‘That’s my costume, the salmon of knowledge!’
In this OG folk horror classic, pious and tenacious police officer Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) arrives on a remote Scottish island, Summerisle, to investigate the disappearance of teenage girl Rowan Morrison.
The locals aren’t exactly helpful though. Half of them deny all knowledge of Rowan’s existence and half of them say she’s dead. Even Rowan’s ‘mother’ isn’t talking and seems very unbothered about the whereabouts of her daughter.
Howie’s investigations lead him to Daddy of the island, Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee) and he begins to suspect that Rowan was sacrificed in a pagan ritual by the islanders to ensure a bountiful harvest that year.
When Howie attempts to leave the island, the true intentions of the islanders are revealed in what is possibly horror cinema’s most shocking twist ending.
Content warning: Boobs. Lots of boobs. Pub garden orgies, animal cruelty, Christopher Lee cos-playing Cher. Oh, and the ending. It’s hide-behind-the-cushion scary.
Final verdict: virgins don’t always make it to the end of a horror film.
