And the Queen Bee? That would be Ellen Burstyn, stepping into Christopher Lee’s shoes as ‘Sister’ Summerisle.

“You see her less than you see Christopher Lee’s character,” reveals LaBute. “She’s more of a Colonel Kurtz. You go up stream, from place to place, to get to her and then finally there she is. She is really at the centre of everything, so sure of her power and her beliefs that she is unshakeable. It’s very unnerving. And there’s the lineage all the way back to The Exorcist, which is kind of wonderful.”

Unless, of course, you’re a lost copper with a bee allergy. LaBute’s Wicker women certainly packed too much sting for the US censor.

“Some torture towards the end of the movie ended up just getting cut,” he admits. “There was a kind of purifying ritual they put Cage’s character through before they take him to the wicker man. They broke his knees and they put a helmet of bees on his head. He was stung, virtually to death, then brought back with an adrenaline shot – only to be hauled up by his legs in the wicker man. It was a pretty savage, wonderful section.”