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Wicker Man, The
EMAILPRINTWarner Bros. Pictures
Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 19 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 59 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Horror | Mystery | Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Neil LaBute
Anthony Shaffer (1973 screenplay)
Directed by: Neil LaBute
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 1, 2006
DVD: December 19, 2006
Running Time: 97 minutes, Color
Origin: Germany / USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for disturbing images and violence, language and thematic issues
Starring Nicolas Cage, Ellen Burstyn, Kate Beahan, Frances Conroy, Molly Parker, Leelee Sobieski, Diane Delano, and Michael Wiseman
In Neil LaBute's remake of the 1973 horror classic, Nicolas Cage stars as a sheriff investigating a young girl's disappearance from an isolated, mysterious island.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: In the Company of Men Lakeview Terrace Nurse Betty Possession The Shape of Things Your Friends & Neighbors
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Despite its logy, red-herring structure, the film has enough enigma and weirdness that it gradually stirs to life.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
As it is, LaBute has cleverly repurposed his creepy source material. This Wicker Man, which wasn't screened for critics, is a nutty atonement for the gender assaults of his filmmaking and playwriting past, including "In the Company of Men," "Your Friends & Neighbors," and "The Shape of Things."
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
Well intentioned, but only occasionally creepy.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Mark Olsen
In the end, LaBute's remake is an interesting idea that never transforms into a particularly satisfying movie.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
For this remake writer-director Neil LaBute has moved the action from Scotland to Washington State, added enough scares for Warner Brothers to market the movie as horror, and turned the story into an almost comically Wagnerian expression of the castration anxiety that snakes through his original screenplays.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
The Wicker Man is too loony to be a drama, too earnest to be a comedy, too predictable to be a horror film.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Michael Atkinson
This wasn't a horror film the first time around, and LaBute makes sorry feints at effective creepiness, letting the story roam in circles just like Cage.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
In an era of careful cost accountancy and focus-group testing, it's remarkable that a movie as truly, deeply, madly foolish as The Wicker Man escaped the asylum. But we must be grateful for the endless guffaws and gasps and outright stunned silences it unleashes on lucky audiences.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
The Wicker Man isn't all that bad a movie; it's visually striking and ambitious in some ways. It just fails to bring enough to the table to fully distance itself from the original.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck
Unlikely to inspire a passionate following similar to the original, the film, which opened Friday without being screened for the press, ultimately induces more titters than dread.
Read Full Review >Variety Joe Leydon
Any provocative questions LaBute might have wanted to raise are totally obscured as the rising tide of absurdity gradually overwhelms the entire enterprise.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
There may be a way to remake 1973's cult thriller The Wicker Man, in which a deeply Christian cop has his religious convictions shaken to the core as he investigates the disappearance of a child from within a cheerfully pagan community, but Neil LaBute didn't find it.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
As an allegory of religious conflict, the '73 film is brilliantly constructed and ends with a punctuation mark that was shocking in its day. LaBute's movie attempts to shock, as well, and does: Given the names involved and the casting of Cage, it is shockingly bad.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
LaBute has transformed the eerie, disturbing psychological thriller into an unintentional comedy. At times, The Wicker Man is hilariously bad.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
Turns a cultishly creepy classic into a dull and windy farce.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
A movie like this can survive an absurd premise but not incompetent execution. And Mr. LaBute, never much of an artist with the camera, proves almost comically inept as a horror-movie technician...It's neither haunting nor amusing; just boring.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jennie Punter
The Wicker Man is one of those "what were they thinking?" movies.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Do yourself a favor: Go rent Hardy's original film, watch it, and then try and get it out of your head. You never, ever will.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 2.9 (out of 10) based on 59 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Tim H. gave it a3:
Oh... my... god... I'm still trying to catch my breath after the Leelee Sobieski fight scene, the nonsensical dialogue, and the ridiculous bee symbolism. Fuckin' funniest piece of trash I've ever beheld; this here flick is a veritable how-to of bad movie-making (or remaking, in this case). The hilarity comes to an irresistibly laugh-out-loud head when Cage is dragged half-naked by feminists to his own personal burning man. Trust me, don't watch this one alone OR sober. Friends and booze are required to fully experience the grandeur.
Andrew G. gave it a5:
Because this is a remake, it was actually wise to alter some of the circumstances which led to the same horrific ending - the film begins by suggesting that Cage might save the girl and flee with his ex-fiancée - but I'm glad to say It was as much a nightmare as we all hoped. Having said that... The film has none of the dignity or plausibility of the original, and not merely because of it's lack of lore or history to substantiate either the warped paganism (who in this film are murderous beyond reason), or the location. Unfortunately the script is.. just not how humans behave (perhaps Americans?). Cage, as the typical all-American hero punches and kicks various women, and everyone shouts obscenely at each other without restraint. But Kit is correct - the film does lend itself to comedy moments (search Youtube for 'Wicker Man Comedy Trailer'). And presumably it has done a service to the excellent original by drawing attention to it. But the film is dumbed down, plot very simplified, drowned by endless 'suspense' music, all the disturbing sexual elements are removed and replaced with violence (which is much more acceptable, of course) and 'you know where you are' when a film begins with a tremendous car crash and explosion - the body-count is four times the original, yet the nightmarish quality is absent - it is far closer an island of freaks and psychos than it is an island of 'innocent' people twisted by religious doctrine, and therefore misses the point. Not for the intelligent, but a curious homage, highlighting much of what has gone wrong with film-making.
yoyo gave it a1:
Wanted more laughs out of this craptastic movie then I got. Totally the worst remake in the history of remakes. Best and only good part was when he was in the bear costume and decked that woman. Who wants to see Nicholas Cage ride back and forth on an island on a lame ass bicycle for two hours, posing as an angry cop? Thankfully it was a library rental.
Hanna A-L gave it a10:
This movie was so much better than the original. Move with the times everyone, lame folk music and slow slow SLOW plots are not interesting to the modern audience. The original was alright, but the 2006 one was SO much slicker, had better symbolism and imagery. Nic Cage was amazing, and so were the rest of the cast. This is one of my favourite films. The only reason people gave it such a bagging was because they are stuck in the past and can't accept modern ideas and that movie making has changed in the past thirty years. It is definitely a 10. Well done Nic Cage.
kit gave it a10:
The funniest film you'll ever see.
A Movie Critic gave it a1:
One of the worst movies I've ever seen. Nicholas Cage has shown himself to be a good actor in the past but he has GOT to pick his movies better. Surprisingly, this isn't just something he jumped onto in order to make a quick buck, he was actually a producer for this film, and apparently was heavily involved in getting it made....wow. Just...horrible. A complete waste of time. Not scary whatsoever.
Jon W. gave it a5:
This movie is not good, although the "did-I-just-see-that?" spectacle of a bear-suited Cage punching a woman in the face makes it worth a cheap rental. Also: "NOT THE BEES!!! NO!!! and "Give me the bike!" and "HOW'D IT GET BURNED? HOWDITGETBURNEDHOWDITGETBURNED??!?! and "BITCHES!!" Actually, this might be an unsung masterpiece of comedy. So I'll compromise and give it a 5.
