Children Of The Wicker Man — Children Of The Wicker Man (theatrical)
Directed by Justin and Dominic Hardy (alongside Chris Nunn), Children of the Wicker Man isn’t quite the documentary you might expect. While it explores the origins, production, and legacy of the famous 1973 British folk horror film The Wicker Man, it focuses on something uniquely personal.
The Hardy brothers are the sons of Robin Hardy, best known for bringing The Wicker Man to the screen. For them, it’s a way to unpick their relationship with their father, and what emerges is as raw for the family as it is revealing for fans of the film.
Starting with the weight of material that arrived after their father died in 2016, historian and filmmaker Justin brought in his art historian brother Dominic (Number Five of Hardy senior’s eight children) to unpick the truth behind a film that cast an incredible shadow over their family. The title, then, very much reflects the sons inextricably shaped by their father’s obsession with the film.
In terms of The Wicker Man’s production, plenty of fascinating snippets emerge from the siblings rummaging through the small print of contemporary documents, then taking pilgrimages to important locations—none more so than Dumfries & Galloway (the film’s Summerisle).
The pair make an effective double-act—the quieter Dominic with his light Canadian accent, and the more emotive Justin (“to me it was always the film that fucked up my family”). That’s important, as relationships soon emerge as a key theme. The first of note is the friendship between Hardy and screenwriter Anthony Shaffer. The Wicker Man, which Shaffer wrote, rose from the ashes of an advertising agency he and Hardy formed in the 1960s. While that saw formative work from Ridley Scott, Tony Scott and Alan Parker, it ended in bailiffs and court warrants.
In the early 1970s, Hardy was on a painful journey into bankruptcy, prompting the siblings to agree it’s “hard to think of a worse time to make your first film.” Indeed, Hardy’s debut feature was a succession of poor decisions (failing to take advice, signing away residuals) and terrible luck (the collapse of funder British Lion during production). But Hardy, while vindicated as a director to some extent, doesn’t emerge as a victim. Children of the Wicker Man delivers superb insight into the challenges of early-1970s production (nicely mirrored in the brothers’ travails filming sections in the same location), but it soon emerges as a heart-breaking reclamation of The Wicker Man’s real victims.
The most poignant is Caroline, Justin’s mothers, who poured huge amounts of money into her husband’s production and more than earned the uncredited title of executive producer, only to die in her early 50s after Hardy walked out on her. Years of repressed anger occasionally erupt. “It’s dredging up too much bad juju,” says Justin at one point.
A shift comes as the documentary covers the film’s later reappraisal after its miserable release (British Lion didn’t even grant it press screenings in 1973), and the Director’s Cut and Final Cut of the film Sir Christopher Lee would call his greatest. Hardy’s belated sequel, The Wicker Tree, is acknowledged as Hardy’s attempt to wrestle back control (and money), but ultimately, and unfortunately, this documentary isn’t able to draw a line under the sadness surrounding what’s been called “The Citizen Kane of horror films”.