Wrath of the Gods - Festival Review

Lauded not simply as one of the horror genre's greatest feats, but also as one of cinema's greatest films of all time, 'The Wicker Man' (1973), directed by the even more applauded filmmaker Robin Hardy, is a feature that needs no introduction. Hardy's name and folkloric story of religion and tradition have become synonymous with British filmic culture, representing the horrors that lie deep within the roots of the soil, harbouring its power over those who live atop it. Belonging to the Mark Gattis coined 'Unholy Trinity', also composed of 'Witchfinder General' (1968) and 'The Blood on Satan's Claw' (1961), The Wicker Man and all of its intricacies speak to an expansiveness of lore and an entire saga of legends and historical stories. This potential for a thematic universe was also expressed by Hardy himself, who went on to write and direct 'The Wicker Tree' (2011), a dark horror that, too, followed the cultivation of paganism in contemporary times. 

Sadly, hope of completing the trilogy ceased after Hardy's passing just five years after his last feature. However, Hardy's son and established BAFTA-winning filmmaker, Justin Hardy, along with his sibling, Dominic Hardy, also a renowned historian and creator of the arts, are, by a fantastic series of events, able to complete the trilogy and present 'Wrath of the Gods'. How exactly the cinematic series met its finale can be described as a chapter of accidents; upon their father's death, the pair unearthed material written by the acclaimed director. Ideas, scripts and hashing's outs of concepts that adapt the themes and stories from the world of The Wicker Man were discovered by chance.  

As Justin presents in his superbly insightful and emotional documentary 'Children of the Wicker Man' (2024), the process of discovering his patriarch's materials was indeed a process within itself due to complicated familial history. However, in a valiant move, both production wise and at the hands of personal chronologies of adapting a narrative inspired by Hardy's source material, Justin's Wrath of the Gods delivers a truly excellent tale of legacies of cruel fates, the cyclical nature of violence and a contemporary, touching and visceral spin on the classic concept of sins of the father. 

The film opens with a deeply disturbing incident of a couple, Anna (Christiane Schaldemose) and Ingram (Jamie Rhodes), sharing a bed, only to be interrupted by a looming watchful eye in the most abhorrent of manners. Years later, Anna, having repressed the event, is fatefully surged into a world of dark histories of intergenerational trauma when she returns to the now-deceased Ingram's hometown, Hel Island, to lay rest her husband. Joined by her daughter, Gudrun (Martha Robertson), Anna is made to feel not just unwelcome as she stays with her in-laws, Tulloch (Francis Magee) and Maeve (Lynsey Rendall), but by seemingly most of the remote island's occupants. When children begin to go missing under strange circumstances, the ostracised widow becomes that of a walking 'scarlet letter'. Anna's presence is treated as a harbinger of bad luck, particularly by the townsfolk's men, with only a few of the women treating her with kindness. In what becomes a story of female solidarity through necessity, Wrath of Gods is a pitch-black tale of repressed guilt and a stinging sense of lingering perversions that taint and wade their way back to Anna during her time on the island. 

Wrath of the Gods' heart lies within its setting. Its complex emotional and atmospheric effectiveness is anchored in its location on Hel Island. Filmed entirely in the Shetlands, a group of Scottish Islands famed for both its beauty and longstanding Norse history, Wrath of the Gods weaves in the concept of darkened fables and traditional folklore - a distinct call to its Wicker Man roots - and encapsulates the striking connection between man and land with horrifying undertones. Similar to the thematics of this trilogy-making film, the production was keen to give itself entirely over to the cultural and narrative complexities of local histories. In what has been described by producers as a post-colonial approach, Hardy incorporated local theatre, civilians and indigenous custom into every beat of the film. Wrath of the Gods did not simply set up production in the Shetlands; it lived and breathed the villages as much as it possibly could. 

It is this air of integrity that breeds an authentic horror into the narrative arcs. The idea of hushed practices that the men of the fictional Hel Island have meshed into the fabric of the patriarchal culture is vividly powerful on its own. However, it is the distinctive nature of insular customs against the backdrop of the isolated island that makes the underlying notion of pure survivalism thrive. Its filming location was no coincidence, with Hardy ensuring that the landscape of barren terrain and endless solitude quietly became the main character. 

Justin Hardy, a filmmaker who was known for his documentary lens, offering films that aimed to expose and give credence to the truth, alongside his academic practices that saw him devote years of knowledge to the arts, tragically passed away in late July. Leaving behind a legacy of pure talent and dedication to the wonderful world of filmmaking, Wrath of the Gods marks Hardy's last venture in cinema. 

Wrath of the Gods concludes one of horror cinema's most mystifying and brilliant explorations of British folk horror, completing the series with an even more excellent tale of multifaceted motifs and an arresting peek into the aura of legends and myth that the country's land has been brewing for centuries. 

Catch the regional premiere, followed by an exclusive Q&A of 'Wrath of the Gods' at this year's Dead Northern Film Festival on Sunday 27th at 17:30

You can grab your tickets to watch Dead Reset at this years Festival here!

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