The Wicker Tree

The Wicker Tree

Year: 2011

Runtime: 96 mins

Language: English

Director: Robin Hardy

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Gospel singer Beth and her cowboy boyfriend Steve abandon Texas to spread their faith door‑to‑door across Scotland. Though they initially face hostility, the pair are later embraced with jubilation in the remote village of Tressock, a border fiefdom ruled by Sir Lachlan Morrison, where they are forced to confront the true cost of sacrifice.

Dark
Bleak ending
Emotionally heavy
High intensity
Steady pacing
Moderate complexity

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Timeline & Setting – The Wicker Tree (2011)

Explore the full timeline and setting of The Wicker Tree (2011). Follow every major event in chronological order and see how the environment shapes the story, characters, and dramatic tension.

Time period

Contemporary

The events unfold in a modern-day setting in the Scottish countryside. The villagers’ ritual life sits alongside modern infrastructure, notably the nuclear plant. The May Day festival anchors social life amid a blend of ancient myth and present-day concerns.

Location

Tressock, Scottish Lowlands, Glasgow

Tressock is a small village in the Scottish Lowlands ruled by Sir Lachlan Morrison. The community lives under the shadow of a recently constructed nuclear power plant, which affects fertility and daily life. Glasgow figures into the story as the initial destination for the missionaries before they return to Tressock for the May Day rites.

🌄 Rural village ⚡ Nuclear facility 🗺️ Scottish locale

Last Updated: October 03, 2025 at 09:45

Main Characters – The Wicker Tree (2011)

Meet the key characters of The Wicker Tree (2011), with detailed profiles, motivations, and roles in the plot. Understand their emotional journeys and what they reveal about the film’s deeper themes.

Beth Boothby (Brittania Nicol)

Beth is a confident, born-again evangelical pop singer from Texas who travels with Steve to preach Christianity. Her zeal drives her to lead the May Day plan, but she becomes entangled in the village’s dangerous rites. Her actions culminate in a confrontation at the wicker tree and a brutal end.

🎤 Pop Star ✝️ Faith 🔥 Zeal

Steve Thomson (Henry Garrett)

Steve is Beth’s fiancé and a member of the Cowboys in Christ who preaches to the locals. He engages in a sexual encounter with Lolly, regrets his actions, and ultimately wants to return home, complicating the mission and the village’s plans.

🎯 Missionary 💔 Infidelity 🧭 Conflict

Sir Lachlan Morrison (Graham McTavish)

Laird of the village of Tressock, Lachlan exerts patriarchal influence over ritual life. A memory of a mentor hints at the deeper beliefs driving the community’s modern rites, and he remains a central, deadly force in the events.

👑 Leader 🗝️ Power 🧭 Secret Beliefs

Lady Delia Morrison (Jacqueline Leonard)

Delia is Lachlan’s wife who participates in the village’s ritual life and prays to the setting sun for the gods to bring more men to sire children. She is a steady supporter of the social order and the ritual cycle.

👰 Matriarch ✨ Ritualist 🧭 Strategist

Lolly (Honeysuckle Weeks)

Lolly is a local villager who becomes involved with Steve, bearing the burden of the village’s fertility hopes and the affair’s fallout. She represents the younger generation drawn into the ritual world and its consequences.

🌸 Village Youth 💘 Secret Affection 👶 Legacy

Beame (Clive Russell)

Beame is the Morrison household’s butler, a quiet, calculating figure who attempts to sedate Beth and orchestrate events from behind the scenes. He is closely tied to the ritual machinery and the village’s control mechanisms.

🗝️ Servant 🧭 Manipulator 🗡️ Enforcer

Last Updated: October 03, 2025 at 09:45

Major Themes – The Wicker Tree (2011)

Explore the central themes of The Wicker Tree (2011), from psychological, social, and emotional dimensions to philosophical messages. Understand what the film is really saying beneath the surface.

🕯️ Religious Conflict

Beth and Steve’s evangelical mission collides with the village’s Celtic worship, turning faith into a tool of control. The Morison family and Beame manipulate beliefs to shepherd the community and justify coercive rites. The May Day spectacle becomes a battleground where faith, power, and survival clash.

🏰 Power & Ritual Control

The village’s elite leaders orchestrate ritual life to maintain dominance over Tressock. The wicker tree and May Queen ceremony function as instruments of social control and communal identity. Belief becomes a mechanism to govern bodies, loyalties, and futures.

💋 Sexuality & Betrayal

Sexual encounters drive the plot: Steve’s affair with Lolly and the ensuing emotional entanglements. Desire and infidelity intersect with ritual power, exposing vulnerabilities in both visitors and villagers. These dynamics escalate tension toward tragedy.

🔥 Destruction & Sacrifice

Beth’s resistance leads to the wicker structure’s destruction and the death of Sir Lachlan. The ritual’s sacrifices mirror the community’s fertility obsessions and desperation. The cycle of birth and death continues as the village endures.

Last Updated: October 03, 2025 at 09:45

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Discover curated groups of movies connected by mood, themes, and story style. Browse collections built around emotion, atmosphere, and narrative focus to easily find films that match what you feel like watching right now.

Folk Horror Ritual Movies like The Wicker Tree

Stories where isolated communities harbor sinister pagan traditions and deadly secrets.If you liked the pagan cult and ritualistic dread of The Wicker Tree, explore more movies with similar folk horror themes. These films often involve outsiders discovering sinister traditions in isolated villages, leading to tense, atmospheric stories of cultural clash and ancient beliefs.

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Narrative Summary

The narrative typically follows naive protagonists—often city dwellers or foreigners—as they are drawn into a seemingly idyllic rural community. The initial hospitality masks a deep-seated superstition or a desperate need for a ritual sacrifice, leading to a methodical build-up of dread as the outsiders discover they are not guests, but intended victims in a timeless cycle of violence.

Why These Movies?

These movies are grouped by their shared mood of rural unease and their focus on pagan rituals as a source of horror. They prioritize atmosphere over jump scares, using steady pacing to create a sense of inescapable doom rooted in landscape and tradition.

Cult Entrapment Stories similar to The Wicker Tree

Tales of charismatic groups luring outsiders with kindness that hides a terrifying truth.For viewers who enjoyed the theme of false welcome and cult indoctrination in The Wicker Tree, this list features movies with similar plots. Discover stories about characters being seduced by a seemingly benevolent group, only to find themselves trapped in a sinister scheme with a bleak outcome.

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Narrative Summary

The plot follows a predictable but effective arc: invitation, indoctrination, suspicion, and entrapment. Characters are initially drawn in by the promise of community, purpose, or salvation offered by a charismatic leader. The middle act involves growing unease and the discovery of disturbing truths, culminating in a climax where the protagonist must fight for escape from a system that now sees them as a resource to be consumed.

Why These Movies?

These films are connected by the core theme of deception and the psychological terror of being betrayed by those you trusted. They share a heavy emotional weight and often conclude with bleak endings, emphasizing the power and ruthlessness of the cult over the individualism of the hero.

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The Wicker Tree Summary

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The Wicker Tree Summary

The Wicker Tree Timeline

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The Wicker Tree Timeline

The Wicker Tree Spoiler-Free Summary

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