'The Wicker Man' Director's Cut: More Horrors and Christoper Lee Singing

According to journalist Allan Brown's definitive book, The Wicker Man faced a lot of low-budget difficulties once the footage was in the can, between disinterested studio heads, cutting room culls and runtime issues. Although it didn’t attract any controversy that required cuts to be made, unimpressed execs declared it too long - and in some cases, too dull - forcing a last-minute scramble to edit it down to a state acceptable for double feature. Because of this, there have been up to four different versions of the movie to exist over the years, with the original theatrical cut clocking in at around 87 minutes, and some sources telling of a long-lost 102-minute version. Indeed, production stills in Allan Brown’s book on The Wicker Man indicate a number of scenes that remain unaccounted for in existing cuts. While director Robin Hardy and others made a number of efforts at restoration over the years, culminating in the so-called Final Cut released in 2013, none of these has ever fully encapsulated what the movie set out to be. The restored scenes do, however, see the film flourish, and offer some intriguing depth to an already compelling story.