The Wicker Man (1973), directed by Robin Hardy, is a film adaptation of the 1967 novel Ritual by David Pinner, and the first film people think of when the words ‘folk horror’ are uttered. Essentially defining the genre, the plot follows the police sergeant Neil Howie as he travels to the isolated island Summerilse after receiving a letter about a missing girl. Howie is a devout Christian and therefore horrified to find the island's inhabitants practicing a form of Celtic Paganism.