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Police
officer Edward Malus goes to a remote island to
investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend's
daughter. The islanders, which of most are female, aren't
very hospitable though and he quickly notices that he
isn't wanted on the island. Determined to find out the
truth to what happened to the little girl, he decides
to stay anyway... but the islanders are keeping something
from him (and most of us already know their secret).
Right from the start I knew that this was a bad idea.
The Wicker Man is a very time-limited classic and
doesn't work nearly half as well today as it did back
when it was originally released in the 70's. Therefore
it was obvious to me that a remake wouldn't work very
well either, unless they were to change the story
drastically. Well, it comes as no surprise that this
was pretty much a scene by scene remake, and the little
that they've changed was terrible.
If you've seen the original, you know that this hardly
classifies as a horror movie. The only reason to why
the original was scary was because it was so mysterious,
atmospheric, and in the end, quite disturbing. Since
the remake has removed all of these three factors
(hell, we already know the twist that made the original
so brilliant), the creators have naturally thrown in
a couple of cheap scares, some flashy dream sequences
and a bunch of mildly famous actresses into the mix.
This only made things worse.
Nicolas Cage does what he's best at (walking around
looking frumpy and confused), but his character is
not only not relatable, but also quite dislikeable so
his acting doesn't help much. Diane Delano is actually
the strongest of the actresses in the movie while
Leelee Sobieski disappoints with a ridiculously poor
performance (though this might have been due to poor
directing from LaBute).
Ultimately, The Wicker Man is probably a good movie for
easily scared, middle-aged women as it plays more like
a slow-paced crime-thriller than a horror flick (something
which this movie was never intended to be in the first
place). I still do love the plot and the twist and not
even Cage could destroy this movie completely, but if
I were you, I would stick to the original which is a
whole lot better.
Pg-13, you know the drill.
Eh, it was alright, nothing special.
Uninventive and dull remake which never gets into second
gear. Most of us all ready know the twist which made
the original movie so disturbing - and believe me, it's
far from as disturbing this time around. I can see how
this would work as a TV-movie, but don't spend any
money on this one.
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