‘The Last Sacrifice’ Review: Fascinating Folk Horror Documentary Links 1940s Murder to ‘The Wicker Man’ [FrightFest Glasgow 2025 Review]
In 1945 a gruesome murder rocked the English village of Lower Quinton, sparking an extensive criminal investigation and, in decades to come, salacious rumors of a supernatural motive. The victim, an elderly farm laborer named Charles Walton, was found with his throat slit and a pitchfork jammed through his neck; a crime scene so disturbing and inexplicable that the local police called in an expert, the famous London detective Robert Fabian. His methods were impressively thorough and usually yielded results, but in this case, the perpetrator was surprisingly hard to find.
As Fabian began to interview the 493 inhabitants of Lower Quinton, he noticed that they seemed curiously unafraid that the mysterious killer might strike again. They also appeared to be stonewalling his investigation, as if they’d rather maintain their community’s privacy than unmask a murderer in their midst.
On its own, the killing of Charles Walton is already juicy enough to warrant a true crime documentary. However, this gory little event holds extra intrigue for horror fans, as it’s credited as a key inspiration behind The Wicker Man. Rupert Russell’s new documentary The Last Sacrifice examines the case from all angles—not just discussing the crime and its reputation as a potentially witchcraft-related murder, but also connecting it to the booming popularity of folk horror in the later 20th century.
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Russell’s choppy editing style takes a while to get used to, cutting quickly between historical footage, talking-head interviews, and an impressive catalog of vintage horror movie clips. But once you get into the swing of things, the underlying material really begins to shine, exploring the symbiotic relationship between the rise of neo-Paganism and the 1970s heyday of British folk horror cinema.
In The Last Sacrifice, we see how real-life witchcraft—whether it’s ancient superstitions or New Age rituals—fed into early folk horror classics like Blood on Satan’s Claw, Robin Redbreast and The Witchfinder General. These films drew from pagan traditions that survive through to the present day, like the Maypole dance and costumed procession we see in The Wicker Man. At the same time, they also took inspiration from the growing prominence of contemporary witchcraft during the counterculture movements of the 1960s and 1970s, which tended toward titillating images of hippie nudists and tabloid scaremongering about Satanic rites. In turn, these cinematic depictions fed back into the public fascination with neo-Paganism.
Some of this documentary’s most compelling interviewees are people who have firsthand connections to this period of occult history. One is a prominent wiccan who worked alongside the influential neo-Pagan leader Alex Sanders, a colorful character who gets plenty of screen time via archival footage. Whether that’s remotely relevant to the Charles Walton case is another question, but I’m inclined to say it doesn’t matter. Russell’s carefully chosen film clips offer clever insight into the evolution of folk horror, coupled with pointed commentary about a period of cultural upheaval for Britain at large.
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You’ll have to decide for yourself whether Charles Walton’s death had anything to do with witchcraft. The connective tissue between his murder and The Wicker Man has more to do with the resulting investigation, an experience that clearly lingered in the mind of detective Robert Fabian when he later penned his memoirs.
Like The Wicker Man’s policeman protagonist Neil Howie, Fabian was an outsider who failed to make headway with a standoffish and old-fashioned community. And while The Wicker Man (and its source material, the 1967 novel Ritual) spun this idea into something more lurid, this behavior reflects some of the darker and weirder elements of British cultural identity. As some interviewees in The Last Sacrifice point out, Brits can be isolationist, conservative, and obsessed with seemingly pointless rituals. There are obvious reasons why the folk horror genre took root here, especially at a time when older generations were clashing with the nascent hippie movement.
Due to the high-profile nature of Charles Walton’s murder investigation, this movie isn’t necessarily breaking new ground in terms of whodunnit. In theory you could glance over at Wikipedia for a decent overview of the evidence. However, The Last Sacrifice weaves the available information into a more coherent yarn, fleshing things out with its overlapping exploration of pagan traditions and folk horror. It also concludes with a genuinely wild epilogue, delivering a revelation so bizarre that I wouldn’t dare spoil it here.
Summary
An entertaining and wide-ranging documentary that combines true crime with insight into the heyday of British folk horror, connecting a real-life murder to the origins of The Wicker Man.
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