Sexuality and death in The Wicker Man (1973)

Introduction  
“The Wicker Man” is one of the incredible British horror films featuring a character by the name Sergeant Howie, who goes to a remote island of Summerisle in search of a missing girl. Anthony Shaffer wrote the movie and it’s directed by Robin Hardy. It is one of the cult movies known in the film history. Howie, who is a Christian, finds himself in a cult, filled island, where they worship fertility gods in public; they even copulate evenly in the field. Sacrifice and narratives are the essential elements of the horror movie. Blood sacrifice in this film portrays a scene of appeasing gods whenever the harvest of the previous plantings does not come up as expected.

The movie somehow explores the fear of sexual revolution in the west. Women have the freedom to choose the sex partners and explore their sexuality without having to get permission from men. The lord of the island, Lord Summerisle, has got full authority and control over the whole village. There are the strong cult and phallic symbols. The male or female in the act may be a captive just like the Sergeant Howie in the movie, or he or she can go willingly despite their popularity. The Wicker Man portrays a distinct part to the dark side of love in the cinema. They project certain forms of sex and gender roles on the stage. These performances become free to try and somehow act them. In the scenes discussed below, we can see the implications of active and passive rotation of female and male subject positions (Williams 217). In this movie, we saw the connection between pain and sexual pleasure both fused to death. Also, sexual desires get illuminated in the presence of the ghost after death. As Williams says, "power and pleasure are connected to sexual relations" (Williams 217-218).
Scene 1
Sergeant Howie found islanders copulating very-where. He is astonished when he arrives on the island. To him, sexuality in this island was terrifying. They do not mind the viewers whether children or adults. In a certain scene, a young woman is shown with breasts in a clear view sitting crying against a gravestone. The woman is holding the egg with her outstretched hand. The islander’s sex freedom makes them not perfect for the sacrifice. By analyzing their sexual behavior, it is rare to find a virgin who can get sacrificed. Another scene we see right from Willows divine whore, initiating young boys into manhood. Another scene in a classroom a group of students (girls) are learning about the powerful force of the penis. They should be teaching algebra instead. When asked about the symbolism of the maypole dance occurring outside the window, one girl raises her hand and answers that it is a "phallic symbol.” From all these scenes, it is clear that to find a virgin in the village is hard. Men, women, boys and girls sexuality behavior gets seen as a way to evade the sacrifice (Koven 270).
The sacrifice requires a virgin, but these islanders copulate everywhere to make evidence they are not virgins. Teachers in school are also seen teaching students about sex instead of something else that would be helpful to them. The fusion of sexuality in the scene is negative. The villagers are running away from the sacrifice by copulating everywhere. This clearly brings about the collision that exists in the movie between Christianity and Buddhism. The people of this village have abandoned Christianity and say that the true God worshiped by Christians is dead, and only their gods are alive. Sacrificing other people who are considered pure for the sacrifice is the only way to make their gods happy to convince them to increase their harvest (Koven 271).
Scene 2
As Howie goes to pursue his investigation, he seeks a place to spend the night at a local Inn by the name, The Green Man. Here he finds the landlord, Mac Gregor with his daughter, Willow. Willow goes willingly to seduce the famous Sergeant Howie into sexual desires. Willow is a village whore and men regard her as sex plaything. This occurs in the scene where Willows offers herself to Howie. Howie tries to go to bed. Willows serenade him. She is doing this from the next room, banging on the wall (violence), using carnal directness; she offers herself to Howie. She performs a salacious nude dance. Her breasts are shown in a medium close up shot. Additionally there is full view of her back. Howie, who is a Christian, is not appeased by the actions of this girl and has always said to himself that he would never have sex before marriage. This we get to know when he talks to the girl in the morning telling her that he is engaged and can only have sex when he gets married. The wall slapping and the dance occur one hour after Howie entering the inn. She does all these to arouse the Sargent Howie (Koven 274).
Howie is good Christian, who stands firmly for his faith and religion. He seems confused by the loving ways of the islanders. To him, this is all evil ways. All the efforts of Willows to lure Howie to bed become futile. Despite Howie's temptations, he resists. This refusal targets him for sacrifice. Howie becomes a perfect match for human sacrifice. The Islanders requires a virgin for the sacrifice to appease their gods to optimize their harvests. From these scene acts, we clearly see the fusion of sexuality to death. The refusal of sex marks Howie a perfect human sacrifice.In this movie, sexuality is an important aspect that portrays how purified one is. Everyone in this village knows about sex and the importance of it to the world. It is described as the giver of life as the children in school are taught about it. It’s hard to find a virgin in the village as everyone including children are taught about it and are encouraged to put it into practice to avoid being chosen as the “sacrificial lamb” (Koven 277).
Scene 3
Here we find Howie convincing himself that he should confront the Lord of the village. On his way, he finds women singing and dancing through a fire. Lord Summerisle tries to explain this occasion to Howie telling him that these women are conducting a potency rite. They are just asking the god of fire to make them fruitful. Here we find the argument between the two about the true God. Lord Summerisle says that there is no real God as he died when he had a chance in the modern parlance but eventually blew it. He tells Howie that all this was brought about by his grandfather who introduced the rituals of the old gods. A pregnant woman is supervising these nude women as they sing. The pregnant woman is wearing a white gown. When the fire gets started, the naked teenagers make a turn over the fire. The making of the turns gets followed by chanting. The chanting is about baby making. Howie is not happy because of this leap fire ritual. For this leap to work, the women have to be virgins. The fusion of sexuality and death on this scene is active. For the jump to working, women are supposed to be virgins.  These women are said to be impregnated by the gods according to Lord Summerisle. Upon viewing the analysis fusion of sexuality with death, it is clear that the pagan communities of the west increase the mortality rate of people through these sacrifices, the highest number of these deaths being of women. The movie is used to stop these cult behaviors (Koven 278).
Effects of the fusion
The fusions of sex and death have had some connections, especially in European art. Most of the times it is considered a taboo topic in many cultures, and it is also a controversial subject in almost all the school curriculums. The continual mentioning of the two subjects can have effects on the values of young adults. Related to taboo, it can lead to obsession and eroticisms. A famous scholar argued that death and sexuality are fused because the mere instincts of death trigger sexual activities. A significant influence on the growth of a child sexual behavior takes place during the period of emotional development. Presentation of mortality, violence and sexual behavior in the media has an extensive influence on a child’s life and development. Horror movies can have both short-term as well as long-term effects on individuals in the community and also the society in general
Short-term effects
Priming-this is a situation where the human mind tends to act according to the ideas get activated in association with the stimuli. The stimuli can get observed, for example, the stimuli like in the case of horror movies. This relationship impacts the emotions and ideas in an individual’s memory. For example in the film; The Wicker Man, the residents of the Summerisle Island practice fertility rituals in public that involves copulating in the fields. There is also this scene in the movie where Howie at the Green Man Inn gets seduced by the landlord’s daughter, Willow. She tries to seduce him into having premarital sex with her, but he refuses.
A close look at the theme brought out by this scene may encourage young adults to engage in sex-related activities at an early age even when they are no married. According to scientists, the external sources can be intrinsically linked to cognition. This repeated exposure to sex and death in horror movies can bias an individual’s way of thinking, behavior, and feeling in a certain particular way relating to the content they see. For example, men may be primed to see women as sexual objects according to the exposure they get (Edmondson 52).
Long-term effects
Contrary to other Horror movies, Sergeant Howie does not seem frightened by his death as he tells Lord Summerisle that his days are also numbered. Being a very spiritual man, he sees these people as cruel who do not care about the outcomes of someone's death. They consider death as something that will help improve their harvests as sacrifice pleases their gods. Mostly, men are praised for their sexual prowess in horror movies, but women get punished, and mostly it leads to death. Research on horror movies show that those survivors who make it at the end of the film are mostly those that did not engage in sexual activities. The Wicker Man tends to have a different theme, Howard, who was a staunch Christian and even refused the advances of the landlords daughter ends up being sacrificed by the local population (Edmondson 56).
According to a research study conducted by two researchers namely; Donnerstein and Linz shows that continuous exposure to sex scenes accompanied by violence has led to the behavior of males of being less disturbed to sexual violence against women in real life situations. Continual exposure to horror films gives viewers the notion that some socially unacceptable behaviors are sometimes necessary. For example, there is this belief that there is some acceptable level of violence against women that may have positive consequences.
Fusion of sexuality and death also leads to an increase in the number of violent acts mostly against women; this result from a don’t-care attitude towards these issues learned from these movies. Studies show that, male college students show less concern and less sympathy for victims of rape, this happened to the notion they get from these horror films that women enjoy rape (Edmondson 107).
Continuous exposure to some of these X-rated films has a major effect on the thought patterns of the viewers. Even though most of these viewers distinguish between reality and fantasy, the media has the capability of modeling the behaviors of some of them especially children and teenagers. Research shows that even people have differentiated between reality and fiction, the perceptions they get from these films have a great Impact on their behavior. Sexual violence in horror movies affects the thoughts in the following processes:
•    Labeling sexual related violence as more sexual rather than a violent act
•    Having the perception that sexually related, violence is normal and culturally acceptable
•    Changing the responsibility to place more blame on the victim
•    Showing sexual related aggression as positive
•    Alteration of perceptions that victims derive pleasure from sexual pleasures
Conclusion
"The Wicker man" introduces us to a sergeant, Neil Howie, who takes a tour of Summerisle Island to investigate the disappearance of a young girl, Roman Morrison. The movie introduces the viewer to a Summerisle village where people do not believe in Christianity. Individuals in this community do what it takes to survive. Sacrificing is their main thing whenever there is a fall in harvests. Everyone in this village is a pagan and believes in pleasing their gods through sacrificing a virgin. The movie brings the fusion of sexuality and death. The film is based on an irony that the villagers consider Sergeant Howie as a fool but, on the other hand, they still rely on him to work out the young girl’s fate to cover his own.





Works Cited
Koven, Mikel J. "The Folklore Fallacy. A Folkloristic/Filmic Perspective on The Wicker Man." Fabula 48.3-4 (2007): 270-280.
Longinović, Toma. Vampires Over the Ages: A Cultural Analysis of Scientific, Literary, and Cinematic Representations. N.p., 2014. Print.
Wynter, Kevin A. Feeling Absence: Horror in Cinema from Post War to Post-Wall. Berkeley, CA, 2014. Print.