10 Horror Movies Where Nobody Wins
2. The Wicker Man
Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) is investigating the case of a missing girl on the isolated Scottish island of Summerisle and finds the locals a little…strange. As a staunchly Christian man, their Pagan beliefs are deeply jarring to him, particularly public Fun and Funky Time and children being taught the more grown-up associations of the maypole.
But all the islanders simply deny the girl existed, which only makes Howie more suspicious.
The film builds and builds, until Howie confronts the islanders during a ritual which he believes Rowan will be sacrificed in. But the girl was never the intended sacrifice. Howie himself was.
He is bundled into an enormous wicker man and the effigy is set ablaze. Howie dies praying, but his God does not come to save him. Both he and his belief loses, yet the islanders aren’t the victors either.
The whole reason they are sacrificing Howie is due to previous crop failure and are now trying to appease their own gods, but there is no way of knowing if this is a success. How many have died on that island, and if the cult continues to practice, how many more will too?