After a troubled history that saw it hacked to pieces for US audiences, The Wicker Man (1973) has won its place as "one of the best British horror films" ever made. Edward Woodward stars as a God-fearing police officer cast adrift in a pagan island community headed by a creepy Christopher Lee. Sexual perversity is rife among the inhabitants and candidly portrayed by director Robin Hardy, but it's the multi-layered script by Anthony Shaffer that ensured its longevity.

Wicker's World

Both the theatrical version and the full director's cut are presented in this three disc Collector's Edition (the third disc being the CD soundtrack). Fifteen minutes of previously excised footage include Lord Summerisle (Lee) overseeing the sexual rites-of-passage of a local boy, eerily inter-cut with scenes of slithery snail intercourse. Mark Kermode helpfully points out the seams in a commentary with Woodward, Lee and Hardy. "I have no proof," says Lee, but he insists that the brutal re-editing of the film was a "deliberate" attempt at sabotage by the suits at EMI who had just bought out their production company British Lion.

There's more on the background politics in Burnt Offering, a 50 minute documentary hosted by Kermode. Among the usual suspects, he talks to actor/novelist David Pinner who provided the framework for the story with his book Ritual. Naturally screenwriter Anthony Shaffer (who officially wrote the novel on which his script is based) is reluctant to give Pinner too much credit. "I read it and it just didn't work at all," he insists, "I'm not saying it was a bad book..."

The Burning Issue

Another half-hour documentary, The Wicker Man Enigma, covers some of the same ground as Burnt Offering. There's talk about having to create an air of spring in the middle of the Scottish winter (also discussed in the commentary) and how the Americans "sliced the picture up like salami" (as Hardy puts it). But there are some great anecdotes in here too. Woodward looks back philosophically on being caged up in a giant, flaming Wicker Man with a goat above his head that was so terrified it couldn't stop urinating. Not surprisingly, Snell and Hardy were harangued by animal rights protestors, compelling Shaffer to put out a statement saying, "Only cuddly and woolly animals will be burnt..."

A blurry archive interview with Lee and Hardy rounds off the extras on disc two. As well as talking about The Wicker Man, it gives Lee the chance to chat about his encounter with Orson Welles on a TV project filmed the same year (1973). A frankly redundant addition to disc two is video footage of Kermode, Hardy, Lee and Woodward recording the first 15 minutes of their Director's Cut commentary.

Together, the documentaries provide an engrossing account of all the challenges faced by the creative team, from getting the film off the ground, to shooting it under harsh conditions, the subsequent tussle over distribution and having it resonate with moviegoers. Unfortunately, the package is badly let down by grainy prints for both versions of the film - especially pronounced in the ‘lost' scenes. If fans of the film can get past that, this Collector's Edition lifts the veil on a fascinating chapter in the history of British cinema.

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