Wicker and the rise of the ‘monster romance’: why audiences are falling for the non-human

By Natalie Wall, PhD Candidate in English Literature, University of Liverpool

Wicker is an unorthodox love story from husband-and-wife filmmaking team Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson. Based on Ursula Wills-Jones’s short story, The Wicker Husband, it blends satirical folk fable with elements of the modern rom-com.

The film, set vaguely in the middle ages, follows a lonely fisherwoman (Olivia Colman) who commissions a husband made from wicker (Alexander Skarsgård). Ultimately she falls in love with her handmade companion.

Colman’s fisherwoman is pitied for her unmarried…

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