Midweek Mention... The Wicker Man

The Wicker Man

Sidey: I guess it's a folk horror week, is it?

Reegs: Yeah, I think so.

Sidey: And we're

starting with the 1973, Chris, as you rightly say, Wicker

Man.

Not

Cris: you rightly say, with a man.

Sidey: There is a later, remake

Cris: later uh, Yeah, anching a woman dressed as a bear is

Reegs: yeah, yeah, and punching a woman dressed as a bear is probably one of the more memorable

Cris: that bit, but

Sidey: Neither of those things happened in the original, which this is.

Cris: Really good.

Sidey: It starts off with something that really alarmed me. It's a sun face thing, which I have one of those in my garden.

Dan: Oh

Reegs: All

Sidey: so just be warned when you come

around.

Dan: cult

Sidey: Yeah, if you see a big wicker effigy in my garden, you know what's going on. Yeah.

Reegs: Okay, and it's not much of a secret now because this is a pretty old movie But they were sort of sex freaky pagan people. Is that what you're doing

Sidey: Yes.

Cris: well. I was going to say, is that by choice or was there with the

Sidey: this is an Ireland community,

Reegs: Yeah,

Cris: it is.

Dan: very old laws and, and traditions. So this was

Sidey: traditions.

Dan: star of

Reegs: yeah, no, but also comically the same name as ex bad dad, well, current bad dad, if he could still be asked how we say, yeah, but he's not a pedals board, paddleboard lover. He is a policeman. He's singing a hymn. He leadeth me. I think it is in a small provincial church.

He's giving a sermon, Edward Woodward

Sidey: I was watching this at home, and my mum was there, and she started joining in the song. She's like, ooh, And the

Reegs: And they're doing the Eucharist and, and, and

Dan: Yeah, no, he's, he's proper kind of religious

Sidey: is.

Reegs: And,

Next, bagpipes and maybe a Gaelic song and then a seaplane. And we're going now across the sort of coast of Scotland. Very remote areas. Looks amazing.

Dan: stunning.

the rolling hills and big cliffs and everything. Until he pulls up in this remote village and it's kind of a a lock that he flies in on and it's just nice and still and the plane looks amazing. And he, he kind of asked, go, can you get me a,

Sidey: immediately, they'd look like

Dan: he, you can, you can feel like how unwelcome he is.

Reegs: They're invasive. And you know, he starts immediately starts to talk to me about why he's There he's received an anonymous letter talking about the disappearance of a local girl.

Have you seen this photo? There's like eight guys there. They've got about 15 teeth between them. They pass a photo round. No, I haven't seen her. Definitely no. They're saying no before they've even had

the photo.

Dan: photo? Yeah, they're all, they're all shaking their head. No, no, no, she don't live here. No. You want to try a different

Reegs: yeah, the, oh, she's a Morrison. Is she? Yeah. They're on, they're on a different, I can't remember what other island he suggests. And then he says, no, it's definitely was from here. May Morrison. Oh, May Morrison. Yeah. She runs the post office. Yeah. It's not hers though. Don't need to worry.

And off he toddles to go and see her. So already very strange and unsettling.

Dan: Yeah, straight away. He feels they're being a bit evasive and as he goes into the post office And shows the photograph of this young

Rowan morrison this young girl the The post mistress says oh no, no, I don't know how you've got confused my little girl myrtle she's over there drawing a picture like and he he Talks to the girl is a little bit and he finds out that she does know Rowan and

Reegs: She says she's running in the field, she's a hare.

Dan: That's right, yes, so she's she's not actually a person the Rowan that she knows

Reegs: But before they've got any time to kind of dig into that the mum comes back in have you got a cup of tea and blah Blah blah and then next we're in the green man in one of the great

Really lively pub going on and then everybody goes completely silent

Cris: they've also got a great sign. The sign for the pub is

10 out of

Reegs: Yeah, freaky

Cris: Yeah, some really

Dan: some really mad eyes.

Sidey: like a proper local place where everyone is in. It's

Reegs: bouncing the singing everything and then woodward walks in or how he walks in and it kills the atmosphere dead I've been to clubs with howie. It is like that

Dan: Yeah. It may be something in the name, but he's after a night. Stay because he's not going to be able to fly out. He didn't get sorted in one day. He hasn't had any real leads. And just to add to the weirdness of this a beautiful block blonde girl, Brickett Britain walks in and she's looking absolutely stunning.

And then they start this really weird song about,

Sidey: how they'd all bang her

Dan: how they'd all love to have sex

Sidey: a line basically about between her legs with two guys put

Cris: Putting two

Sidey: then they start singing about her.

Reegs: They're all singing about it,

Dan: they're all singing it,

Sidey: and the landlord's like, yeah.

Reegs: But Sergeant Howie is much more puritanical and he doesn't like any of this.

He quietens the shenanigans down, he announces he's there on official business, as you no doubt have been informed by the postmaster. And then he, this is when he notices like a series of photos up on the side of the Harvest, and it's got all of the various Harvest girls, 1970s, and it gets to 1972, but the photo is missing.

Sidey: And he

has dinner there.

He, he get, he's right. I thought he was just being a complete cock like it because yeah, they're a little bit weird, but this is their community.

Right. And he's off the bat, he's being a prick When he was talking. Bangs things on the, he goes outside and he sees them all shagging.

Reegs: They're all

Sidey: And when he comes back out, He

just shoves people around. I'm like, well, you deserve to fucking dine in

spoiler.

Dan: around. He doesn't

Sidey: but he says, I want my dinner. I want my dinner now.

And they serve him food. And he's like, this is fucking awful. It's like Ramsey in one of his

Reegs: kitchen . Yeah.

Sidey: like, it's

Cris: Yeah, it's from a

Dan: out of a

Sidey: Why is it all out of a

Reegs: a can? Well, but this is an island that is famous, we already know for its production of fruit and vegetables, so it does seem a tad inhospitable or unwelcoming that they've served him this shit dinner,

Dan: but they say, oh, it wasn't a great harvest and we haven't got any apples either

Sidey: she says we exported them all

Dan: yeah, and he's, he's just really like angry with all this. He probably thought, oh, but going over to this island, you know, there'll be good food at least.

Well, none of that's happening. So he goes up into his room and he has a bizarre night because somebody really is filling in the, the landlord's daughter, daughter

Sidey: is sat by the window, isn't he? And Christopher Lee is the first time we see him. He summer. He appears in his kilt and he. Shouts up to Aphrodite

it's Willow, but he says yeah we've got an offering for you. It's like some stud from the village is just set up and the whole village just basically watches him walk into the pub and they just kind of listen as they

Reegs: they just kind of

Dan: out.

Yeah, well he's pulling the pillow. Yeah, much

Sidey: pulling the pullover over

Dan: He's pulling the pillow over his head, isn't he? He doesn't want anything to do with it, he's trying

Sidey: he? And then in the

Dan: And then in the morning he sees

Reegs: He agreed with Lord Summonbile, or whatever the fuck

Dan: Oh, we do, yeah,

Reegs: name

Sidey: agreed with Lord Summer Isle or whatever the fuck his name is. He goes, I would like swap places with the animals, you know. And he's like, they don't judge anyone.

There's no shame or this. And I'm like, he's fucking right.

Reegs: Yeah, let's all be

Sidey: right. Yeah.

Reegs: Yeah.

So it is a weird night for for how we next morning heads off to school a great scene first with like a maypole dance of bangin tune. I've been listening to And I really liked harmonious with a decent beat and a violin and a guitar and sort of nursery rhyme quality to it.

But then it gets all,

Dan: Shall we recreate

Reegs: Oh, you've got the Jews harp, haven't you? That was

Dan: you want to recreate that?

Sidey: No.

Reegs: And then the kids are all at school banging along and discussing what the Maypole represents like a sort of sea of kids. Not

Sidey: my age. Well, first of all, the song that they're singing is about Death and rebirth.

Yeah, and they talk about the man as child becomes a man who dies and is buried in a tree and the seed and so when we see graves later on they're planting trees on them. It carries on and yes, he goes into the classroom and the really horny teacher is saying and what does the tree represent and the one girl is too bashful to say it out loud and they just, they're talking about dick

And How he's, how he's in the doorway and he's incensed that these child children are being corrupted.

And he says that as much to the, he pulls the teacher to one side and says, you know, I've seen all this shit. I've seen people shaggy in the streets, I've seen this, that and the other. And now I realize all comes from here you are, you know, perverting these children.

Reegs: It is

Dan: I'm gonna report you,

Reegs: isn't it, to see these school

Sidey: It's not on the, it's not on the

Reegs: it's not, I mean, indoctrinated into this occult basically, this local religion with this, obviously with the strong paganism, like if it wasn't completely obvious, they're making it very obvious, everyone's a pagan, we're all in this religion together, you're fucked mate, basically.

Dan: this religion together. You're fucked, mate. Basically.

I'm gonna see

Sidey: he says, well, I want to see the register, doesn't he?

Cris: Yeah. Yeah. He takes it.

Sidey: And he says, you're all and he just like starts to be like, you're all filthy rotten liars.

I think he calls them. Despicable liars.

Yeah. Yeah.

And

Reegs: And he threatens the teacher with obstruction of, which seems more than reasonable, actually, in the circumstances, but he is very much a man alone.

He demands to know where Rowan is, and eventually the school teacher does say that she has died, but they don't talk about death in their community.

So, you know, they don't even have that word in their culture. They believe her life force has returned to nature effectively, so she's not really gone, but she is. What was the remains of her is buried. But it's not being used as a church by the local community anymore, which he'll find out when he goes there and it's being desecrated.

Dan: I might miss this bit.

I might be rushing ahead, but there's a jar of foreskin somewhere. I'm not sure where that comes in.

Cris: boarskin somewhere.

Dan: it's a little

Cris: sure where that comes in. Yeah, she's breastfeeding there

Reegs: Yeah, she's breastfeeding there with the

sort

Cris: holding an

Reegs: type symbol, I guess.

Sidey: an egg, isn't she? She's holding an egg. And there's a guy tending to the

Reegs: guy tending to the graves. He says, what's this hanging off, because they plant, like

Sidey: He says, he says, but what's this hanging off? Cause they planted, like we said, they planted a tree on every grave. Like the song says, and then he says, well, what's that? It looks like skin or something. It's just, well, yeah,

Reegs: It's navel string, but what is, what is

Sidey: I don't know. I assume

they've

I

Dan: that's the the the cord, isn't it? Yeah, that they've kept.

Sidey: kept and he just laughs as if it's like the the most normal thing in the world.

It's like, well, Yeah. of course it

Dan: question.

Cris: Well, don't be silly.

Reegs: He goes back to

Sidey: And then, you know, he said, he says, well, where's your Your priest or whatever your pastor. And he just like freak

laugh,

Reegs: just starts laughing and walks off.

Sidey: walks off and as if like, you know, this guy's mental

Reegs: He goes back to May Morrison's house to confront her now, because he's obviously got

Sidey: the frog.

Reegs: but yeah, and she's, the daughter's got a sore throat, so she forces a frog in her throat, and the frog is given the sore throat,

Sidey: because it's croaky.

Reegs: because it's croaky afterwards, yeah.

Cris: then the frog actually goes, burp, burp. And then it's like, oh, you see? You're cured now.

Reegs: Yeah. And anyway, basically,

Cris: And then he goes to

Reegs: he has to end up going

Cris: then he goes to this pharmacist. Who has all the foreskins?

Yeah,

he's and he's got all sorts of weird stuff because he's the one that took the picture as

Sidey: He's the photographer. Yeah.

Reegs: Yeah. What, so he's got rat brains and snake oil and all sorts of stuff on it.

But what are the for, where did they get It's a big jar of foreskins, like

Yeah,

Cris: yeah, well, do you

Dan: a lot, there's a lot of guys there, you know, and they've, they've chopped off all the bits and he's got a jar of foreskins, but he's also got.

The photographs from each of the years they've done the harvest that were in the bar and there was that one missing. He's asked for a copy and, oh no, we don't do copies. And he just realizes every single person is bullshitting me, something rotten here. And everywhere he goes he's just being Struck with awkward answers

Cris: And then he just goes to the Lord, Lord's Summer Isle.

Sidey: Yeah his mansion,

Dan: So so he ends up going to the big mansion where christopher lee is and he's not in his dracula shit He's just in like

Reegs: He's more like Borat, to me.

He's sort of, there's a certain

Sidey: I love, he's got, he's just wearing his kilt, he's on the piano, and he's, the horny teacher, wasn't it? Singing on the floor. Yeah,

Cris: Not yet. No, it's just him at the beginning.

Reegs: Yeah, the

Cris: There's the girls jumping on the, over the fire naked.

Sidey: the one we put in the Top five of the week.

That's what I was thinking. And we've, we've mused it, was it stone head? clearly not Stone head, nothing. no, nothing

Cris: they, they, yeah, the, he drives past, goes to the Lord's Samarail's

Sidey: he purves at the girls jumping around for

Cris: a little bit. Yeah. He's a bit like, Ooh, this is interesting. But then Lord Samarail kind of puts his idea forward really.

Reegs: Yeah, well,

he tells them of his religion, he talks about parthogenesis, reproduction without sex, and then, you know, and how he is just, like, outraged, and indignant the whole time, have they never heard of Jesus here, and all this, and somewhere I was like, oh, who that guy, son of a virgin impregnated by a ghost, that weirdo, so.

There's his little,

Dan: kind of sits him down after that, doesn't he? And he's,

Reegs: in fact, he tells him to sit, doesn't he? He says shocks are better absorbed when you're sat down.

Cris: your knees are bent

Reegs: yeah. When your knees are bent. Yeah. And then this is when he explains it all the whole history of it. Go, Dan.

Yeah.

Dan: Well it is just a very different world to what.

How he is brought up in and he's not accepting any of it And he really then just inspires him to go and do some investigation because he knows there's a girl here who's missing

They know that you know, she was at school she she did have You know friends and things but everybody's just denied

Cris: Well, he asked for permission to exhumate the body.

No, that's the main reason is like, this is your land. I want to find out what really happened here.

Sidey: Isn't he also given the backstory? But they're growing crops here that aren't native and

Cris: Yes. Yeah.

Sidey: it's not going to

Cris: the, the Lord's dad came over and he planted all these trees. We see this exotic garden, palm trees, all this stuff in Scotland. And he just kind of, and then obviously he gets, he gets all the, all the story. We blended these crops and we did all this stuff, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then he's like, okay, well, I want to take out this body to have a look.

And then after all the spiel and after all that, the Lord gives his permission to say, and he kind of gives it quite. Openly and quite freely. There's no he's quite honest about pretty much everything.

Dan: Yeah.

Reegs: Yeah. He tells him everything.

Dan: it. And and when they dig up the, the, the grave and open the coffin, they find rowing in there sep it's rowing the hair that the little girl was drawing Myrtle at the beginning rather than a real little girl. And he's just further incensed by this. This is just another insult that.

They're winding him up and and it's it's an affront to God and all the rest of it. He's he just can't believe it.

Reegs: Well, he strongly believes, and he will confront him over it, that, you know,

Cris: in the middle of the night as well

Dan: Yeah

Reegs: you know, whatever the gods are that he's just talked about because he says his grandfather inculcated a belief in the population about the old

Dan: Well,

Sidey: gods.

He does that when he develops the photo, doesn't he? First of all, he goes back to the mansion and he throws the hair down and says, you know, What the fuck? And the head teacher's there and she's like, No, that's her.

that's her,

in her new form, you know? And it's like, Yeah.

Reegs: else says to him, how very perplexing for you.

Sidey: they're

Dan: kind of looking down on him like

Sidey: He says he says something like, well, you know, where is she? And he says, well, I think that you're the detective in this in this scenario. He does go

Reegs: So yeah, he does go to the

Sidey: He he develops the photograph and he sees that Rowan is stood there in front of empty. Produce

Reegs: was the May Queen that year and it was a

Sidey: It was a barren harvest. Yeah, and so he believed that they have already sacrificed her

Reegs: And then straight after that and he says it out loud, I think, just so we can all follow along. Probably the, the, the part of the movie that I thought would most interest Chris now is the how he goes to bed and Willow sings a song, basically just asking to be plowed

Cris: Yes. In, but

She's,

Reegs: dances

Sidey: fully nude gyrating against the wall, banging against the, because they're sharing a wall and she's sort of tapping along and just completely teasing him and provoking him.

Reegs: He's like being pulled by his erection

Sidey: He's in an utter frenzy. of like, I, I

want

to,

Dan: of mysterious Aura is taking over and he's, he's actually fighting the, the temptation to

Reegs: like a siren.

Dan: Yeah. And she says in the morning, Oh, I thought you were going to come and visit me. And he says, no, I don't really do that.

I'm, I'm waiting until I'm married. I'm not married yet.

43.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: He's

43 years old.

Reegs: I dunno how old he is in the movie,

Dan: movie. He was born in 1930 and this is 1973. So he's 43 years old playing

Reegs: a virgin at a

Dan: virgin. You do see his, his fiance in the church right at the beginning, or at least a woman that, that smiles proudly as he delivers the sermon right from the, from the beginning.

But he's, he's really,

Sidey: I'm not fucking going.

I know. He says, I'm gonna go, I'm, I'm out of here

tonight. And Lord Summerville says, well, yeah, you summarize. Sorry. You better fuck off. 'cause you probably don't wanna be around for our mayday celebrations. You're not really,

you're gonna be your thing. You'd really be into that. Yeah.

Reegs: be around.

So the next day, May

Dan: the tits. So the next day, May 1st, he gets back onto his flying boat

Reegs: go to he stops by the library to give us some handy backstory that will make sense about punch and six headed swords and all that stuff so that we're when it happens later we're not that surprised.

And then he fucks off in the seaplane.

Dan: which he doesn't fuck off on, because it's not working anymore, and he's, he's

Reegs: and then the villagers rise up from the wall wearing those like rat masks and pigeon masks, fuck me

Dan: whatever, yeah, they've all got their, like, lifelike

animal

head masks on and they're popping up out of everywhere He goes back to the village and has a bit of a lie down.

He says a lot I need half an hour. I'm really pissed off about this and While he's there Brooke Eklund, the landlord and his daughter go up and say, look, let's, let's put him to sleep for a few hours because we don't need him poking around the May Day celebrations and things. So, but he hears this and you know, they, they put this flaming hand next to him.

That's meant to drop him off to

Sidey: Yeah, they're gonna

gas him. They said,

Dan: but he, he

Reegs: what was that a severed human arm or what was that?

Dan: It looked like that.

Sidey: don't know

but it's but it's obviously

Like a double bluff

Dan: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So we know

Sidey: they know what has to happen.

Reegs: has to happen sort of thing a bit.

Dan: So, so we, we know that now anyway, but at the time you thinking, well, well, he's, he's going along with this and he manages to knock out.

The landlord who's going to have this costume of, of punch is in punch and Judy, and he's going to be a big part of the festival. And he joins them on the trail dressed up as punch mask covering his appearance, still got his copper shoes on, which seems a bit obvious, but he's, he's a couple of times told to dance a little bit more with a little more energy and things.

And the girls are all there playing and teasing with him going along with it. They all follow, there's like 40, 50, 60 people all in different animal head masks, heading down.

Reegs: Yeah, Lord

Dan: Lee is,

Reegs: well he's in drag. He's in a sort of purple and yellow dress with long black hair.

Dan: yeah, he's leading the procession. And as they go to different areas, there's like this Stonehenge kind of druid pagan area where swords are used.

To get taken out and people have to put their heads

through these these linked swords. And they're going chop, chop, chop, chop, aren't they? Yeah. And there's, there's a fake beheading, which, which gets him nervous 'cause he thinks, oh fuck it. I, I'm waiting for something to go. But it was just a fake one.

And everybody goes on and they go to the edge of the cliffs now and sure enough he sees Rowan.

Sidey: Well, it's first of all, it's the first sacrifice is they're going to get rid of some of their beer.

They offer the beer up to the sea in the hope that the sea will provide some bounty. So they axe a barrel and it rolls into the sea and then he goes and now for our most dastardly sacrifice. Something I can't remember how he describes it but it's obviously you know what's coming and they look around and sure enough there's Rowan in her white gown up on the rocks and edward Woodward or Howie runs up there and he unties there and he says, I'm a police officer. Don't worry I'll get you out of here. And

First time I saw this Yeah, the first

time I saw this it really did fucking surprise me because she takes him through the caves and he sets a kind of trap by we're not trapped But a diversion by throwing something of hers into the water and some of the guys think that they've gone that way But they head up and they climb up through this hole into the top of the headland And they're all waiting for them Yeah, and it turns out that Rowan was just bait.

And

Reegs: which she says to Summeral, did I do Well,

Sidey: Yeah. And he's, he's very happy

with our performance.

Dan: Penny is still dropping with with with howie because He's just like this is fucking mad. I'm just gonna go back and arrest you all I'm bringing all the police with me. You lot are fucking mad and then he looks at the top of the headland There's like it's a scene from zulu or something There's just so many of them waiting on the top and he I think the penny finally drops there and he goes You Oh shit, wait a minute.

I'm on my own here. And they they take him and take him to the wicker man

Reegs: he tells him, yeah.

Sidey: You know, an animal, that's okay. It's not great.

a child is better, but it's still, you know, we could do better. And there's a particular kind of, of person

who would be ideal. It's all requirements that

Reegs: have. Somebody who came of their own free will. Somebody who has the power of a king, so he's represented, representing the law. Somebody who's a virgin, and somebody who's a fool. And how he fits all four of those.

Dan: he's dressed as the

Reegs: fool. Yep, punched the fool.

Dan: As you say, the police Yeah, he, he's ticking lots of boxes he'd rather

Sidey: And so he knows at this point, although he's still kind of hoping that he can talk his way out of it. Talk some sort of sense into them. But he knows that he's, he's the intended sacrifice now. And so he's starting to get a bit panicky.

And there's one particularly like, Massive Islander who kind of pins

it

Dan: is, isn't there?

There's always one huge guy.

Sidey: and

they they strip him off and they put the white sacrificial robe on him and then they drag him sort of lead him up the hill.

Reegs: him, don't they? Pretty much over.

Yeah.

Sidey: he sees the wicker man and he starts to scream and

Reegs: God. Oh Jesus Christ.

Dan: So, so the wicker man is

Sidey: freaky looking dude.

Dan: made wooden kind of doll, but 60

feet high with

Sidey: it's the Fingers on it that

Dan: Yeah, with, with a room in the belly that he is going to be

Sidey: animals. I think it's got animals in the arms.

and the legs, or maybe just the

arms, but there's definitely a goat that screams and it

Reegs: arms and the legs, or

Dan: Right. Wow.

Reegs: the arms.

Yeah, he's, he's really

Dan: he's, he's really freaking out. And I mean, okay. So many times you think he could definitely have kicked that big guy down the ladder because he wasn't comfortable.

Sidey: think he's not struggling as much as I would have been. No, But

Reegs: What are you gonna do though? There's like a

Sidey: Struggle. It may not get anywhere but I would still be, like,

kicking

Dan: I would have taken a few with me but he didn't.

Reegs: He doesn't go like that. He says Psalm 23 as he's burnt alive. And

Dan: I still thinking, oh, he's gonna get, he's, somebody's gonna save it, no. And they're all into a full

Sidey: car.

They're just having a little jig.

Dan: they're having a little jig, you know, weren't they? Like, summer's coming, you are dead, we are gonna eat

and

drink some bread. I don't know, it's like, got

Sidey: very calm, just having a great gay old time

Dan: Yeah, and all sort of sweetened with this, this kind of arm movement and everything.

It's all really jolly like, and the sun is just setting.

Reegs: the collapse of the head of the statue as the sun sets behind, I think that

Sidey: the closing shot, yeah.

Dan: And and you realize, wait a minute, he's not going to get away. And he won't get away with this. No, he says, well, it's all right. We'll, we'll hide the evidence.

Reegs: can hear a goat screaming as it's burnt alive next, like beneath

Sidey: Did they really burn one? Because the sound was fucking

so bad, Yeah.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: so this was the wicker man. I've watched this

With my folks when I was quite young

Sidey: Wow.

Cris: it came out, I would imagine

Dan: Probably a

Reegs: they trying to indoctrinate you

Dan: probably about 14 13 14. I remember it being on probably not that long I was meant to watch it, but you know, I was just sat there kind of looking at at the At the program, but it's it's all you know, it's just one of

Reegs: those. There's no way I

Dan: scary movies

Reegs: Eklund naked when I was 14 with my parents in the room.

It just would have been a horrendous mishmash of everything.

Dan: just leaning over all the time, aren't you?

Sidey: I hadn't seen this film, I thought that it was Britt Eklund that was going to be sacrificed. So I was very surprised because it's, it's like, The bad guys win. Yeah, in this film if they are the bad guys, they're just idiots like misguided or whatever

Reegs: Protagonist dies,

and

Sidey: the protagonist dies and The way it ends is like there's no comeuppance for them.

They probably just have a shit harvest maybe but I don't know

Dan: don't know.

Reegs: Well, the threat,

Dan: all kick off, kick ass

Reegs: that,

Cris: Well, they've had the sacrifice, so they clearly are going to have a lovely

Sidey: harvest.

The

Reegs: threat that Howie leaves lingering in the air is

Sidey: because

Reegs: To summarize that there'll be another barren harvest and they'll come for you.

That's, that's the threat

Sidey: And there is a missing officer, so there will be more police

coming. Yeah.

Reegs: But other than that many lulls

Dan: Well, they will sink the plane, won't they?

And and they'll say, Oh, we left here. I don't know. You

Sidey: Because the way that they say it in the film is that this is the first time they've had to do a human sacrifice.

But the way that they do it Did it seem like they're all it didn't look like the first time

Reegs: No. Well, they knew, they believed in their gods and they knew what they were doing. And yeah, Howie was

Cris: they probably did it with animals before, they didn't have to do it with humans, just as a normal harvest and

Sidey: they need to up the ante

Reegs: this

was awesome, wasn't

Dan: Yeah. I mean, it, lots of, lots of you know, you think of Midsommar, you think of Enos Men, that we're, we're Yeah

Reegs: apostle as well, Gareth Evans Apostle Netflix one is very much

Dan: well. Gareth Evans Apostle. Netflix wonders. kind of pure living catholic or christian policeman. It's a freaky old town, but

Reegs: but it's kind of seductive as well.

Dan: yeah.

And the settings in the, you know, the shots are fantastic. I mean, really, really lovely.

Reegs: composed

Dan: And

it is just spooky. It's got that kind of pagan. We're going to burn you alive human sacrifice thing going on which I think on some kind of level just because You know it happened, you know that we have all these stones

Sidey: Well, they still you know, then they still do all these May Day celebrations with the obvious and all that sort of stuff and I used to dabble in a bit of Morris dancing in

my store that So these sort of quirky old places, you know, it's still

Dan: still. Yeah.

Sidey: So I don't think they're sacrificing quite so

Reegs: as

Dan: put a fog in your mouth if you've got a cold?

Sidey: I've eaten frog, but not for medicinal purposes. No.

Reegs: I tell you what, I was fucking delighted when it turns out that this movie is set over the exact same time period.

Well, let's say sort

Sidey: one of the dates in

Ennismouth, yeah.

Yeah.

Reegs: like

Sidey: I wondered if that was deliberate. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Reegs: Well, we'll have to ask him when we chat to him, but yeah, it must be.

Sidey: I think it's one of the best finales to a film. I can think of it's so fucking good and when he does go up in smoke, it's fucking Absolutely

Dan: Well,

it is, it is lovely to see the, the goodie if you like, not get, you know, yeah.

Not get away with it or not sort of come up Trumps for once. And, and the baddies and this whole village of fucking crazed people just singing their way out is like all happily singing is this man is, is being burnt alive.

Sidey: Was this the first time for you chris?

enjoyed it.

Cris: being burned alive. Um, This is the first time for you Chris? I would have felt that is a little bit more scary. Whereas now, because it's kind of, you know, when you see it, it's the same. Like I find that with Scarface, which is the best example, which it's a drama.

Every time I watch it now, it kind of turns into a comedy because it's, it doesn't really,

Reegs: product of his

Cris: yeah. It's, if I would have seen it around the time when it was made, even 10 years later, I was still being a bit like, Ooh, this is

Dan: has been the scariest shit out on his day. Wouldn't

Cris: but now I just thought it was funny.

Reegs: I think the ending is still truly shocking still. And it's, it's very unsettling. At

Sidey: what's great

Reegs: as well.

Sidey: Music's great. I think because it's it's not supernatural. I think it's just a weird community of people. Yeah.

There's no.

Reegs: it though, is it though, because it did feel like something was guiding Howie through

Sidey: Yeah, possibly. Possibly.

Reegs: Who knows?

Strong

Sidey: Strong, strong

recommend. Strong

Dan: recommend.

Yeah.