Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård explore desire in folk horror Wicker

In *Wicker*, Olivia Colman plays a lonely, depressed fisherwoman who asks a basketmaker to create her a husband. Alexander Skarsgård plays the resulting wicker figure, devoted to her pleasure and happiness, in a folk-horror fairy tale that turns a strange premise into a story about emotional connection and patriarchal expectations.

Set in a medieval village, the film features British comic actors including Peter Dinklage, Phil Daniels and Richard E Grant. Skarsgård performed in a full bodysuit, face mask and prosthetics designed with help from Weta Workshop; he says he had to exaggerate his movements and sounds so his performance would register. Colman praised how much he conveyed despite those constraints, while the filmmakers describe the story’s emotional centre as connecting with a basket.