''The Wicker Man'' is a 2006

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, ap ...

written and directed by Neil LaBute and starring

Nicolas Cage Nicolas Kim Coppola (born January 7, 1964), known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. Born into the Coppola family, he is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Gui ...

. It is a

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the sam ...

and reimagining of the 1973 British film ''

The Wicker Man ''The Wicker Man'' is a 1973 British folk horror film directed by Robin Hardy and starring Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt, and Christopher Lee. The screenplay by Anthony Shaffer, inspired by David Pinner's 1967 ...

'', but also draws from its source material,

David Pinner David John Pinner (born 6 October 1940 in Peterborough, England) is a British actor and novelist. He was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He has appeared on stage and television in many roles. As an actor, he is known for ''Emer ...

's 1967 novel ''

Ritual A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized ...

''. The film concerns police officer Edward Malus, whose ex-fiancée Willow Woodward informs him that her daughter Rowan has disappeared and asks for his help in her search. When he arrives at the island in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Thou ...

where Rowan was last seen, he suspects something sinister about the neo-pagans who live there. The film received negative reviews on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, and

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

' critical consensus calls it unintentionally funny. The film grossed $39 million on a $40 million production budget.

Plot

Policeman Edward Malus gets news from his ex-fiancée, Willow Woodward, that her daughter Rowan is missing. He travels to an island off the coast of

Washington state Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a U.S. state, state in the Northwestern United States, Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first President of the United States, U.S. p ...

where a group of neo-pagans live. The island is led by Sister Summersisle (

Ellen Burstyn Ellen Burstyn (born Edna Rae Gillooly; December 7, 1932) is an American actress. Known for her portrayals of complicated women in dramas, she is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and two Primetime Em ...

), an elderly woman who represents the

goddess A goddess is a female deity. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes ...

they worship. Sister Summersisle explains to Edward that her ancestors had left England to avoid persecution only to settle near Salem and find renewed persecution in the

Salem witch trials The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, 19 of whom w ...

before arriving on the island. Sister Summersisle explains that their population is predominantly female, as they choose the strongest stock—evading Edward's concern about the birth of unwanted males. The island's economy relies on the production of local honey, which Edward learns has declined recently. Edward asks the villagers about Rowan, but they give him evasive answers. He later sees two men carrying a large bag that appears to be dripping blood and finds a fresh, unmarked grave in the churchyard. The grave turns out to contain only a burned doll, but Edward finds Rowan's sweater in the churchyard. At the village school, teacher Sister Rose tries to prevent Edward from seeing the class register. When he sees that Rowan's name has been crossed out, he becomes outraged at the teacher's and Rowan's classmates' lies. Rose insists that Edward talk with her outside. After a short discussion of the island people's view of death, she explains that

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

is used to enforce their laws. Edward asks how Rowan died and Sister Rose tells him, "She'll burn to death." When Edward catches the tense she used, Sister Rose quickly corrects herself: "She burned to death." When Edward questions Willow about the grave, she reveals that Rowan is their daughter together. On the day of the

fertility rite Fertility rites or fertility cult are religious rituals that are intended to stimulate reproduction in humans or in the natural world. Such rites may involve the sacrifice of "a primal animal, which must be sacrificed in the cause of fertility or e ...

, Edward frantically searches the village for Rowan. Disguised in a bear suit, he joins the parade led by Sister Summersisle, which ends at the site of the festival. Rowan is tied to a large tree, about to be burned. Edward rescues her and they run away through the woods, but Rowan leads him back to Sister Summersisle. Sister Summersisle thanks Rowan for her help, and Edward realizes that the search for Rowan was a setup the whole time. It is revealed that Willow, known on the island as Sister Willow, is the daughter of Sister Summersisle and that Willow sealed Edward's fate many years ago, when Sister Willow chose him as a

human sacrifice Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherei ...

to restore the island's honey production (after Edward deliberately destroyed the beehives in their crop earlier). The villagers tackle and overpower Edward, viciously breaking his legs to prevent him from escaping and torturing him with live bees (shown in the alternate version). They carry him to an enormous

wicker man A wicker man was purportedly a large wicker statue in which the druids (priests of Celtic paganism) sacrificed humans and animals by burning. The main evidence for this practice is a sentence by Roman general Julius Caesar in his '' Commentary ...

where he's hoisted high above the ground and shut inside. Rowan sets fire to the wicker man, and Edward is sacrificed in a giant blaze amid his screams. Six months later, Sister Willow and Honey go to a bar and meet two policemen, one of them having graduated from the academy. Willow and Honey agree to go home with them.

Cast

Production

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

had been planning a remake of the 1973 film of the same name since the 1990s. The British film had been in the licensing library of

Canal+ Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...

, which was optioned by producer

JoAnne Sellar JoAnne R. Sellar (born 1963) is an English film producer.de Winter, Helen (October 31, 2008)A Dark Day: Producer JoAnne Sellar on River Phoenix and ''Dark Blood.'' ''Focus Features'' She has collaborated with Paul Thomas Anderson Paul Thomas ...

to Universal. In March 2002 it was revealed that Neil LaBute was writing and directing ''The Wicker Man'' for Universal and

's production company Saturn Films. Around the same time, the original film's director Robin Hardy and star

Christopher Lee Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a long career spanning more than 60 years, Lee often portrayed villains, and appeared as Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, ultim ...

were preparing a semi-remake of their 1973 film, titled ''The Riding of the Laddie'', with

Vanessa Redgrave Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress and activist. Throughout her career spanning over seven decades, Redgrave has garnered numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Television Award, tw ...

and Lee's ''

Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...

'' co-star

Sean Astin Sean Patrick Astin (né Duke; February 25, 1971) is an American actor. His acting roles include Samwise Gamgee in ''The Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003), Mikey Walsh in ''The Goonies'' (1985), Daniel Ruettiger in '' Rudy'' (1993), Dou ...

attached. Hardy stated Lee would not play the villain as he did in the original ''Wicker Man'', but instead a door-to-door born again Christian preacher who comes to Scotland along with his wife (Redgrave) as they are introduced to the neo-pagan cult. Hardy hoped for filming to begin in Glasgow, Scotland in 2003, but ''The Riding of the Laddie'' would not materialize until years later, when it had undergone many changes to become the film ''

The Wicker Tree ''The Wicker Tree'' is a 2011 British horror film written and directed by Robin Hardy. It contains many direct parallels and allusions to the 1973 film ''The Wicker Man'', which was also directed by Hardy, and is intended as a companion piece ...

''. Universal's remake with LaBute moved forward, who changed the Scots setting to contemporary America. The remake rights eventually moved from Universal to Millennium Films. Filming began in Vancouver, Canada in July 2005. Millennium sold distribution rights to

Alcon Entertainment Alcon Entertainment, LLC is an American film production company, founded in 1997 by film producers Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove. Since its establishment, Alcon Entertainment has developed and financed films that are ultimately distribut ...

for distribution through their output deal with

Warner Bros. Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery). The studio is the flagship producer of li ...

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregator

, the film has an approval rating of 15% based on 108 reviews and an average rating of 3.70/10. The website's critics consensus says, "Puzzlingly misguided, Neil LaBute's update f''The Wicker Man'' struggles against unintentional comedy and fails." On

, the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polls by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film a average rating of "F" on an A+ to F scale. On '' At the Movies'', the film got two thumbs down from

Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American columnist and film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. He co-hosted the television series '' At the Movies'' with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's success ...

and

Aisha Tyler Aisha Nilaja Tyler (born September 18, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, director, and talk show host. She is known for playing Andrea Marino in the first season of ''Ghost Whisperer'', Dr. Tara Lewis in ''Criminal Minds'', Mother Nature ...

, although they both said the film was "entertainingly bad".

Owen Gleiberman Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for '' Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...

of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular ...

'' wrote that the original film is overrated, but the remake's climax lacks its "tingle of madness". The original film's director, Robin Hardy, had expressed skepticism over the Hollywood remake and had his lawyers make Warner Bros. remove his name from the remake's promotional material. According to Hardy, he was given writing credit for the screenplay when he had not received any for the original.

, who played Lord Summerisle in the original film, commented: "I don't believe in remakes. You can make a follow up to a film, but to remake a movie with such history and success just doesn't make sense to me." Cage himself acknowledged that the film was "absurd". He remarked in 2010, "There is a mischievous mind at work on ''The Wicker Man'', you know? You know what I mean? And I finally kind of said, 'I might have known that the movie was meant to be absurd.' But saying that now after the fact is OK, but to say it before the fact is not, because you have to let the movie have its own life." In February 2012, Cage gave a live webchat with fans to promote '' Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance''. When asked what roles from his career he would most like to revisit, Cage responded, "I would like to hook up with one of the great Japanese filmmakers, like the master that made '' Ringu'', and I would like to take ''The Wicker Man'' to Japan, except this time he's a ghost. The scenes where Nicolas Cage's character gets tortured by bees and where he discovers the burned doll have become

internet memes An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...

Box office

''The Wicker Man'' opened on September 1, 2006, in 2,784 venues and earned $9.6 million in its opening weekend, ranking third in the US box office. The film closed on November 16, 2006, after eleven weeks of release, grossing $23.6 million in the US and $15.1 million overseas for a worldwide total of $38.8 million.

Accolades

The film garnered five

Golden Raspberry Award The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy ...

nominations but did not win any: *

Worst Picture The Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture is an award given out at the annual Golden Raspberry Awards to the worst film of the past year. Over the 39 ceremonies that have taken place, there have been 202 films nominated for Worst Picture and 42 ...

– lost to ''

Basic Instinct 2 ''Basic Instinct 2'' (also known as ''Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction'') is a 2006 erotic thriller film and the sequel to 1992's ''Basic Instinct''. The film was directed by Michael Caton-Jones and produced by Mario Kassar, Joel B. Michaels, ...

'' * Worst Actor (Cage) – lost to Marlon and

Shawn Wayans Shawn Mathis Wayans (born January 19, 1971) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. Along with his brother Marlon Wayans, he wrote and starred in The WB's sitcom ''The Wayans Bros.''(1995–1999) and in the comedy films '' Don't Be a ...

for '' Little Man'' * Worst Screenplay (LaBute) – lost to Leora Barish and

Henry Bean Henry Bean (born August 3, 1945) is an American screenwriter, film director, film producer, novelist, and actor. Best known as a screenwriter, Bean wrote the screenplays for '' Internal Affairs'', ''Deep Cover'', '' Venus Rising'', '' The Belie ...

for ''Basic Instinct 2'' * Worst Remake or Rip-off – lost to ''Little Man'' * Worst On-Screen Couple (Cage and his bear suit) – lost to Shawn Wayans and either

Kerry Washington Kerry Marisa Washington (born January 31, 1977) SidebarCertificate of Live Birth: Isabelle Amarachi Asomugha(County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health). Gives Kerry Washington birth dateArchivedfrom the original on May 2, 2016.Note: Fi ...

or Marlon Wayans for ''Little Man'' At the

2006 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards The 29th and final Stinkers Bad Movie Awards were released by the Hastings Bad Cinema Society in 2007 to honor the worst films the film industry had to offer in 2006. ''Zoom'' received the most nominations with ten. Dishonourable mentions are als ...

, the film garnered two nominations, one of which was a win: * Worst Actor (Cage) – lost to

Tim Allen Timothy Alan Dick (born June 13, 1953), known professionally as Tim Allen, is an American actor and comedian. He is known for playing Tim "The Toolman" Taylor on the ABC sitcom ''Home Improvement'' (1991–1999) and Mike Baxter on the ABC/ ...

for '' The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause'', '' The Shaggy Dog'', and '' Zoom'' * Worst Remake – won

Home media

021 Discount book and DVD shop in Dordrecht, Netherlands

The film was released on DVD on December 19, 2006, with an unrated alternate ending included. The film continues in the same way as the theatrical version until the ending. Before Malus is taken to the wicker man to be burned alive, he is overpowered and tackled by villagers and sedated with a hive of bees, whose venom he is allergic to. The credits then begin after the wicker man's burning head falls off, omitting the "6 months later" scene. A

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

of the film was released on January 30, 2007.

References

External links

Official website
archived from the original on June 15, 2006 * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wicker Man, The (2006 Film) 2006 films 2006 horror films 2000s mystery horror films American horror thriller films American mystery thriller films American remakes of British films English-language German films German horror thriller films American dystopian films 2000s English-language films Films about cults Films about murder American police films Films about neopaganism Films based on British novels Films based on horror novels Films based on mystery novels Films scored by Angelo Badalamenti Films directed by Neil LaBute Films produced by Nicolas Cage Films set in California Films set in Washington (state) Films set on fictional islands Films shot in Vancouver Horror film remakes Films about human sacrifice Religious horror films Salem witch trials in fiction Alcon Entertainment films Warner Bros. films American mystery horror films Folk horror films 2000s mystery thriller films 2000s police films Internet memes introduced in 2006 Film and television memes Films produced by Boaz Davidson 2000s American films 2000s German films Films about bees