THE LAST SACRIFICE, the chilling new feature documentary from award-winning director Rupert Russell(Freedom for the Wolf, Price Wars), has been selected to screen at the prestigious Sitges Film Festival s on October 8th 2024.
THE LAST SACRIFICE delves into the real-life 1945 witchcraft killing of Charles Walton—the terrifying event that inspired THE WICKER MAN and birthed the folk horror genre. This unsettling true-crime interrogation probes into the eerie, enigmatic cultural undercurrents that shaped 1970’s folk horror genre, leaving an indelible mark on cinema and public psyche.
Director Rupert Russell says of the film: “I was drawn to mystery of Charle Walton’s unsolved murder because it is also the mystery of Britain itself – its secrets, its darkness, its unique flavour of madness. It grounded the joyous festival of self-destructive depravity depicted in the Wicker Man in an all too relatable reality. A reality that Briton’s face in 2024 just as much as they did in 1973 or 1945. Why are we compelled to burn it all down?”
THE LAST SACRIFICE was produced by Sam Cryer (She Will) via Intermission film and was edited by Alexander McNeill (All the Lights Still Burning). The film’s score was composed by Mike Lindsay, co-founder and frontman of the British folktronica band Tunng.
