The Wicker Man (2006)
Neil LaBute’s remake of The Wicker Man is down to the second-run theatres in Calgary, having lasted less than a month in the big houses. It is, as I expected, a disappointment, and begs the question as to why anyone would want to remake a cult classic in the first place.
I recently saw a clip of an interview with Alice Cooper on Space, and he pointed out that for horror to work, it needs to be blended with either comedy or with romance. As mentioned in my earlier comments on the trailer, the humorous joy of paganism is gone; the remake goes with the romance angle between Edward Malus (= malice, and in a Nostradamian anagram, Salem) and Willow Woodward (get it?). Spoilers to follow, so if you really want to see this flick (or have never seen the original), you might want to skip the rest of this article.
Following the apparent death of a mother and child in a fiery car crash, Malus is plagued by waking dreams because of his inability to rescue them. Trigger the letter from ex-girlfriend Willow (Kate Beahan), whose daughter Rowan has gone missing. So, off work and popping pills, Malus takes the ferry up Puget Sound and hitches a ride on a supply plane to Summersisle (note the added “s”).
The island here is a literal and metaphorical bee colony, run by “Queen Bee” Sister Summersisle (Ellen Burstyn). The Sisters are in control, the true Workers, while the men are mute Drones, labourers used primarily for reproduction. Hexagon motifs abound, from the tables in the meeting house to the paths cut in the grass. Moreover, both the top of the maypole and the head of the wicker man suggest beehives.
There are a couple of bits of injected humour if you look carefully (the best is Sgt. Howie’s face on a “Missing” poster in the police station). But in the end, Nicolas Cage walks the stations of Howie’s cross in grim confusion rather than religious outrage, revisiting scenes from the original in a film that for me lacked suspense.
LaBute’s Summersisle is without music, and only the masked parade towards the end hints at the playfulness of the original. While Howie played the virgin king-surrogate, here Malus is chosen because he’s an outsider with blood connection to Rowan (no surprise here that he’s her father), but philosophically it’s still a stretch.
The good cast (Cage, Burstyn, Beahan, LeeLee Sobieski, Diane Delano, et. al.) are largely wasted here, while Calgary’s Joyce and Jacqueline Robbins are particularly creepy as a set of blind twins.
Although the original Wicker Man might encourage some to explore the positive, creative sides of paganism (the ending notwithstanding), the remake is passionless, misogynistic, and without joy. I’ll take mine with cheese.
(Note: The original Wicker Man is now available in DVD, but beware that this is the 88-minute American cut and not the full 102-minute version. It does, however, include a 30-minute "making of" documentary, along with trailers and British TV and radio spots. I can only hope that the original version will also make the leap to DVD, because my VHS tape isn't going to last forever.)
I recently saw a clip of an interview with Alice Cooper on Space, and he pointed out that for horror to work, it needs to be blended with either comedy or with romance. As mentioned in my earlier comments on the trailer, the humorous joy of paganism is gone; the remake goes with the romance angle between Edward Malus (= malice, and in a Nostradamian anagram, Salem) and Willow Woodward (get it?). Spoilers to follow, so if you really want to see this flick (or have never seen the original), you might want to skip the rest of this article.
Following the apparent death of a mother and child in a fiery car crash, Malus is plagued by waking dreams because of his inability to rescue them. Trigger the letter from ex-girlfriend Willow (Kate Beahan), whose daughter Rowan has gone missing. So, off work and popping pills, Malus takes the ferry up Puget Sound and hitches a ride on a supply plane to Summersisle (note the added “s”).
The island here is a literal and metaphorical bee colony, run by “Queen Bee” Sister Summersisle (Ellen Burstyn). The Sisters are in control, the true Workers, while the men are mute Drones, labourers used primarily for reproduction. Hexagon motifs abound, from the tables in the meeting house to the paths cut in the grass. Moreover, both the top of the maypole and the head of the wicker man suggest beehives.
There are a couple of bits of injected humour if you look carefully (the best is Sgt. Howie’s face on a “Missing” poster in the police station). But in the end, Nicolas Cage walks the stations of Howie’s cross in grim confusion rather than religious outrage, revisiting scenes from the original in a film that for me lacked suspense.
LaBute’s Summersisle is without music, and only the masked parade towards the end hints at the playfulness of the original. While Howie played the virgin king-surrogate, here Malus is chosen because he’s an outsider with blood connection to Rowan (no surprise here that he’s her father), but philosophically it’s still a stretch.
The good cast (Cage, Burstyn, Beahan, LeeLee Sobieski, Diane Delano, et. al.) are largely wasted here, while Calgary’s Joyce and Jacqueline Robbins are particularly creepy as a set of blind twins.
Although the original Wicker Man might encourage some to explore the positive, creative sides of paganism (the ending notwithstanding), the remake is passionless, misogynistic, and without joy. I’ll take mine with cheese.
(Note: The original Wicker Man is now available in DVD, but beware that this is the 88-minute American cut and not the full 102-minute version. It does, however, include a 30-minute "making of" documentary, along with trailers and British TV and radio spots. I can only hope that the original version will also make the leap to DVD, because my VHS tape isn't going to last forever.)
posted by Stephen Hergest at 6:29 pm
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