Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13064 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-09-10
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Director's Cut, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 98 minutes

Synopsis
Neil LaBute's THE WICKER MAN stars Nicholas Cage as Edward Malus, a policeman thrust into some dangerous detective work by a series of strange events that begin with a horrific car crash. This incident leaves the cop haunted, with images of the accident replaying in his heavily medicated mind. Edward's hiatus from work is interrupted when he receives a mysterious letter from his ex-fiance, pleading with him to help find her missing daughter, Rowan. Against his better judgment, Edward travels to the remote, privately owned island of Summerisle, home to a close-knit, secretive community with a clear dislike for outsiders. Considering Edward an intruder, the Sisters of Summerisle offer little information regarding the missing girl. Edward is at a loss, finding even his ex-love Willow to be little help. With vacant eyes and a strange, listless way about her, Willow should be the first of many red flags to send Edward running. But in firm horror-movie tradition, the seasoned cop throws caution to the winds, staying in the place longer than seems smart. This 2006 remake veers away from the 1973 film in several key ways. It replaces the original's eerily upbeat folk soundtrack with a tasteful Angelo Badalamenti score and the 2006 version is relatively tame compared to the original. While the 1973 film freely mixed pornographic elements with horror themes and musical numbers, the new film confines itself to horror, abandoning that strange mixture of genres that made Anthony Shaffer's film a cult classic. While LaBute's film adds a back-story and romantic interest, it requires equal suspension of disbelief. Despite their differences, both films end in a disturbing way.

Customer Reviews

Appauling
I cannot put in to words just how angry films like this make me. A big budgeted American studio have taken a British classic and butchered it in an arrogant attempt to share in and steal its credibility. But in doing so they have removed anything remotely original about it and left what can only be described as The Scary Movie Team Presents The Wicker Man.

Supernatural elements, violence, a generic soundtrack, and the worst acting I have ever seen from a real big budgeted film. Nicholas Cage and Kate Beahan take original conversations from the original and ruin them beyond all recognition. I honestly think they were embarrassed doing it.

I cannot stress this enough. If you want to see a real horror film check out the original and give this one a wide berth. Neil LaBute didn't even like the soundtrack on the original film, and that is as much a testament to what this is as anything else. No one behind the project actually understood what the real one was about.

So why the one star? Simple. I couldn't give it minus 100 of them. But I would've.

Oh Well.
Remakes have an inherent if expected problem and several spring to mind that do stand up well to the original. Unfortunately this one does not. What made the Anthony Shaffer scripted original a cult classic in every meaning of the term was the atmosphere generated by the dichotomy between the so called 'good' of Edward Woodwoods christian and the equally so called 'evil' of the summer islanders. The celtic style to the whole movie built on this.
In the new one with Cage apparently going through the motions there is absolutely no atmosphere at all. Nothing shocks everything happens as expected and the end becomes telegraphed even if one has not seen the original.
The original 1973 film happened at just the right time and contained all the correct sinister and dark elements. This new one is safe, not at all scary or thought provoking. A chance has been missed by a mile. Darkness and a history lesson in being different could have been layered on with a trowel and the film would not have suffered. Pagan elements, holding deep and meaningful secrets could have threaded throughout a film that would have stood up in its own right and made many useful comments on a society that still does not understand other belief systems and is destroying the land it depends on. A shallow and instantly forgettable piece of celluloid that misses every point and finally in this list of gripes has a very intrusive soundtrack that sounds awful and does not apparently have anything to do with anything.

Lousy
It's almost impossible to describe how bad this film is. A movie studio, presumably full of bright, committed people, has decided to re-make 'The Wicker Man', and in doing so, they have shown themselves to be crass, simple-minded, and derivative. Many changes have been made to the original story and setting, and believe me, every single one of those changes is for the worse. The original film still shocks, disturbs, and - yes - delights, today. This, however, is just awful.