Behind the Couch

2013 marks the 40th anniversary of the The Wicker Man's original release. In celebration of this, and continuing its project to conserve, restore and release for future generations the best of Classic British cinema, STUDIOCANAL announced its intention to release the most complete version of the film possible. The now widely lauded film was released with minimal promotion in 1973 as the second feature of a double bill with Don’t Look Now . The version exhibited to audiences was significantly shorter than director Robin Hardy's original vision. In what has now become an apocryphal episode in British film history, the negatives disappeared from storage at Shepperton Studios, and were then allegedly ended up in a landfill, lost forever. STUDIOCANAL are now appealing worldwide to film collectors, historians, archivists, programmers and fans to support the campaign and come forward with any information relating to the potential whereabouts of original materials. Director Robin...

2011 Dir. Robin Hardy Based on Hardy’s own novel Cowboys For Christ, The Wicker Tree isn’t so much a sequel to The Wicker Man , more a curious companion piece. Incorporating many of the same themes, it is the tale of two young chaste American missionaries who travel to the wilds of Scotland to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to people who ‘don’t believe in angels.’ Seemingly embraced by the local community, the pair are invited to participate in the annual May Queen celebrations, with inevitably fatal consequences… The Wicker Man cast a long shadow over cult horror cinema. While it is none other than Robin Hardy who has returned to plough the furrow of folk horror, religious extremism and earthy sensuality he tilled with that film, the results this time around are much less fertile. The source material, his novel Cowboys For Christ , unfurled as a slow-burning, evocatively written work that pitched modern evangelical Christianity against paganism and built slowly and surely...

Head over to Paracinema.net to check out my latest instalment of Audiodrome: Music in Film . This month I’ve been listening to Paul Giovanni’s inspired score for Robin Hardy’s folk-horror masterpiece, The Wicker Man . Heavily informed by paganism and old folk music, Giovanni’s meticulously researched soundtrack combines adaptations of traditional pieces, poems and original compositions. Why not pick up the latest issue of Paracinema while you’re there? Amongst its lurid delights are articles such as Panic in Detroit: RoboCop and Reagan’s America by Andreas Stoehr; Blood on the Rubber Chicken: Horror Parodies of the Early ’80s by Mike White; and Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures from Hell by Todd Garbarini. All great stuff, written by hardcore fans of genre films for hardcore fans of genre films. The following article was published on Paracinema.net on 23rd January 2012 The Wicker Man – Paul Giovanni  Informed by ancient rituals, paganism and indigenous folk music. A ...