Editorials
May Day – Folk Horror Classic ‘The Wicker Man’ Turns 50
Classic folk horror movie The Wicker Man turns fifty later this year, but today, May 1, 2023, makes for the perfect time to celebrate its momentous anniversary.
The entire premise centers around May Day festivities, after all, building its horror around the themes of rebirth, fertility, and the driving desire for an isolated community to thrive with a fruitful harvest. What’s now considered a foundational pillar of folk horror wasn’t always the case. The Wicker Man eschewed conventional horror tactics that puzzled upon initial release, mining its ultimate terror from one unforgettable ending.
The opening text attempts to establish authenticity with a producer’s thanks to Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee) and his people for cooperating with the film’s production and providing insight into their religion and culture. It then cuts to a seaplane arriving at the remote Summerisle setting over the opening credits, introducing Police Sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward). Howie receives an anonymous letter about a missing girl, Rowan Morrison, on Summerisle, and the well-intentioned Sergeant takes it upon himself to investigate. Lucky for him, the remote island residents welcome him warmly and offer unfettered access to their community during his stay. But the devout Christian finds himself unsettled by the increasingly vague answers to his questions and even more unnerved by their Pagan practices.
Whether Rowan exists or not will become the least of Howie’s problems.
Director Robin Hardy and screenwriter Anthony Shaffer (Frenzy), inspired by David Pinner’s 1967 novel Ritual, present an atypical aesthetic for a horror movie. Summerisle earns its moniker thanks to its vibrant sunny locale and spring festivities. Its people are warm, cheery, and prone to breaking out into song and dance. The township of Summerisle favors nature above all else; it’s reflected everywhere. Characters are named after flowers, trees, and plants. Howie stays at the Green Man Inn, a revealing title that the conservative police sergeant doesn’t connect.
Of course, the more Howie explores Summerisle in search of Rowan, the more alarmed he grows. As clues mount for his quest, like a missing photo of the most recent May Queen, so do the signs that Summerisle’s customs embrace Paganism. Howie’s horrified to come upon a group of copulating villagers on his evening stroll and even more perturbed to find the classrooms teaching children of phallic symbolism in May Day festivities. Howie finds himself an island within the island, an unrepentant Christian surrounded by unapologetic Pagans, despite how civilized and rational they seem. It affirms his righteous determination to find Rowan and get out of there as he becomes more confident that she’s been sacrificed.
Hardy presents Summerisle as is, without judgement; their way of life is only a problem for Howie in more ways than one. The unwitting frog doesn’t realize he’s dropped into a warm pot until it reaches a rolling boil that he’s unable to flee. As the film barrels towards its shocking conclusion, Hardy and Shaffer spell out exactly where Howie’s journey ends with a library scene that sees its oblivious protagonist read aloud Summerisle’s May Day ceremonies and their gods’ requirements for a bountiful harvest; a must for the village’s continued existence. Exuberance masks Summerisle’s desperation, and the final act unmasks it with the haunting reveal that it was Howie all along, not Rowan, who was designated the sacrifice.
The May Day ritual ensues, with the foretold parade and a grim beheading that culminates with Howie offered up in a burning effigy, the eponymous Wicker Man. His prayers and cries for aid in the name of his faith go unanswered as the flames devour the structure.
The Wicker Man, released initially in December 1973, breaks all the usual horror rules. Save for a clashing of religions and a central mystery, nothing about Hardy’s film signals horror for most of its brief runtime. The eccentricities of Summerisle’s people and traditions meant it didn’t set the box office ablaze, likely even more so with a dour ending for its main character. That doesn’t even touch upon the multiple cuts and restorations unearthed throughout the decades.
Christopher Lee, who delivered an infectious and compelling performance as the commanding Lord Summerisle, was so proud of this film that he funded his own publicity tour to promote it. Lee is often credited for driving interest in The Wicker Man, a move that left him out of pocket. Nevertheless, the late horror legend was absolutely spot on about the film’s merit.
Reappraisal came for The Wicker Man, now considered among the seminal, formative folk horror trifecta. The Wicker Man, along with 1968’s Witchfinder General and 1971’s The Blood on Satan’s Claw, emerged as the pinnacle of the often nebulously defined horror subgenre with a lasting impact on pop culture.
While the movie ends without revealing whether Summerisle’s sacrifice yielded their desired hopes of a bountiful harvest, The Wicker Man did usher forth a classic horror movie whose legacy only seems to grow more potent with age.
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
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