This essay will explore the (1973) film the Wickerman and how it could be

analysed under Freud’s theory of the uncanny in terms of the tone and the
way the island presents itself in relation to the man character, Sergeant
Howie. It will use Adam Smiths The Wickerman to support the comparison
between Sergeant Howie’s appearance at the start of the film and how the
contrast of the two helps create an uncanny feeling between him and the
island, it will also support along with Dontao Totaro’s Constructing the
Wickerman how the strong Christian beliefs of Howie and the pagan beliefs
of the islanders contract against each other in terms of creating the
uncanny. Lastly it will look at how the characters and their behaviours play
off compared with Sergeant Howie, supported by Vic Pratt’s Long arm of
the lore: Robin Hardy on The Wicker Man and how the audiences
relationship to him plays against their perception of the islanders in tern.

The Wickerman is a (1973) film directed by Robin Hardy and is based Fig 01, Wicker Man, (1973)
around Sergeant Howie, a police officer who goes to the small island of
Summerisle to investigate a disappearance, only to become enveloped within
the islands strange traditions. The film holds a lot of themes that could relate to Freud’s theory of
the uncanny, which can be defined as where “the images on screen are both familiar and
somehow strange, alive and yet lifeless, real but illusory.” (Guardian, 2001) the film can arguably
present this through the islands familiar and yet strange appearance, mixing the familiar
appearance of an old English town with ancient traditions and storage attitude and beliefs from
the locals, arguably escalated more by the protagonist Sergeant Howie, who’s familiar attitudes
and religious beliefs can relate more to the audience and
therefore make them appear even stranger, as the audience
relates to him more and therefore finds the islanders more
alien as the film progresses. The film achieves this in small,
mundane ways making the feeling of the uncanny more
prominent as the film goes, with the characters being set up
in their first apprentices as normal compared to Sergeant
Howie, but slowly getting stranger as we the audience meet
them again and again through the film “Children dance
round maypoles while the schoolteacher lectures on its
phallic significance; sore throats are cured by holding toads
in the mouth” (Smith, 2000).

Fig 02, The Wicker Man (1973) The usage of religion can also be argued to play into this, as contrasted against
Howie’s Christianity, shown at the begging of the film with him in a church and
his preachings of Jesus throughout the film, we the audience are arguably meant
to side with Christianity as the sane, logical answer compared to the ancient pagan religion of the
islanders. This can be seen through the uncanny way they use their religion in everyday life, from
using a frog to cure a sore throat or the phallic appearance of the totem pole, to them the acts
appear natural and part of their believes but compared to Christianity, a widely accepted religion
with its own set of rules and ideas the islanders appear slightly strange and odd, despite that
Christianity in its self has its own set of strange rules and attitudes that go un questioned by its
followers. The contrast of the two help emphasis the uncanny beliefs of the islanders while also
arguably the strange nature of religion as a whole as
Howie’s preaching about Jesus and the indecent
appearance of the naked women jumping around the
fire “Peter Schaffer's depiction of these elements as
part of a living religion based upon fertility and
sensuality, as opposed to the repression of
Christianity” (Smith, 2000) to some might appear
normal to most who agree with his beliefs, but out to
someone else might appear repressive and as strange
as the islanders behaviours, so the film can also
arguably make the two religions feel uncanny in their
own way, “what makes the uncanny apply so well to
The Wicker Man is that the original object of the
uncanny need not be frightening to be upsetting, but
 just an infantile wish, or infantile belief.” (Totaro, 2006)

The islanders themselves also can be argued to be seen with

Figure 03, Why I love ... The Wicker Man, (2015)
the uncanny and in the film they take on recognisable figures
in a small town, such as a teacher, innkeepers daughter or a
shop keeper that therefore come with their own perceived attitudes and roles within the film and
twists them slightly to unsettle the audience, with the innkeepers daughter using her charm to
sleep with Howie and dancing around her room naked while the teacher talks openly about
penises to her young, female students without any laughs or embarrassment from the students,
making the situation feel uneasy and unfamiliar to the audience, “Perhaps it all seems so real
because the ‘old ways’ sit like vivid fissures in the surface of modernity. In the sweet shop, sugar
hares sit beneath Emu erasers, next to Sherbet
Fountains; in the inn” (Pratt, 2016). The characters
themselves help solidify the religion of the island and
make it feel more serious and unsettling, to the point
where the sun god preachings from Lord Summerisle
about the lack of crops to the island at the end of the
film could be argued to come with a feeling of unease
and tension that builds as Howie tries to unwrap the
event to his own demise, contrasted against the
beginning when the small confections of hares and
animal at the begging were met with confusion by both
Howie and the audience.

Figure 04, Why I love ... The Wicker Man, (2015)In conclusion, the film could be argued to use Howie to
convey the uncanny nature of the island by comparing his
beliefs and behaviour of which the audience can relate to the
slightly off putting behaviour of the islanders, emphasising the uncanny feeling of the island and
making it therefore appear stranger than it would be if Howie wasn’t there, his appearance stops
the audience from relating to the islanders and instead cases them to be offset by them and stick
closer to Howie and his Christian beliefs.

 Illustrative Bibliography

Fig 01, Wicker Man, (1973), [Film Poster], URL:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070917/,

(Accessed: 14/05/19)

Fig 02, The Wicker Man (1973), [Online Image], URL:http://www.ferdyonfilms.com/

2009/the-wicker-man-1973/501/, (Accessed: 14/05/19)

Fig 03, Why I love ... The Wicker Man, (2015), [Online Image], URL:https://
www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/why-i-love-wicker-man, (Accessed:
14/05/19)

Fig 04, Why I love ... The Wicker Man, (2015), [Online Image], URL:https://
www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/why-i-love-wicker-man, (Accessed:
14/05/19)

Bibliography

D, Totaro, (2006), Constructing the Wicker Man, URL:https://offscreen.com/view/

wicker_man, (Accessed: 14/05/19)

V, Pratt, (2016), Long arm of the lore: Robin Hardy on The Wicker Man, URL:https://
www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/long-arm-lore-robin-
hardy-wicker-man, (Accessed: 14/05/19)

A, Smith, (2000), The Wickerman, URL:

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/empire-essay-wicker-man/review/, (Accessed:
14/05/19)