses look terrifying and quite surreal.  The aforementioned pyramid head looks like the twisted, rejected artwork of an Iron Maiden album cover come to life.  But the real winner is the final sequence involving a whole mess of barbed wire coming to life and eviscerating a church full of people.  It is disgusting, brutal, and exquisitely done CGI. 

            The script could have benefited from another draft.  While the dialogue is fine, it’s the tendency towards exposition that really slows things down.  An action scene or moment of fright is occasionally followed by a scene where two characters have a conversation that reveals large bits of crucial back story.  These conversations can last for what seems like forever as they go through the history of Silent Hill, who the little girl is, and where the source of all evil is located.  Everything said during these moments is necessary to the story; it just could have been delivered in a less clunky way. 

            As far as video game movies go, Silent Hill is by far one of the best.  While it does not get everything right, the movie manages to distill the core themes of the games and its art design cohesively into a decent story.  Silent Hill is scary, fascinating, and beautiful in a decayed way. 

8 out of 10