Wicker

[psocoptera]

Wicker, 2026 fantasy/fairytale movie. I liked a lot of things about it, although there were lines I just could not catch/comprehend, such that maybe I would have rather been at home with subtitles, although I also enjoyed it visually on the big screen. Also (big spoilers, although not specific) the plot involves a shocking act of intimate partner violence*, which on the one hand is maybe in keeping with the "dark fairy tale" nature of the story where things are heightened and dramatized (this is the kind of fairytale with multiple deaths) and on the other hand was still A Lot and I'm still sitting with how I feel about it. *(I guess technically two but one is classic fairy tale justice, while the other is more the trope of the fairy tale mistake ("things will be fine as long as you don't do x") but... a scary violent one.) So, recced with reservations, I guess?

Comments

[ursula]

I found the fairy tale justice violence bit more upsetting because, like, is the figure enacting that violence a person? Why would you create a person to do that? What does it mean if the wicker man is a person but she's not?

[psocoptera]

Oh, yeah, totally, I did think about that! And what is she going to do next. Or the baby - it is also quite a choice to create someone permanently dependent and stuck in infancy, although I guess that also happens by chance in real life, in a way that deliberately creating a weapon of retribution does not. The whole premise of people who are made for purpose, and the buying and selling of them - it's disturbing stuff! (I guess the basketmaker would say that nature provides what is suitable, or however that line went, I think there was something like that, and the animating spirit or whatever that was put into the husband was inclined to be loving, and what was in the baby was willing to need care, and what was in the wife wanted to be vengeful...) Possibly part of the difference for me is that I can imagine writing a story, "The Blackthorn Wife" or whatever, trying to get into her POV (or at least what she does next), but Wicker *is* the fisherwoman's story and so there is no more possible context for what she does.