This December marks the 50th anniversary of iconic horror films The Exorcist and The Wicker Man. Whilst the former is enjoying a reappraisal due to the death of director William Friedkin and a forthcoming movie in the series, The Exorcist: Believer, The Wicker Man’s legacy is still stained somewhat by what happened 17 years ago today.
In the original Wicker Man, Police Sergeant Neil Howie is sent to a remote island village in search of a missing girl. The locals claim she doesn’t exist, and Howie finds the island’s ways to be increasingly troubling. Unfortunately for Howie, he’s not able to deduce exactly what’s going on in time, and thus one of horror’s most disturbing endings is born.
A measure of how effective of a horror movie The Wicker Man is comes from the fact Christopher Lee is in it and manages to be unsettling without really doing one sinister thing (well until the mask fully slips, and even then). He’s so charming and polite that it works as a great measuring stick for the tone of the whole movie. It’s a welcoming place, but set in its own ways. It’s been riffed on a lot over the years, with Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz and Ari Aster’s Midsommar high among the best homages. Hot Fuzz even featured Sergeant Howie himself, Edward Woodward.
The director of the original film Robin Hardy created a reimagining of sorts in 2011 called The Wicker Tree that didn’t exactly set the world (or man) on fire, but that’s not the memory many have of The Wicker Man in modern times.
Bumbling and Bees
Credit: Warner Bros.
In 2006, In the Company of Men and Nurse Betty director Neil LaBute took on the unenviable task of remaking The Wicker Man with an American spin. The setup is the same, but it’s moved to a North American island. Nicolas Cage takes up the Edward Woodward role, and The Exorcist’s Ellen Burstyn slots into the Christopher Lee position.
It really is identical in the framing, but the results are lacking in the nuance, atmosphere, and craft of the original. Cage comes out of this as one of the guiltiest parties for the film’s failure with an overblown performance that may be great for meme-worthy content, but damages this remake’s chances of sincerity.
To compare it to the original is laughable, but unavoidable. This remake does the opposite of pretty much everything Robin Hardy’s film did so well. That wouldn’t be an issue if the 2006 film broke new ground in its differences, but each decision is a bad one in terms of reimagining the original in any worthwhile way.
So in that regard, yes, The Wicker Man (2006) is a hot contender for the worst horror remake of all time. It’s got some bad company such as A Nightmare on Elm Street, Psycho, and The Omen, but there’s something particularly offensive about how ignorant of the original The Wicker Man remake is.
Where it ended up gaining some (tainted) credibility was a member of the so bad it’s good club. Taken as its own thing, the jarring atmosphere and dreadful line reads are what make this a memorable experience. So, while it may be a horrific remake of a classic, it’s far from the worst movie you’ll ever watch.