PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Pophorror recently got to interview the minds behind the documentary and book of Children of The Wicker Man. Justin and Dominic Hardy gave us some insight into their father’s film and the legacy it leaves behind for them and others involved in the film’s making and fandom
Check it out!
PopHorror: So Children of the Wicker Man. Kind of an interesting documentary because The Wicker Man means so many different things to different people. Especially me, it’s one of my all time favorite horror films, but you guys have a complicated history with it. So what can you tell audiences what to expect from this documentary when they watch it?
Justin Hardy: Look, whilst it’s about our dad who made The Wicker Man or who directed The Wicker Man, it isn’t really the same genre as The Wicker Man. So if you’re expecting a procedural soft cultural immersion with some music that it ends up with everyone getting burned, it isn’t that. What it is is a pretty traumatic… In fact, many people have referred to it as being a sort of trauma film, a family trauma film of what it was like to be growing up with The Wicker Man being made in your house, or out of your house, and Domi being that little bit older and visiting that house.
So they are firsthand accounts. They’re also, we got six acts of materials sent to us that had been in mom’s attic, and she has a story to tell about how she was involved in the film and how she helped the film for which she got no credit whatsoever, died early, thought that she had bankrolled a complete lemon, only for us to discover later on that actually she’d backed the right horse.
So for us, it’s a family journey. It’s therefore, I don’t know. Did that work for you or was that too emotive for you?
PopHorror: No, that worked for me perfectly. Thank you. You guys got a lot of history about The Wicker Man as well, including a scene where you found the original script for The Wicker Man. How was it like coming across on these historical items of the film as well?
Dominic Hardy: Well, several terrific things about finding that script, because up until now, we’d only had scripts with no annotations whatsoever, but this time we had it since the script opens with a drawing of Punch on the title page, and then it is adorned with countless annotations by our dad, crossings out, addings in, a whole extra scene at the end that wasn’t filmed, and all kinds of insights into the way his mind was complimentary to the mind of Anthony Shaffer, the writer. Dad was able to reign in the excessive verbiage that Shaffer was quite famous for. And though it reads very nicely, you can tell that it was just too much for the pace of the actual film. And getting to see his work, his own shaping work of the material from the inside was amazing. Just totally new insight for us.
PopHorror: And how does it feel like having a film company like Severin Films release Children of the Wicker Man on Blu-ray film for you guys, knowing that a wider audience is going to be able to watch the film as well?
Justin Hardy: I think Severin, I’m really proud. I think we’re both very proud to have Severin take us on. They are the global experts in horror and in our corner of horror, loosely called folk horror. And David Gregory in particular is a Brit who has been operating out of LA for a long time, and he himself makes fantastic films about cult material. Wherever we go to horror film festivals and people say, “Oh, we love The Wicker Man. We’re so grateful that you came.” They all tell us, “Oh, you have Severin?” They’re wide-eyed and really impressed.
PopHorror: Right. Dom, go ahead.
Dominic Hardy: Sorry, I was just going to say, when we were interviewed by David, it was really clear that he got the film really at a deep level. And when he realized that we’d written a book of the same name after the film was finished, he got right on board. And so Severin are packaging in The Wicker basket, the Children of the Wicker Man film and book. It’s terrific to have that kind of understanding and support. And as a result, the first edition of our book in Britain is sold out and it’s going to be reprinted in paperback in October.
PopHorror: And where can people order the book as well?
Dominic Hardy: Through Severin.
PopHorror: And what are the main differences between the book and the film, if you can discuss those differences? Did you guys go deeper into the book or deeper into the documentary?
Justin Hardy: I think the book gives us as sons a bit more opportunity to take a look at dad and say, where was the genius? The man who made The Wicker Man was considered a pretty poor filmmaker in 1973, an absolutely dire filmmaker in 1983, a pretty tremendous filmmaker in 1993, and an extraordinary filmmaker in 2003. And with every passing decade, he becomes more and more deified. And I think that our book has enabled us to chart our lives and his life as we saw The Wicker Man inflate him and inflate him. Now, one of the big questions that people often ask is, “Well, why didn’t he make any other films?” And the answer is he did, you just haven’t heard of them. He came across one really, really tremendous film that has lived on and has endured. And the subject of our next documentary, Wikimania, looks at why it’s endured and why that as a film as a subject matter just really speaks to today as well as it did those years ago.
PopHorror: Well, guys, thank you so much for joining me today. It’s been fun, and congratulations on the documentary and the book as well.
Justin Hardy:
Thank you very much.
Dominic Hardy: Thanks very much. Great to be with you. Take care.
PopHorror: You guys too.
