10 Smartest Villain Plans In Horror Movies

The Plan: Lure the perfect sacrifice to the island.

The 2006 remake of The Wicker Man has seen the film's reputation forever tarnished. It is not without hyperbole to state that this is possibly the worst and most unintentionally hilarious movie ever made. In an inconceivably dismal performance, Nicolas Cage spends most of the final act dementedly rushing around the island punching female islanders in the face - at one point in an actual bear costume.

The endless meme fodder provided by this atrocious adaptation - NOT THE BEES - means that the elaborate plotting of Christopher Lee's Lord Summerisle in Robin Hardy's 1973 original classic is often forgotten. The pagan Summerisle requires a human sacrifice to restore the island's failing harvest, with four specific requirements to appease the islander's Gods.

Sergeant Howie - Cage's 1973 counterpart - travels to the island in search of a missing girl, but is revealed to have been tricked as part of Summerisle's wicked brilliance, as well as fulfilling all four requirements. He is a virgin, he was not brought against his will, he possesses the power of "a King" by representing the law and finally, he is a fool; having been duped into thinking the missing girl was the intended sacrifice.

Howie barely has time to blink in stunned horror at Summerisle's cunning before being stuffed into the film's titular Wicker Man and set ablaze.