History Fridge / TheWickerMan1973

* Howie warns Summerisle that he will be the sacrifice for next year. It is likely that the crops will continue to fail, and the community will kill its leader and then descend into anarchy as their leaderless society tears itself apart with even more futile murders. They use rituals and magic while trying to solve their very practical problems.
* Summerisle notes that a child is a good sacrifice, but an adult virgin is better. It is possible that they really have sacrificed children, as Howie feared had happened to Rowan. If the plan had failed with Howie, they might have gone ahead with sacrificing one of their children, perhaps even Rowan herself, in his place.
* Howie mentioned having a fiance back home. And Summerisle also states that he and the townspeople will make sure his disappearance is explained. Just imagine the confusion and other mixed up emotions Howie's fiance might feel from whatever lie they fabricate.

!!For the 1973 film

'''FridgeBrilliance'''

'''FridgeHorror'''

* Howie warns Summerisle that he will be the sacrifice for next year. It's likely that the crops will continue to fail, and the community will kill its leader and then descend into anarchy as their leaderless society tears itself apart with even more futile murders trying to solve their very practical problems.
* Summerisle notes that a child is a good sacrifice, but an adult virgin is better. It's possible that they really have sacrificed children, as Howie feared had happened to Rowan. If the plan had failed with Howie, they might have gone ahead with sacrificing one of their children, perhaps even Rowan herself, in his place.

** Willow and [=MacGregor=] make a rather clumsy attempt to "immobilize" Howie during the May Day celebration, but it was already heavily implied that the locals sabotaged his plane to ''keep him there''. Their motives therefore make no sense until it's later revealed that everything was part of the plan: The Hand of Glory was entirely a ruse to prod Howie into joining the May Day festival.
** Lord Summerisle chastises "Punch" for not playing his role correctly and gives him instructions, but he doesn't seem suspicious even though [=MacGregor=] plays this role every year. But Summerisle already knows that Howie is in the Punch costume, so Summerisle is simply preventing ''Howie'' from getting suspicious and wondering why no one is noticing that he doesn't know what to do.
* The restored edition adds a lot of motivation for Howie. Not only is he engaged, but his fellow police officers mock his virginity ''constantly'' as well as his faith. The villagers are pressing ''all'' of his {{Berserk Button}}s, and the ''only'' reason he is able to withstand Willow's seduction is because he is engaged, not because he's a virgin and/or religious.

!!FridgeBrilliance

** The fact that the religion was made up in Victorian times but based on and portrayed as a set of much older traditions is also a dig at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardnerian_Wicca Gardnerian Wicca]], which was ''very'' popular in the 1970s
* Late in the movie, Willow and [=MacGregor=] try to give Sergeant Howie the HandOfGlory, which would immobilize him - If they believed it would work, it would have jeopardized the whole plan by keeping him in the inn instead of letting him chase after Rowan. However, their real goal was the exact opposite - scaring him away from the inn so he could continue his search. Word had probably spread that he'd been in the library, so the plan somewhat hinged on him having read what the "hand of glory" was. Though it probably would have worked either way - if you were feigning sleep and someone put a candle made out of a dead guy's hand next to you, you'd probably run away whether you knew what they were trying to accomplish or not.

* A possible motive for Willow's attempted seduction is to verify that Howie is a virgin and therefore an appropriate sacrifice (they can't afford to screw it up). Since it's impossible to know for certain that he's a virgin (rather than just trying to pretend for his wife, and willing to put up with ribbing for it), they [[WhatYouAreInTheDark make sure nobody on the mainland could find out]] and sic the best seductress they could find on him. If he resists, his virtue's true.
** This was definitely the case in the original script - where Summerisle says Willow was a test for Howie, and resisting her temptation meant he was the perfect sacrifice.
* The child torturing the beetle comes off like gratuitous weirdness, but it's a GeniusBonus -- a "beadle" is an old term for a policeman. This greatly strengthens the idea that the beetle is symbolically representative of Howie: the closer he gets to finding the truth, the more trapped he becomes.
* Howie getting bathed by Willow and the librarian [[spoiler: before the sacrifice]] has a moment where they both wash him with their hair. A possible parallel to Mary (sister of Martha) washing Jesus's feet with her hair? Jesus connected this act of devotion with his own burial...

!!FridgeHorror
* {{Invoked}} with [[spoiler: Howie warning Summerisle that he will be the sacrifice for next year]]. Another would be that [[spoiler: Howie's disappearance will not go unnoticed by his police force. They could send in an investigation team to find out what happened, and all the townspeople will be in deep shit]].
** It actually enters NightmareFuel territory, when you think about [[spoiler: the entire scheme to locate a virgin ''policeman'' and bring him over to the island. Is it a coincidence that he's so smug about Howie's absence not being noticed? It's not impossible to have a former islander in the police for and/or a CorruptCop who would cover up Howie's tracks for cash. Plus, can you entirely trust Summerisle when he says that it was the worst apple harvest since his grandfather's time, when Howie points out that the island isn't suitable for apples? For all you know, there could have been other (covered-up) harvest failures in the past, each one followed by an unfortunate virgin policeman being burnt alive.]]
** Another fridge horror moment involving Rowan Morrison. [[spoiler: Of all the policemen whom they could have tricked into being the sacrifice, they specifically required the only one they ''knew'' was a virgin. And Summerisle himself says "A small child is good, but not nearly as good as the right kind of adult." Had Howie accepted Willow's "invitation" and lost his virginity, he would have ruined his suitability for a sacrifice, and the islanders, discovering that their sacrifice was ruined, might have actually sacrificed Rowan instead. If Howie were to live, it would be at the cost of Rowan's life.]]
*** There's another possibility for the islanders' Plan B [[spoiler: in case the Howie plan didn't work: Lord Summerisle himself. His OhCrap expression when Howie warns him that he'll be next might not be because he didn't consider that before, it's because he didn't want to be reminded of how close he came to being the sacrifice himself.]]
** And the comment about a "small child". [[spoiler: Have they sacrificed a child the previous year and was that all for nought?]]
* If you take Lord Summerisle's statements at face value, then it's easy to take the islanders' plan as an act of desperation, out of simply not knowing how to handle [[spoiler:such a massive crop failure]]. Contrast this with ''Film/TheWickerMan2006'', where it's made clear that [[spoiler:what happens to Edward is something that's happened many times before, making you wonder just how many poor guys got needlessly burned alive just because the island's bees produced a cruddy harvest the previous year]].

* The child torturing the beetle comes off like gratuitous weirdness, but it's a GeniusBonus -- a "beadle" is an old term for a policeman.

* The child torturing the beetle comes off like gratuitous weirdness, but it's a GeniusBonus -- a "beetle" is an old term for a policeman.

[[AC:Fridge Brilliance]]
* In the original, much of the pagan stuff looks to be based on James Frazier's work, which has been criticized as inaccurate. Considering that the pagan cult was made up by the original Lord Summerisle, who belonged to the Victorian Era, that source would indeed have been the best work on paganism available to him at the time.

[[AC:Fridge Horror]]
* Invoked in the 1973 film with [[spoiler: Howie warning Summerisle that he will be the sacrifice for next year]]. Another would be that [[spoiler: Howie's disappearance will not go unnoticed by his police force. They could send in an investigation team to find out what happened, and all the townspeople will be in deep shit]].

* If you take Lord Summerisle's statements at face value, then it's easy to take the islanders' plan as an act of desperation, out of simply not knowing how to handle [[spoiler:such a massive crop failure]]. Contrast this with the 2006 remake, where it's made clear that [[spoiler:what happens to Edward is something that's happened many times before, making you wonder just how many poor guys got needlessly burned alive just because the island's bees produced a cruddy harvest the previous year]].

** Another fridge horror moment involving Rowan Morrison. [[spoiler: Of all the policemen whom they could have tricked into being the sacrifice, they specifically required the only one they ''knew'' was a virgin. And Summerisle himself says "A small child is good, but nearly as good as the right kind of adult." Had Howie accepted Willow's "invitation" and lost his virginity, he would have ruined his suitability for a sacrifice, and the islanders, discovering that their sacrifice was ruined, might have actually sacrificed Rowan instead. If Howie were to live, it would be at the cost of Rowan's life.]]

* If you take Lord Summerisle's statements at face value, then it's easy to take the islanders' plan as an act of desperation, out of simply not knowing how to handle [[spoiler:such a massive crop failure]]. Contrast this with the 2006 remake, where it's made clear that [[spoiler:what happens to Edward is something that's happened many times before, making you wonder just how many poor guys got needlessly burned alive just because the island's bees produced a cruddy harvest the previous year]].

[[AC:Fridge Brilliance]]
* In the original, much of the pagan stuff looks to be based on James Frazier's work, which has been criticized as inaccurate. Considering that the pagan cult was made up by the original Lord Summerisle, who belonged to the Victorian Era, that source would indeed have been the best work on paganism available to him at the time.
* Late in the movie, Willow and [=MacGregor=] try to give Sergeant Howie the HandOfGlory, which would immobilize him - If they believed it would work, it would have jeopardized the whole plan by keeping him in the inn instead of letting him chase after Rowan. However, their real goal was the exact opposite - scaring him away from the inn so he could continue his search. Word had probably spread that he'd been in the library, so the plan somewhat hinged on him having read what the "hand of glory" was. Though it probably would have worked either way - if you were feigning sleep and someone put a candle made out of a dead guy's hand next to you, you'd probably run away whether you knew what they were trying to accomplish or not.
* The restored edition adds a lot of motivation for Howie. Not only is he engaged, but his fellow police officers mock his virginity ''constantly'' as well as his faith. The villagers are pressing ''all'' of his {{Berserk Button}}s, and the ''only'' reason he is able to withstand Willow's seduction is because he is engaged, not because he's a virgin and/or religious.
* A possible motive for Willow's attempted seduction is to verify that Howie is a virgin and therefore an appropriate sacrifice (they can't afford to screw it up). Since it's impossible to know for certain that he's a virgin (rather than just trying to pretend for his wife, and willing to put up with ribbing for it), they [[WhatYouAreInTheDark make sure nobody on the mainland could find out]] and sic the best seductress they could find on him. If he resists, his virtue's true.