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Grimmfest 2024 – Children Of The Wicker Man ★★★★

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Released: TBC (Grimmfest 2024)

Director: Justin Hardy

Reviewed By: Christina Brennan

2023 marked the 50th anniversary of the release of Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man. The same year, a new documentary called Children of The Wicker Man, directed by Robin’s son Justin Hardy, began premiering at international genre film festivals. Fans of the original folk horror film may have rightly wondered whether there was anything new to say about The Wicker Man’s legacy and its production history. Earlier documentaries, including Burnt Offering: The Cult of the Wicker Man (2001), have extensively covered the backstory behind Hardy’s cult classic in great detail. However, following Hardy’s death in 2016, this highly personal documentary by two of Hardy’s sons, Justin and Dominic Hardy, illuminates another aspect of the Wicker Man’s legacy interwoven with memories of loss and tragedy for the Hardy family.

Fans of The Wicker Man will be familiar with its production history. Its distributor, British Lion, failed to promote the film in the immediate years following its release. It sunk into initial obscurity until 1977, when the American film magazine Cinefantastique bought it out of anonymity again, calling it “the Citizen Kane of horror movies.” Children of the Wicker Man relates this story well through a convincing range of interviewees, including pivotal crew and production team members, such as producer Peter Snell, balanced by takes from BFI film experts Vic Pratt and William Fowler.

Children of the Wicker Man is strengthened by access to newly unearthed correspondence between Robin Hardy, actor Christopher Lee, and writer Anthony Shaffer. This correspondence captures the process behind Schaffer’s drafting of the cinematic screenplay from David Pinner’s Ritual after he and Christopher Lee obtained the film rights. Fruitless meetings with numerous distributors eventually led to an agreement with the famously reluctant British Lion, who would subsequently try to bring film production to a halt in the middle of its filming schedule.

This focus on The Wicker Man‘s backstory does not set Children of the Wicker Man apart from other documentaries. Other features, including The Cult of the Wicker Man (2001), have shared similar trivia from the production. Instead, the documentary’s original angle is its poignant look at the personal circumstances behind Hardy’s film. Far from being immediately thrust into the spotlight of success, The Wicker Man was personally and financially disastrous for the Hardy family. We learn that Justin’s mother, Caroline, invested most of her assets into The Wicker Man, which were never recovered after the film failed to make an immediate profit. Hardy repaid her generosity by abandoning her and his children.

The documentary offers an honest and much-needed reappraisal of Hardy’s reputation. It also keenly dissects the reverence that film circles have for directors like Hardy. Directors of high-profile films are often celebrated as creative ‘auteurs’ who are the sole engines of their work’s success. Instead, Justin and Dominic Hardy do not hesitate to share how The Wicker Man’s success story arose out of multiple people’s efforts. They examine how his successes were sometimes Hardy’s own work but often the investment of family and professional connections. After leaving Caroline, Justin’s mother, Robin Hardy, found the patronage of another wealthy heiress in San Francisco who sought to revive the reputation of The Wicker Man.

This type of good fortune characterised Hardy’s professional life. However, audiences gain a clear sense that The Wicker Man is bound up in a succession of personal losses for Justin and Dominic. In addition to revisiting filming locations, the Hardy brothers revisit their former childhood homes, including Justin’s home, which his father and mother were forced to abandon due to financial difficulties after The Wicker Man failed to make a profit upon its immediate release. Children of the Wicker Man is a moving study of the hard risks and realities of independent filmmaking.

The central question underpinning Children of the Wicker Man is whether art is worth personal loss and sacrifice. Justin and Dominic Hardy do not shy away from these painful questions. An especially moving moment is when they sit down together to read letters that their father wrote to them when he believed he was going to die, with the men obviously, and painfully, delighted by their father’s love and approval (despite their exasperation expressed throughout the rest of the film). Their exploration sees them develop a respect for the legacy of The Wicker Man despite them detailing the quietly devastating impact it had on their lives and childhoods. This documentary is a must-see for all fans of The Wicker Man and viewers walk away with the new, more realistic perspective on one of the most recognisable British horror films.

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