Wicker Man Isn't Based on the Movie — Here's the Real Story Alton Towers Built Instead

Let the story begin….

When Alton Towers announced a new wooden coaster called Wicker Man in 2017, most of the press coverage made the same assumption: this had to be tied to the 1973 horror film starring Christopher Lee, or perhaps its 2006 remake. Alton Towers has since gone on record, repeatedly and explicitly, to correct this. The ride shares a name and a central image with the film, but the actual story built around it is something else entirely — a fictional cult called the Beornen, a two-year secret marketing campaign that began before most people even knew the ride existed, and a genuinely clever piece of fire-effect engineering that isn't what it appears to be. Here's the real story.

The Myth Alton Towers Has Directly Denied

It's worth starting with the correction itself, since it comes straight from Alton Towers' own account of the ride's creation. Since the title Wicker Man was announced, the park has acknowledged that a lot of press reporting linked the theme directly back to the Wicker Man films — but has been explicit that the theme and story of the ride are completely unrelated to either movie. The park has stated plainly that while the ride explores similar concepts to the films, its actual inspiration comes from historical sources rather than cinema, specifically citing the genuine burning of effigies traceable through the Neolithic period, ancient Druidic practice, and the Roman era.

This distinction matters more than it might first seem. The 1973 film itself drew on the same real historical tradition Alton Towers is directly referencing — so the ride and the film share a common ancestor in genuine pagan and druidic history, without one being based on the other. It's a genuinely important nuance that most surface-level coverage of the ride's launch got wrong at the time.

The Beornen: A Fictional Cult Built Specifically for This Ride

At the centre of Wicker Man's actual story sits the Beornen, an entirely fictional community invented by Alton Towers' in-house creative team specifically for this project. According to the park's own account, the Beornen are described as a secretive, feral community living hidden in the shadowy woodland surrounding Alton — a group that has evolved alongside modern English society while remaining permanently on the outside of it, never integrating, holding beliefs and values genuinely incompatible with the modern world around them.

The Beornen are given real depth as a fictional culture, rather than simply existing as vague background lore. They're described as having their own language and rune alphabet, elements Alton Towers specifically wove into the ride's physical theming and its pre-launch marketing campaign. Their core belief, as officially described, centres on the Wicker Man effigy itself: they believe that setting fire to the structure will bring a sense of enlightenment and eternal wellbeing, working to "re-awaken" their deity in the process. That deity is represented by the ride's six-storey wicker figure itself, deliberately designed with a head that's half human and half ram — the human face representing the god the Beornen are trying to revive, the ram head evoking older, broader pagan associations with nature and fertility.

A Story Alton Towers Started Telling a Year Before the Ride Existed

Here's a genuinely underappreciated piece of this story: Alton Towers didn't invent the Beornen purely as ride theming revealed alongside the coaster's opening. The community was first introduced to the public during Scarefest 2017 — a full season before Wicker Man itself opened in March 2018 — through a scare maze called The Welcoming: Be Chosen.

That maze gave Scarefest visitors the chance to take part in one of the Beornen's fictional ceremonies, selecting members of "The Chosen" from among the guests. Those chosen guests were led through the Beornen's own village setting, before ultimately encountering a burning man figure, overseen by a strange, priest-like character. This is a genuinely sophisticated piece of long-form marketing storytelling — introducing an entire fictional culture and its central ritual object through an immersive Halloween experience, fully a year before the coaster it was actually promoting had even been publicly named. Anyone who experienced The Welcoming during Scarefest 2017 would have walked into Wicker Man's opening season already primed with a full year's head start on the ride's underlying lore.

The Artist Behind the Ride's Visual Identity

It's worth knowing that Wicker Man's promotional artwork carries a genuinely notable creative pedigree. The illustration work for the ride's reveal campaign was created by Kyle Lambert, an artist known internationally for his work on major film and television projects including Stranger Things, Jurassic Park, and Jumanji. Bringing in an illustrator with that specific portfolio was a deliberate choice, lending the Beornen's fictional world a level of polished, cinematic visual identity that helped the whole campaign feel like a genuine piece of original mythology rather than simple ride marketing.

How the Fire Effect Actually Works

This is genuinely one of the most interesting technical details behind the whole ride, and it's worth explaining properly since it's easy to assume the flames you see are simply decorative gas jets bolted onto a wooden structure. According to Bradley Wynne of Merlin Magic Making, the creative team behind the project, mixing wood and fire is an inherently dangerous combination, meaning genuine engineering precautions and a fair amount of visual trickery had to be employed to make the effect both safe and convincing.

The flames guests see igniting on either side of the Wicker Man's head are real — genuine fire, not a purely digital or projected effect. But here's the trick: because of the three burners positioned on the effigy's shoulders, the structure surrounding those flames isn't actually made of wood at all in that specific area. Instead, carved render — a moulded, fire-resistant material shaped and finished to look exactly like timber — is used specifically around the burner locations, letting Alton Towers deliver genuine, real flame effects safely, without the actual fire risk that building that specific section from real wood would present. The flame effect is further enhanced by fog, smoke, and LED screens simulating additional "burning" deeper within the lower parts of the structure, layering real and simulated fire effects together for a considerably more convincing result than either technique alone could achieve.

It's also worth knowing that a significant portion of the full ride experience — the pre-show, the station, several tunnels, and the interior of the Wicker Man's own abdomen — is undercover, meaning many of these effects work equally well regardless of whether you're riding during the day or after dark, even though the ride is often specifically recommended as most visually striking once darkness properly sets in.

The Ride's Genuine Technical Achievement

Beyond the theming, it's worth understanding what Wicker Man actually represents from a pure engineering standpoint. When it opened on 20th March 2018, it was the first wooden rollercoaster built in the UK in 22 years, ending a genuinely long drought for this specific style of coaster construction at British theme parks. Built by Great Coasters International (GCI), the ride combines the manufacturer's signature airtime-focused hill sequences with a notably steep top bank angle of 68 degrees, and features three separate drops and two tunnels across a coaster segment lasting around one minute fifty seconds of actual track time — with the full guest experience, including the walk-through pre-show, running considerably longer still.

The ride's combination of genuine timber construction with fully integrated fire effects was billed as a genuine world first for the wooden coaster genre, and it went on to be recognised among the best new attractions of 2018 at Amusement Today's Golden Ticket Awards — a significant, independently judged piece of industry recognition for a ride built on Alton Towers' own original, in-house mythology rather than licensed intellectual property.

Where Wicker Man Actually Sits

Wicker Man occupies a genuinely significant physical location worth knowing about: it stands on the former site of the park's much-loved log flume ride, sitting at the edge of the woods between Mutiny Bay and Katanga Canyon. For visitors who grew up riding the old flume, Wicker Man represents a direct, physical replacement of a genuinely nostalgic former attraction — a detail several long-standing visitors have specifically reflected on in their own reviews of the newer ride.

Timing and Context Worth Knowing

It's worth briefly noting the timing of Wicker Man's development and opening, since context here is genuinely relevant to understanding Alton Towers' approach during this period. The ride opened in spring 2018, within a few years of a considerably more difficult chapter in the park's recent history, and Alton Towers was notably explicit in contemporary press coverage that safety had been paramount throughout the new coaster's design and construction. This context helps explain the genuine care evident in how the fire effects specifically were engineered — real flame, but deliberately kept a safe distance from riders, with fire-resistant carved render used precisely where genuine burners are positioned, rather than any compromise on rider safety made in service of visual spectacle.

Why the "Not Based on the Movie" Distinction Actually Matters

It's worth reflecting on why Alton Towers bothered to correct this misconception so directly and repeatedly, rather than simply letting the association stand, given the film connection likely helped generate free publicity in the ride's early press coverage regardless. The honest answer reflects genuine creative pride: the Beornen, their language, their rune alphabet, and the specific dual-faced deity at the centre of their belief system represent a considerable amount of original, in-house creative work, developed specifically for this ride rather than borrowed from existing intellectual property. Correcting the film association is, in a real sense, Alton Towers insisting on credit for a genuinely original piece of world-building, rather than being content to let audiences assume the whole concept was simply borrowed from a decades-old horror film.

Quick Reference: The Real Story Behind Wicker Man

• Not based on the films: Alton Towers has explicitly denied any connection to the 1973 or 2006 Wicker Man movies, citing genuine Neolithic, Druidic, and Roman historical inspiration instead
• The Beornen: A fully original fictional community, invented for the ride, with their own language, rune alphabet, and belief system
• Pre-launched via Scarefest: The Beornen and their central ritual were first introduced through The Welcoming: Be Chosen scare maze in 2017, a full year before the coaster opened
• Artwork: Created by illustrator Kyle Lambert, known for work on Stranger Things, Jurassic Park, and Jumanji
• The fire trick: Real flames are used, but the sections surrounding the burners are made of fire-resistant carved render rather than genuine wood, supplemented by fog, smoke, and LED "burning" effects
• Manufacturer: Great Coasters International (GCI), featuring a 68-degree top bank angle and around 1 minute 50 seconds of track time
• Historic significance: The first wooden coaster built in the UK in 22 years when it opened in March 2018, and a Golden Ticket Award-recognised new attraction that year
• Location: Built on the former site of the park's log flume, between Mutiny Bay and Katanga Canyon