HARDY HISTORIES
Projects
Wicker Pictures is proud to expand the legacy of The Wicker Man and folk-horror more generally through a diverse scope of storytelling mediums. Over the last few years we have crafted three projects; one documentary, one fiction film, and one book. Each represent the symbiosis of academic research and powerful storytelling.
Upcoming
An Ill Wind
An Ill Wind is a feature fiction film written and directed by Justin Hardy. This folk horror film was shot on location in Shetland with a mixture of professional industry artisans and non-professional young filmmakers. It is a fusion project between The Academies, Carly Pictures, University College London, and the University of Birmingham. ​​Dealing with mythology, abuse and trauma, all through the lens of folk-horror, this character driven piece is in the final stages of post-production. ​
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Synopsis:
​After her husband’s suicide, Anna returns with her daughter to her deceased husband's homeland, the place they fled 10 years prior. This is the remote island of Hel.
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Nestled in the North Sea, between the Northern tip of Scotland and the coasts of Scandinavia, Hel is cloaked in mystery, myth and misogyny. Isolated in a place where the local community despise her, and whilst buried traumas resurface, Anna is torn between the ghosts of the past and the gods of the present. As an ill wind blows through, young girls from this fractured community begin to vanish.
These missing children, her husband’s death and her own trauma become inextricably linked as Anna is haunted by unsettling flashbacks, forcing her to confront dark family secrets lurking in the shadows, before they can devour her daughter too. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Upcoming
Children of the Wicker Man
Children of The Wicker Man is a documentary film directed by Justin Hardy, Dominic Hardy and Chris Nunn. What began as a film presenting new insights into the making of the cult-classic The Wicker Man soon became a poignant reflection on the film, fatherhood and shared trauma, through the eyes of Robin Hardy's sons. Still seeping with rich Wicker history, the film navigates behind-the-scenes turmoil to family struggles, assessing the films deeply personal and cultural legacy.
Synopsis:
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50 years on from the making of The Wicker Man (1973), director Robin Hardy’s lost papers come to filmmaker son Justin. Enlisting his brother Dominic, they journey to discover the complex nature of independent filmmaking and fatherhood. Justin’s view of the film is tainted because it robbed him of his father, his home and his mother too. Dominic is more distanced, his experience relating more to the film’s subsequent cult status. The sons can ask: what was Robin Hardy’s creative contribution to The Wicker Man? Viewers may not always like what the brothers find, but will come closer to understanding the evolution of one of cinema's most famous cult classics, and the maverick director behind it.
Upcoming October 2025
Children of the Wicker Man (Book)
Co-written with his half-brother Dominic Hardy, and edited by Chris Nunn, Children of the Wicker Man is the novelisation of the trio's eponymous documentary that released last year.
Justin was always conflicted over the exalted claims made for the film: for him, The Wicker Man destroyed his family. His brother Dominic has been more distanced. The Wicker Man is a set of fragmented stories: benighted production, brutal editing, critical reception, financial failure, and later revival. Using the newly uncovered sources, the brothers investigate what Robin Hardy’s creative contribution to The Wicker Man was, and consider who was truly sacrificed. They reveal an unlikely heroine: Justin’s mother, who bankrupted herself paying loans to her husband and the film, only for him to leave when it flopped. The brothers agree she should be justly regarded as executive producer of the film she never knew was a success. For all women behind artist husbands, this book reveals a series of heroines: the mothers of the children of The Wicker Man.