The Wicker Man (soundtrack) tunes such as "Miri it is" the oldest surviving middle English song fragment, the "Struan Robertson's Rant" strathspey (plays while Sgt. Howie searches the ship for Rowan), the "Tenpenny Bit" jig (Plays while Lord Summerisle and MacGregor prepare for the festivities), and "Drowsy Maggie" reel (plays while Sgt. Howie searches a house for Rowan). "Chop Chop" is based on the nursery rhyme "Oranges and Lemons". "Procession" is an arrangement of the tune of the Child Ballad "Fause Foodrage". Although some of the music is Scottish, and the film is set in the Hebrides, no traditional Scottish Gaelic numbers are featured.
The Wicker Man little more literate" than the average horror picture. He specifically wanted a film with a minimum of violence and gore. He was tired of seeing horror films that relied almost entirely on viscera to be scary. The focus of the film was crystallised when he "finally hit upon the abstract concept of sacrifice." The image of the wicker man, which gave the filmmakers their title, was taken from one sentence in Julius Caesar's account of his wars in what is now France. Caesar claimed that the local tribes there had executed their most serious criminals by burning them alive in