Review of The Wicker Man (2006) by Dawdlingpoet — 28 Nov 2021

It seemed rather sterile, I think is the best term to use. The characters in terms of the inhabitants of this small, isolated from the 'real world' island seemed pretty stale. Yes they were a bit creepy I suppose but I never felt all that scared by or, to be honest, particularly intrigued about what was going on. Kate, Edwards ex-fiancee, I thought was actually about the creepiest character in the movie, her whiny, pouty face gave me the creeps somehow lol. It did seem a little strange that Edward had been with Kate, I suppose she had a different demeanour when they had been together before splitting up, it just seemed a litte off somehow, with Edward as the city dweller placed in this quiet and peculiar pagan community. All that seemed to happen for the majority of the movie was Edward running around and shouting at the inhabitants. I was aware of the original movie but I haven't seen it. Knowing that the original cult classic is/was quite a graphic movie I believe and that this has a lower 15 rating, I admit I preferred to watch this version. I had a rough idea of the story and didn't think I could much stomach the ending of the original movie and having not seen the original, I thought that perhaps I might enjoy this newer remake more, not being able to compare the two movies but I would have to agree with at least some of the other critical reviews about this movie as to me it seemed very much lacking in atmosphere I suppose. It didn't seem so much like it was a regular community hiding a deep dark secret sort of underworld, it was more like a peculiar amish type community thats discovered and its hardly surprising when the ending arrives, given the more than somewhat obvious clues to the ending thats scattered throughout the earlier plot, I felt. It didn't seem very thrilling or suspenseful, whereas if it had been done right then perhaps it would have, I can only presume that was the genre that was aimed at. I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to horror or gore though I do like a decent psychological thriller but I didn't feel particularly like I was on the edge of my seat at any time in this movie really, it just seemed a bit flat and obvious. Yes I was roughly aware of the story before watching it but all the same, it just didn't really seem to work for me somehow. Like other movies I might know the story of before watching it but still enjoy watching it if its an absorbing movie but this really didn't seem to be one of those.

Nicolas Cage does ok in his role but this is certainly not one of my favourite Cage movies, put it that way. There wasn't a great deal of scope for his character given the script I think.

No I wouldn't recommend this film. Its hard to explain in much detail precisely why it didn't work but it just didn't, somehow. The plot moved a bit too slowly and the characters seemed more annoying than overly sinsister in my opinion. If your interested in the movie, its been shown on terrestrial TV recently so if its on again then by all means check it out if your keen to but I wouldn't recommend paying anything to watch it really but thats just my opinion. Oh and by the way I've got a head cold at the moment so I hope my review has made sense and isn't too bad, I'm not thinking overly clearly but all the same, this is what I've come up with this morning.