A Muppet Wicker Man

Let's come up with the weirdest combination of seemingly unrelated ideas and see what happens...And it is. Utter and stupendous perfection.

The Muppets do The Wicker Man. And they do it better than the original.

The Wicker Man just didn't cut it as a horror movie. Something was just askew the whole time. Like an art movie gone wrong. Silly. Contrived. Embarrassing. Awkward. And then omg!!! Horror ineffable.The horror was real but it was hard to tell whether the gawky pretentiousness was a set-up for the climax. Or a cheesie sex comedy attached to the wrong ending...? The Wicker Man worked if the film makers wanted to keep us on that uncomfortable edge between nervous laughter and terrified screaming.

Probably the most awkward moment was the scene where the landlord's daughter Willow flings her naked body against the bedroom wall between her and the main character Sgt. Neil Howie over and over again. All the while singing in an attempt to seduce him. Ok, is this supposed to be sexy? Or a turn-off? Kind of like when an attractive drunk drools endearments all over your ear at the end of a party...?

But then you twist the gawkiness up a bit with the addition of a few Muppets. And you have a mash-up of monstrous magnificence.



Source: Coilhouse

 Puppets are the perfect uncanny vehicles to maintain the kind of unease that The Wicker Man aims for. Psychological anxiety that keeps getting ratcheted up until its comic-horror denouement. Contrasted so brutally and effectively with a happy harvest song. Or in this case, 'The Muppet Theme Song.'

The final scene of The Wicker Man was always brilliant horror. But it's better with Muppets.