Wicker, directed by couple Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, is an erotic romantasy with all the dark comedy and vulgarity of a Brothers Grimm fairytale. The film was released on October 30 in Ireland and stars Heartstopper‘s Olivia Colman as the Fisherwoman and Alexander Skarsgård as the Wicker Husband. It has been met with a largely positive response online, receiving a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.4 on IMDb.

Wicker is based on a short story called The Wicker Husband by Ursula Wills-Jones, which centres on a Fisherwoman in a medieval town who is regarded as ugly and undesirable by others. In spite of them, she asks the local Basket Maker to construct her a husband out of wicker. Seeing how happy the Fisherwoman is with the Wicker Husband (who appears to be the perfect man in every way), the other villagers become extremely envious and craft a plot to destroy her happily-ever-after.

Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2026, the trailers first went viral online for the spicy and passionate scenes between Olivia Colman and her co-star Alexander Skarsgård, with The Hollywood Reporter calling it “The horniest, most tender film of the year”.

 

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The film could have easily become narratively shallow with its focus on eroticism, yet Fischer and Wilson creatively use the story’s fantastical premise to deconstruct ideas of patriarchy, masculinity and gender roles.

In an interview with Awards Watch, Wilson shared, “The theme that was most clear from the short story was just this theme of how envy and jealousy can destroy you, right? So that was the moral tale of the short story, and that was the starting point of when we were writing it, really.” Alex Huston Fischer added, “But it’s all about marriage, so it became all about the patriarchy.”

The relationship between the Fisherwoman and the Wicker Husband is a reversal of traditional gender roles, as she works and he attends to the home, which confuses many of the village folk.

The Wicker Husband is also presented as dedicated to attending to all the Fisherwoman’s needs, both domestically and sexually. This makes him an object of desire for many women in the village, who are unsatisfied by their own husbands. Furthermore, his caring nature spurs frustration and insecurity in many of the men because he challenges the patriarchal status quo that women should serve men in heterosexual relationships.

Colman’s performance as the Fisherwoman is a standout aspect of the film, as she brings a sense of poignancy and earnestness to the character. According to The Guardian, she explained about the Fisherwoman, “She’s the only woman with agency. She’s perfectly happy with her life. It’s when pushed that she says, ‘I’m going to f*ck this up and make a mockery of your beloved convention of marriage.’ Then she gets this kind, beautiful creature, and suddenly the world is even more joyous.”

The actor is considered to be an icon by the LGBTQ+ community, playing Nick Nelson’s loving mother in Heartstopper and sharing with Pride that “I’ve always felt sort of non-binary… I’ve never massively felt massively feminine in my being female. I’ve always described myself to my husband as a gay man.”

Technically, Wicker is also impressive, as instead of using CGI to transform Skarsgård into the Wicker Husband, practical special effects were used. In an interview with ELLE, Skarsgård explained, “It was basically like a suit, and then different chest plates and arm plates and then glued the Wicker Husband’s face onto my face (…) Got it down to under 2 hours”. The result is both uncanny and alluring.

Make sure to check out Wicker in cinemas now!