10 Brilliant Movie Plot Twists That Don't Actually Make Sense
3. The Wicker Man - Lord Summerisle's Scheme
The real Wicker Man (i.e., not the one with Nic Cage!) is a horror masterpiece without question, and perhaps the greatest folk horror of them all. It tells the chilling story of a pagan cult luring a policeman to their remote island via a faked disappearance, and then sacrificing him to their Gods, hoping to revive their failing harvests. Poor Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) is burned alive in a giant wicker man, which makes for a harrowing conclusion, a fitting coda to such an unsettling, thematically rich horror story.
Such is the power and craftsmanship of The Wicker Man that it's much easier to forgive the abundance of contrivances. As with some other twists on this list, an awful lot could've gone wrong with this plan. The whole thing relied on whether or not Howie would be foolish enough to come on his own without any sort of backup, and once he arrives, they start claiming the girl never existed. He might've simply left, which would've screwed their whole plan up.
A key reason why Howie was chosen is that he came willingly, he has the 'power of the king' (being an authority figure), and he's also a virgin, as he's a devout Christian saving himself for marriage. Given how isolated the island community is, how could they have found that out for sure? Also, there was no garuantee that Howie would be the policeman sent.