SAVAGE pagan fertility rites might not sound like a subject for comedy, but for the National Theatre of Scotland, a Wicker Man musical by Donald McLeary and Greg Hemphill is just the ticket for the winter blues . . .

Unlike many horror films of the 1970s, The Wicker Man still holds its own as an intriguing piece of cinema. While featuring Hammer Horror regulars such as Christopher Lee and Ingrid Pitt, it delivers almost no gore or violence and has been described as a thoughtful meditation on clashing ideologies. That is, until the closing scenes when it delivers a spectacular twist in the tale involving a burning wicker colossus.

Now celebrating its 40th anniversary, The Wicker Man has become that rarest and most circular of things: a film about cultism that in itself became a cult. Within the past decade particularly, The Wicker Man has ascended into a select band of cinematic immortals, as the so-called Citizen Kane of horror movies. Shot around Dumfries and Galloway, and studded with weird, yielding ditties in praise of bosky naughtiness, it has been restored and remastered, referenced and reverenced. There are shelves of academic Wicker Man analysis and, at the last count, four Wicker Man television documentaries. It has even survived the most calamitous of Hollywood remakes starring a bewildered Nicolas Cage. The Wicker Tree, a sequel of sorts by the director of the original, is imminent. An Appointment With The Wicker Man, a theatrical interpretation of the film, written by Greg Hemphill and Donald McLeary for the National Theatre Of Scotland (NTS), goes on tour later this month.

. . . the film was rushed into production with a cast described best as motley. Bit players were hired from the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow. Local Gallovidians got their chance. There was also a practising Australian white witch and former wife of Sean Connery (Diane Cilento); a fixture of the Scottish pantomime scene (Walter Carr); the man who taught David Bowie mime (Lindsay Kemp, playing the aforementioned camp landlord); a Pole (Ingrid Pitt) portraying, in her words, a "nymphomaniac librarian"; and a Swede, Britt Ekland, whose accent was so thick it required redubbing by Annie Ross.

Leading lady of horror, Ingrid Pitt, left behind a number of unpublished novels following her death in 2010 including a sequel to her well received spy novel Cuckoo Run. Those novels are now being released by Northern Ireland press Avalard Publishing, as part of a five book deal.

The first book to be released will be Annul Domini a controversial science fiction novel that is set to cause some ripples in the literary world, with it's speculation about Christianity and what would happen if Jesus had never been able to fulfill his destiny.

Vampires = Sex. We know it, you know it. The illicit thrill of gripping someone in the night and burrowing your head in their flesh, the oh-so-subtle pangs of desire, and yes... the chicks, man. Long before the Goth look became a thing, the fair-skinned, buxom beauties of the horror genre have tantalized audiences with their vampiric charms. There are so many vampire hotties in the world of cinema that narrowing down a top ten was obscenely difficult. Sorry Bloodrayne, sorry Leslie Tapin from Lemora, we had to make some tough decisions and this is what we came up with: The Top Ten Hottest Vampire Babes!

3. INGRID PITT in THE VAMPIRE LOVERS

Oh, Ingrid Pitt. How we love you. Wait, not "love." Lust after, that's right. The sexy horror siren of the 1960s and 1970s had her most famous role in The Vampire Lovers, a sultry lesbian erotica in the grand Hammer tradition. And by "grand Hammer tradition" we mean there's a lot heaving breasts. Pitt plays Carmilla, a seductive vampire who seduces all the women in 19th century Styria, but her thirst for blood gets in the way of her erotic endeavors. Pitt's Carmilla is a predatory creature, and you can never tell if she's undressing you with her eyes or ready to pounce... or both. Fun Fact: Ingrid Pitt is also totally awesome. She wrote a Doctor Who script, for crying out loud. It was made into a 2010 radio drama called Doctor Who: The Lost Macros. Check it out.