The Wicker Man (1973)

Oh, I already knew all about this one. I hadn’t watched it all the way through before, but I knew. I couldn’t really tell you how I knew – it was just sort of in the ether, the way religion is for some people – like our lead, Scottish police Sergeant “Neil Howie” (Edward Woodward) (and I make no apologies for that segue). Sgt. Howie, a very prim and proper Presbyterian, gets an anonymous letter from a remote private island that claims a local girl named Rowan has gone missing. Howie heads to “Summerisle” to investigate – but is baffled, and slightly distracted, but just how weird everyone is acting. First everyone he speaks to denies that Rowan even existed – then they start to change their stories and say that she’s recently died. But no one seems too fussed about her death – not even her mother (Jennifer Martin). Instead everyone seems more caught up in preparations for the town’s upcoming Mayday celebration – for the residents of Summerisle practice a modern version of…