If I recall Joseph Campbell's book, A Hero with a Thousand Faces, the sacrifice of a virgin was common in pagan religions.
Woodward actually played the Christian martyr.
Weird because in Breaker Morant, another film by Woodward, his death at the end of the film was as a atheist.
Both films shocking in their ending.
I didn’t see “Breaker Morant.” “The Wicker Man” sure is a movie that stays with you.
I didn’t remember that Christopher Lee was in it until I read the obituary.
In the same obituary, Lee is quoted as saying that Tolkien told him that Tolkien wanted him to play Gandalf, and that Ian Fleming told him the same about James Bond.