The Wicker Man: How to ruin a remake

[@Nononononon0n0]

Well, yes, but have you considered... bees?

[@Kinuhbud]

Oprah: BEES!!!

[@GrandArchPriestOfTheAlgorithm]

Bees! My God.

[@thelionroars1337]

Sometimes you've gotta protect the hive, innit

[@wentencel]

Always a delight when I draw the "bees?" card while playing cards against humanity

[@Jay32954]

oh no, anything but that, aaaaaargh!!!!!

[@paprikaplateau4270]

Neil Labute has the vibes of an unfortunate conversation with your most divorced uncle at the family reunion.

[@weatheranddarkness]

I think it carries something more of that kind of encounter than it does the "intentional misogyny" Maggie diagnosed. Not that that's better, but more that he's just carrying so much internalized background misogyny radiation that it can't help but casually(or causally) inform every interaction or plot contrivance on screen. It's like when that uncle gets on a tear that he thinks is funny, and genuinely doesn't grasp how much of a dick he's being, and then says "what you can't take a joke?" It's like the whole "trolls are a valuable element of society" nonsense. He thinks he's productively challenging, but his brain hasn't graduated past middle school bully and the whole complex has just metastasized. It really feels like he read a plot outline of "isolated pagan town inexorably guides put-upon cop into effigy to be burned" and was asked to make it take place in America, and he was like "well I guess it's got to be witches that got outta dodge" and the rest was him just filling time, and inevitably it was just gross in the process.

[@WVgrl59]

That is good! Very clever! 😂😂😂😂😂

[@hurgenflerg2133]

@@weatheranddarkness I think it's a little more complicated than that. The interesting thing about LaBute is that he's SOMETIMES self-aware about his problems with women and he SOMETIMES explores that in interesting ways, but then he seems to forget all about that SOMETIMES and churn out an equal amount of boneheaded nonsense.

[@weatheranddarkness]

@@hurgenflerg2133 that tracks. Reminds me of John Millius

[@clumsyninja925]

​@@weatheranddarknessbruh you can't say it's not intentionally misogynistic and then say he hasn't grown up out of a middle school bully mindset. People are so quick to infantilize men.

[@thomaswhite3059]

To be fair about Nicolas Cage not being a good detective, how often have we heard this story: "the woman told the police her boyfriend was gonna kill her, then nobody saw her for 4 months. The woman in the apartment next to hers said it was starting to smell, and her mail was piling up outside her door. Also, she heard a man say 'man i love killing my girlfriend,' in that apartment about 4 months ago. Police ask for anyone who knows anything to contact them with some info."

[@marocat4749]

Yeah it depends, but , thats realistic often enough. God knows how many serial kkiller werent stopped earlier due rassism and other bigotry alone. And enough cops sympathizing probably as wifebeater with wifebeater. Not all, but enough it dseserves representation.

[@charlottehollingsworth9125]

I HATE NEIL LABUTE SO MUCH THANK YOU FOR HATING HIM OUT LOUD

[@larkohiya]

He investigates the town and is "self-righteous" because the people of the town literally are manipulating and lying to him to make him do what they want. It was never a choice to "simply go home and let them do what they are doing" when they are actively ensaring him in a trap. The town people activity are trying to setup his death.

[@drewgoin8849]

All my homies hate Neil LaBute.

[@edwardtrainor8927]

Agreed. I had to watch "The Shape of Things", once. Gimme a torch or a pitchfork, I'll join the mob.

[@MickDansforth]

I felt this way when I watched the Joseph Campbell video. After taking enough screenwriting classes and listening to teachers praise him, I strongly disliked him, but Maggie kicked over the hornet's nest and there was so much more to hate.

[@dinosaysrawr]

Are there any self-identified playwrights who aren't total d-bags? The famous modern ones that immediately come to mind are overwhelmingly fart-sniffing narcissists with sexist and racist tendencies, but that could just be my sampling bias and lack of deep familiarity with that world.

[@thisguyducky]

So over a decade ago I watched this movie with my friends for a so bad its good movie night. Had a lot of laughs, but afterward we all were like huh that movie was kinda sexist and weird about women. A group of 16 year old dumb rowdy boys, managed to clock the sexism, that's how prevelant it is.

[@bushybeardedbear]

36:00 I genuinely thought you were going to say _"all of the women in his life are secretly _*_bees"_* and it wouldn't have shocked me.

[@qobiotacain7734]

Might as well bee

[@lidoeg2]

I love the confrontation at the end of the original Wicker Man where Howie proclaims that he believes in the life eternal and Christopher Lee says it's good and that he will sit among the saints, it's such a small little moment between the two but speaks again to that flow of religiousity between paganism and christianity, it's become a real favorite part

[@traewilson5127]

The pagans are willing to do what Howie refuses to do even in death - respect his faith and accept it. It won't change their minds or his fate that he continues to believe, but still. You should sit with the saints for your sacrifice. A level of nuance and humanity the remake is uninterested in exploring in favor of a more black and white fable of a heroic man undone by the scheming duplicitous machinations of all things feminine. What other lesson could this film have, if any at all, but women are dangerous?

[@pepsimilkhotel]

​@@traewilson5127if a cult is murdering me for their dumb beliefs i am NOT respecting their faith, even in death and especially in death, idk about you but for me my life is much more valuable than some performative respectfulness

[@becuaseimbored3481]

​@@pepsimilkhotel "even in death and especially in death"

[@WobblesandBean]

​@@traewilson5127 This. It went from an interesting, multilayered horror classic to "wimminz bad".

[@laureng2110]

@@pepsimilkhotel Howie's death is his own fault: he's told to leave over and over. Also, if he'd just had sex with the girl at the start, they'd have had to let him go. His loss.

[@AverageTargetShopper]

When Christopher Lee dresses as Cher, he is SO all-in. Not an ounce of irony or mockery. THAT is an actor.

[@deanjustdean7818]

If you have seen Christopher Lee in Captain Invincible, you know that he was totally comfortable with dressing as Cher.

[@M-CH_]

Christopher Lee was not an actor. He was the actor.

[@dungeonsanddobbers2683]

Well, thanks to this comment, all I can hear in my head is Christopher Lee, in his rich baritone, doing a cover of Cher's _Believe_ but with the lyrics changed to "Do you believe in burning a cop?"

[@AverageTargetShopper]

@ 😂 And he’d sing it without autotune!

[@Impiness]

Personally, I think the Wicker Man remake would have been much better if they all lived with actual bee dynamics. Or, conversely, were a bunch bees in trenchcoats pretending to be people

[@bbrbbr-on2gd]

I think that's an episode of "Archie's Weird Mysteries"

[@fu_bi]

You might enjoy a movie I think was called "Attack of the Bee Women"

[@SighFi]

hehe beeple

[@username-unavailable]

​@@fu_bi it's actually called invasion of the bee girls

[@canislupus4655]

I think having the islanders adhere to actual bee dynamics would have been a much more interesting movie. You could even keep the “poor him” trope but look at it from a perspective of how American society often belittles or shames men who are victims of abuse (or even outright refutes that it can happen). Could even extend that to assault with how male honey bees only exist to mate with the queen. Set it up with the sleazy cop at the beginning (and make the intro matter) insinuating something about Nic Cage’s character getting laid since the island is mostly women. Have the islanders poke fun about men always wanting sex. Have the climax be the cop discovering the men are basically sex slaves, and he tells them he will get help and they beg him not to. They don’t want anyone to know what’s happened to them. Or show how abuse warps your perception. The cop can’t believe men wouldn’t fight back, that they would “let” themselves be abused and have the movie challenge that idea. Maybe the ending is him choosing to be a sacrifice or join the other men and he chooses the former. It’s pretty dark, but it would make the discomfort of the audience actually have a purpose 😅

[@nostromofidanza1502]

Maggie, Be Kind Rewind and Broey Deschanel all releasing on the same day? Halloween really IS the gay Christmas.

[@spiralswithinspirals]

#halloweeblessedbyth'goddess

[@wentencel]

Adding them both to my watch list (never seen either). Appreciate you ❤

[@simphunter4292]

Thank you for confirming the person who's video I couldn't make it 10 minutes through because of Lefty feminist liberal views every 20 seconds is indeed a lefty feminist liberal.

[@johnnymillar9056]

I saw The Shape of Things too young to realise what misogyny was and thought the idea that a woman would see your relationship as an experiment/elaborate prank to be the most terrifying thing that could ever happen to me. Truly, Labute makes movies for idiot 13 year old boys

[@writinguy]

Thing that popped into my head during the discussion of the classroom scene in the remake is if Neil Labute had any real interest in women as people or was willing to consume work from them, he could have very easily found poetry by women about bees. LIke Sylvia Plath's father was an entomologist who studied bumblebees and it deeply affected her work and she went on to write multiple poems about them and one, The Bee Meeting, would have been extraordinarily thematically relevant and given the whole movie some additional creepy atmosphere. But we all know Neil Labute is allergic to reading anything written by a woman.

[@goatness]

The remake was added to Paramount+ this month, so I watched it for the first time. It's the version with the "six months later" coda, but far more noteworthy is that it does NOT include the "not the bees!" scene. It's like "hey yo, why do you think I even bothered to watch this terrible movie?" Not cool, Paramount. Not cool.

[@ruthbennett7563]

My poor experience: on the Paramount Roku page, it is listed as the “1973” version. I clicked, hoping it would be some director’s cut of the original. What a nasty bait & switch. I have to wonder if the error was intentional.

[@weatheranddarkness]

@@ruthbennett7563 having done data entry for a website database, Probably not intentional, just no followup.

[@DahVoozel]

The Not The Not The Bees cut.

[@antonnurwald5700]

Another reason to secure all the content you care for on physical copies.

[@bened22]

I just read that only the unrated version includes "Not The Bees!". Something to watch out for.

[@jbkvgv]

How do you reconcile when bad people make bad art?

[@FitzyCify]

Grab a bucket of popcorn and revel in the spectacle, naturally.

[@hank_says_things]

The fact that Labute remade an essentially perfect film, stripped it of everything that made it good, and inserted his adolescent he-man woman-hatred at every opportunity told me everything I needed to know about the man. His backstory as a tedious one-note hack was just gravy. I happened upon the original Wicker Man years ago while watching late-night network tv. I clocked a young Edward Woodward and a beautifully coiffed Christopher Lee and knew I had to watch the whole thing, even if it was Hammer Films schlock. It stuck in my mind for days after and soon became one of my favourite horrors ever. Thank you for your diligent defence of a classic and your epic destruction of its usurper.

[@megansullivan3005]

I don't understand why people keep remaking good films. Remake bad films to improve them instead!

[@kallandar13]

My pseudo-aunt played the original for me as a teen, and I have gone back over and over because it’s such a good film. Meanwhile, the remake made me so mad that I barely got through it once and I have warned away everyone I know. Truly, the remake isn’t even so bad it’s good, it’s *just bad*.

[@daltonbedore8396]

friggin english proffesah ove heea

[@josemaria8177]

Lord Summersile is perhaps the best antagonist Christopher Lee ever played, but the remake has Nicholas Cage screaming about bees so I'm split over which one is more iconic

[@GeminiShadow]

*second best antagonist. You forget Count Dooku!

[@Itcouldbebunnies]

​@@GeminiShadow Third best. You forgot Professor Alan Driscoll. Oops, spoiler alert for a 64-year old movie!😄

[@andrewenderfrost8161]

Dracula hands down. And that even beats his character in James Bond!

[@Matt__B]

It's his best role because there's nothing scarier than a true believer who does what he does with it even crossing his mind that it might be evil.

[@Serai3]

Summerisle. The interior "s" is one of the inexplicably dumb things added by LaBute.

[@robertborland5083]

An aspect of the remake that strikes me as odd is that in the original, Summerisle has a revival of pre-Christian culture -- particularly from Celtic sources -- drawing from sources before the Kingdom of England (or even the Roman Empire) expanded into the area & pressured the people there to conform to hegemonic culture. (I think of the Celtic Revival movements around the British Isles during the time as examples.) If you take that context -- investigating in an isolated area with a recent cultural revival of "old ways" that predate a Christianizing, hegemonic culture -- & put it in the United States, chances are that the people doing that are not going to be white and/or not going to speak English as a first language. (The right to exercise indigenous religious practices was only protected by federal law in 1978 under The American Indian Religious Freedom Act, and only able to enforce these protections after the 1994 amendment.) The traditions are probably going to be indigenous traditions, African diaspora religions, or if the community is predominantly white, as immigrant enclaves or speaking a language such as Pennsylvania Dutch or Cajun French. Discussion of the clash between these traditions requires examination of colonialism, racism, & xenophobia in the United States. If I think about the film's setting on the islands along Pacific Northwest coast, the primary source of agricultural productivity are not beehives but on the salmon runs. It just seems so odd for the remake to refuse to engage with the themes of the original & cultural context of its new setting.

[@casanovafunkenstein5090]

Yeah, plot of the original definitely parallels colonial era narratives about "uncivilised cannibals", especially if you include the references to the consumption of the body of christ from the directors cut. Viewed through that lens it's more of a deconstruction of white supremacy than a screed against hippies.

[@profxlo0]

A Wicker Man remake with more Native American aesthetics & themes would absolutely slap

[@bepisthescienceman4202]

One of the times where setting a movie in America could've been really really interesting

[@STARM-t9b]

I have a hunch that the writer really didn’t want risk anything get in the way of the anti women message. Any of those elements you brought up do either add sympathy to the islanders or excuse their beliefs to something other then men = bad. It definitely gimped any potential the remake has with the changes in setting and characters

[@EinDose]

Yeah, something that strikes me here is that in the original, the local pagans actually have sort of a historic equality, or possibly even superiority; the inspector's Catholicism has sort of an implied superiority in hierarchy because it's a big, majority, 'civilized' religion, but when you start trying to approach things more objectively then the pagans have just as much (or as little) claim to legitimacy and authority; the story plausibly becomes a man who thinks he knows better walking into a society he can't possibly fully understand. That could exist in an American remake, but only if the pagans/pagan equivalents aren't obviously white and non-ethnic; if they are, as in the remake, then their claims lose legitimacy and it becomes 'rational white man OWNS hippies with FACTS AND LOGIC'.

[@seansteele6532]

I love in the original Wicker Man the number of chances Howie gets. I bet they do a successful sacrifice like once a decade because at any point dude could have been like. "Well I'm leaving" or "Well I'm going to have sex with the lady" or "Well I guess I won't be a dick" and Summersile would have to have been like. "Welp guess we're not Wickering this Man" ideally while looking directly to camera.

[@sholem_bond]

Yes! There were many ways to escape this outcome! Many "significant opportunities for decision-making," as WTYP might say (at least, if they were talking about the SS El Faro).

[@KimiClark19]

That is exactly why I love the original so much - Howie's choices actually matter throughout the film. Plus, the final shot of the wicker man collapsing against the setting sun is one of my favorites shots in all of cinema. And lastly, I need to figure out how to add the phrase "let's wicker this man" into my everyday conversation.

[@grief_hammer]

Ah, I think he has precisely zero chances to escape. He's as doomed as that beetle, going round and round. When the movie shows us the locals telling him to leave, it's merely a game toying with us, a representation of the inevitable. Similar to the head cutting game of 'Oranges & Lemons', which is a real folk I played in school. One person gets the chop, but the lyrics address you directly.

[@Talisguy]

I think it's mentioned that this is actually the first time they've resorted to human sacrifice in the original - which makes sense, hidden remote island cults probably won't stay remote or hidden for very long if visitors keep mysteriously disappearing, and while Lord Summerisle is rich, he's probably not rich enough to regularly sweep that under the rug.

[@dinosaysrawr]

He had it coming! He had it coming! He only had himself to blaaaaame!

[@ElizaGlide]

That picture thing is also a masterclass in missing the point of the original. When Howie looks at the harvest photos, you can see the harvest around the girls getting smaller and smaller each year, giving the audience the impression that this is a long-term problem and the human sacrifice is a (probably ineffective) last resort. Labute's harvest photos are just the same bountiful staging recycled for five different kids, so I guess he's trying to tell us that these women were really chomping at the bit to do some murder

[@timbates12]

The original filmmakers can SAY they wanted to go down the middle, but I dunno, man, you can't cast Christopher Lee as the leader of your Pagan cult then expect me NOT to enlist.

[@sdpc9182]

Especially when option B is a moralizing religious prude.

[@larkohiya]

That cult is no good. No thanks. Heck I'm against colonization and imperialism more then the next guy, but the cult is a cult is a cult and dont get my power and support.

[@Alucard-A-La-Carte]

Truly: Which voice would you rather follow into oblivion: the booming, authoritative Lord Summerisle or the whinging, shrieking Sgt. Howie?

[@zainmudassir2964]

​​@@Alucard-A-La-Carte the Chad Summerisle Vs virgin howie

[@MrJack8700]

His voice makes me melt

[@jfmangano]

The use of the font Papyrus is indeed the true horror.

[@falselogic]

Came here to say this.

[@audreyquinn73]

The long-suffering Ryan Gosling in that SNL skit comes to mind. 😅

[@DawnDavidson]

😂😂😂

[@DavidMChannel]

wait is the whole 'bee' thing because bees have a queen so they're matriarchal, and is thus a paralel to whats happening on the island? because.....what.

[@Itcouldbebunnies]

Because wahmens bad of course...

[@spiralswithinspirals]

you've already put more time and energy in than he

[@sholem_bond]

I think that was the idea, yeah

[@lancerguy3667]

Not just matriarchal, females fill all meaningful roles in a beehive. Males are only used to reproduce with the Queen. So yeah, exactly like the island. It’s not unique to bees… it’s how most colony insects work, and it’s fascinating in nature… but people attempting to apply it to human civilization are always weirdos.

[@ExcludedLayman]

There's definitely a worker/drone angle, too.

[@nyanko8972]

I think we’re all forgetting an important question: “HOW’D IT GET BURNED?”

[@DesignerDave]

Omg... I just realized that Midsommar is shitting on the Wicker man remake...😂

[@Giselle62]

Bearskin connection.

[@AaronHendu]

Without nick cage, nobody would remember this movie

[@Tareltonlives]

What elevates every Nick Cage movie is his sincerity and devotion to that part- it can make a film compelling, hilarious, or both. He just takes the material and puts it in your face bluntly, and it clarifies what exactly is so good or bad about the movie.

[@doctorhirst9302]

All the women Howie has met on the mainland (lady cop, car crash girl and her mother) being in the festival on the island at the end is such a blink and you miss it moment that I've only seen one other reviewer comment on it. It makes no sense within the story, but serves to hammer home the message of the film, lest we think that only *some* women are evil and duplicitous - clearly *all* women and girls are part of a conspiracy to make men miserable. I always thought that luckily the movie is way too stupid for anyone to take its misogynistic message seriously, so I'm rather horrified to find out that the director has made other films with the same repugnant worldview which are considered edgy classics by film bros.

[@patriciacampbell6791]

What are the Salem Witches gonna do? Release the dogs? Or the Chekhov’s bees? or the dogs with the Chekhov’s bees in their mouths and when they bark they shoot Chekhov’s bees at you?

[@EldenaDoubleca5t]

I remember watching this movie when I was a teenager cause I saw the "not the bees" clip and assumed this movie would be funny bad, only to realize very quickly that it was BAD bad.

[@BringSomeNoise]

HARD SAME. It’s great fake trailer fodder and utter trash as a movie

[@bridgetttaylor2089]

There's a great supercut on KZbin (or at least there was) that's everything funny about the movie and I think it's like twelve minutes. I too thought it would be so-bad-it's-good but it was mostly just tedious and sexist.

[@Dipsoid]

Same. Some friends and I watched this for a bad movie night, and it just sucked. We had already seen the small collection of "funny" parts on KZbin compilation. The rest of the movie was just incredibly bad in a not funny way.

[@bridgetttaylor2089]

@@Dipsoid the pacing is TERRIBLE.

[@Krunklehorn]

LaBute casting because "lol her last name starts with beeeeeee"

[@johnpjones182]

She should have been listed in the credits as Kate Beehive.

[@lassoroot]

I was hoping someone mentioned that 🤣

[@grief_hammer]

The Wicker Man 1973 is a beautiful and thought-provoking film that manages to simultaneously be an evocation of the cultural tensions within Britain, and genuinely horrifying. The Wicker Man 2006 is a crude, cynical affront. I grew up loving The Wicker Man 1973, a film my mother had seen in the 70s and deemed a good one to show us kids. I remember going to the cinema to see The Wicker Man 2006 and being disgusted and this crass piece of sexist crap.

[@ThatCrazyBookWyrm]

It's always fun to see how misogynists imagine a fantasy matriarchy would play out; they imagine that if women seize control, men would be subjected to the kind of brutal and oppressive practices that women have been subjected to for thousands of years. But that has overwhelmingly not been the case in real life examples of matriarchies, which makes scenarios that are set in the real world (such as in this movie) even more absurd. We also see this often applied to race (ex. the Save the Pearls book series): this idea that if an oppressed group was given any power, they would immediately do the exact same thing that was done to them. I know that desire for revenge is a strong driving force, but broadly speaking the whole "oppressed becoming the oppressers" narrative doesn't really play out the way we see in stories like this. Instead, these societies are often run compassionately and carefully, with the goal of uplifting and protecting the oppressed group that has made a safe area for themselves. These societies are also in constant danger from outside forces that still follow the status quo (see Umoja Uaso, a matriarchal village in Kenya which is under constant threat, or the Tulsa massacre of Black Wall Street). When it comes down to it, men like Neil LaBute don't understand why women - both past and present - would both want and need a female lead society. He is either ignorant of or dismissive of female suffering and oppression, and so he decides the driving force must be because of a hatred of men. And because he does not understand the patriarchy or women, he fashions the society after all the historically oppressive patriarchal societies of both present and yore (but reversed this time!) and sprinkles his own bits of misogyny on top for flavor. You hate to see it.

[@wesleypederson5497]

Really glad to finally figure this out. The Wicker Man remake's overt misogyny was so extreme it had me wondering if it was twisting itself into a pretzel to make commentary on that misogyny itself, but I never looked into it. Guess I should have just assumed that the plan was just as bad as the execution.

[@AaronHendu]

Queen bee = bad and scary, just like women

[@mitsosoftheelves]

I dislike the remake & its misogyny so much! One more wrinkle in the original was how all the beliefs & practices of the island where not some ancient tradition. The original Lord Summerisle basically came up with them, in the 18th & 19th century style of coming up with whatever & passing them as being continuations of long past stuff (like how a lot of the beliefs about the druids from the time came to be). And the islanders are getting increasingly desperate with their crops failing more & more each year & why they've now moved into human sacrifice - which won't really do a thing & what's next after that?

[@julietfischer5056]

The original lord probably drew from works such as _The Golden Bough_ and studies of ancient Celtic beliefs (or would have, if such a person existed IRL). Add in any local folk traditions, stir well, watch the harvests increase and thus increase belief.

[@fluffywolfo3663]

i guess not everything can be fixed by a large influx of bees

[@melaniemanning2462]

You take that back!

[@opcomment]

Wait was Hot Fuzz inspired by this

[@MaggieMaeFish]

Yes, very much

[@ItsTheFizz]

​@MaggieMaeFish There's a reason the Neighborhood Watchman says "Oh god, no..." right before he blows up

[@josephzowghi4313]

Oh yes. "Good morning, Sergeant."

[@Rozilla]

Also, the NWA police liason man in Hot Fuzz is played by Edward Woodward- the police sergeant in the original Wicker Man EDIT - originally thought he was the Barman for some reason! Oops! Someone else pointed this out in the replies, so thanks and sorry!

[@GregTheTerrible]

Hot Fuzz is a more faithful remake of the original Wicker Man than the actual remake of Wicker Man.

[@manderly33]

Thank you for dragging Neil LaBute in the manner he deserves. -signed, a theater actress

[@Talisguy]

It's possible this is mentioned later in the video, but there's another big reason why making the letter from a specific person and not just an anonymous tip was a bad idea - it should give the game away much earlier. In the original, Howie had no idea who sent the letter , so he doesn't know who he can trust, but he's reasonably sure that _someone_ on this island is looking out for Rowan. It explains why he doesn't just leave and why he keeps talking to the islanders, and it means that he's constantly not quite sure if the islanders are just different, distrustful of outsiders, covering things up or being actively hostile when they give him weird answers or brush him off. In the remake, Malus knows exactly who sent the letter, so when he goes to this person and she _also_ refuses to give him a straight answer, this should have immediately tipped him off that the entire island was in on it. It's a stupid decision to go to the island alone in both films, but the remake highlights and underlines how stupid it is while also removing the actual reason for most of the "cop talks to the islanders" scenes to happen.

[@julietfischer5056]

Well, Howie had no reason to suspect anything other than a missing persons case. Go over, ask around, probably even learn that Rowan had turned up, or some other local drama. Everybody acts weird, and now he starts nosing around, trying to collect enough evidence so that he doesn't sound like a nutter when he calls for assistance from the mainland. (My guess is that, when someone comes looking for him, the islanders tell a plausible story that ends with Howie getting in his plane and flying away and that's all they know.)

[@pepsimilkhotel]

Iirc he believes that the girl is/might be his daughter, which explains both why he acts outside of his jurisdiction and therefore cannot easily call for help without sounding like a nutjob to the local cops, and also why it is him in particular who is chosen for the sacrifice. Don't/shouldn't all parents sacrifice themselves for their children?

[@Janokins]

The cut I saw of the remake didn't even have the "not the bees!" scene in it, made all that foreshadowing pointless, in fact the entire film was pointless

I remember making the case when it came out that In the Company of Men was about misogyny but not misogynist. The next two films I saw by LaBute, Nurse Betty and Possession, didn't change that. But seeing his Wicker Man was like "Holy crap, this dude really hates women!" I haven't (and won't) revisit those early works, but I do wonder if I was just being naive. More importantly, I wonder what other filmmakers I might be giving a pass to in the belief that they don't share the repugnant views of their characters.

[@indef2def]

I thought that ItCoM was a masterpiece, as I later thought about The Mercy Seat. But then the dude just didn't stop. Stephen King imagines amazing, diverse evil characters. Labute pulls the crank on the same machine.

[@dubitataugustinus]

I went to see the remake when it was in theatres. I was a teenager starting to become a huge horror fan, but I hadn't watched the original yet. The theatre was almost empty: just my friend, me, and maybe 3 other people. I soon realized that we were witnessing a hilarious trainwreck, that I was going to have more fun if I didn't take it seriously. I laughed out loud more than I'd do with any comedies at the time. I was joking that it was the best film of the year... But then I saw in the ending credits that this piece of garbage had been dedicated to the memory of Johnny Ramone (who would've HATED IT. Like so, SO MUCH). It was soul-crushing. I understood then how horrible this project was, nothing more than a cash grab/vanity project. It made me feel so angry and bitter.

[@MaggieMaeFish]

We found an interview where nic cage talks about how Johnny Ramone loved the original, so they dedicated it to him.

[@dubitataugustinus]

@MaggieMaeFish Yeah, Johnny was intense about his love for horror films (the Ramones was the reason I got into them!), so imagine how awkward it would have been to tell his friend Nicholas his remake is a cinematic insult to the OG.

[@timmadison5410]

It real feels like this movie would've been more on message if they'd put the bees down Nicolas Cage's pants.

[@VultureSkins]

LaBute was probably upset about the Mario Movie’s portrayal of Princess Peach

[@Cyril29a]

5:50 Hey that is Todd in the Shadows! I love that guy!

[@crazypurplehair5722]

He is the best Todd in my book! And I usually have a George Carlin stance on people named Todd.

[@j.e1334]

I would not characterize the Golden Bough as representing “actual” pagan belief as it was practiced, but this is a good essay. It was published in 1890, and we have made great strides since then.

[@j.e1334]

In particular kingly sacrifice is a fraught issue of historiography, particularly in the British context. I myself would be careful to not readily connect Christian beliefs on the Passion with things like the drowning-throat cutting rituals of Medieval Ireland.

[@j.e1334]

Returning to the main content of the video, how is LaBute this unprepared to take questions from Piers “Softball” Morgan?

[@robertborland5083]

@@j.e1334 I greatly enjoy the comment & wanted to say something along those lines myself. Even in the '70s, the anthropological methodology & material in The Golden Bough was decades out of date. Even The Wicker Man's titular wicker man is primarily attested by Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico, & the provenance is...debatable.

[@AC-dk4fp]

@@robertborland5083 It wasn't out of date for Neopagans which is what the film is actually about. Fifteen years to be totally debunked academically, thirty years to become a best seller, sixty years to become a religion.

[@pattheplanter]

@@AC-dk4fp I have always loved the comment that most Wiccans prefer not think about the fact that their religion is younger than the NHS.

[@Jeffertoya]

Cool review. That other reviewer hit on the biggest bad change. The folk songs are weirdly wonderful in that original

[@kallandar13]

I love them so much, I even listen to the soundtrack regularly. They were good in context, but even out of context they’re just good music.

[@Coogs42]

Aside from all the awful stuff Neil LaBute did to the film, he completely screwed up the atmosphere of The Wicker Man. So much of the power of the film to me comes from the work of Paul Giovanni and Magnet, to the point where the only version I watch is The Final Cut, to make sure that Gently Johnny is in there. By removing the music, LaBute just missed so much of the charm of the film

[@nanopanda]

I had never been a fan of "good for her" movies but.... 06 Wicker Man may make a believer out of me yet.

[@wearethebomb42]

Seeing Florence Pugh’s character watch her ex boyfriend burn in the middle of a pagan festival *in a bear costume* feels like a response to this remake. A real “good for her” moment if I’ve ever seen one.

[@myriaddsystems]

I'm glad Florence Pugh went on to redeam herself in The Little Drummer Girl

[@reneedailey1696]

Redeem herself from what? "Midsommar" gained her SO much acclaim.

[@jeffwalker6815]

I mean she was ultimately brainwashed into a cult that preyed on her vulnerabilities, killed her friends and turned her into a killer BUT she smiled at the end so it was a happy ending, like those Smile movies.

[@MyChannel773]

@@reneedailey1696her character, not her

[@Nevae_696]

@@jeffwalker6815 Those were not her friends they hated her, made fun of her for being sad her family being murdered.

[@DieFischbude]

Okay... maybe Wicker Man 2006 is a bad movie and Neil LaBute is a truly disgusting human being... BUUUUT I still remember how the dream sequence on the ferry deeply affected me when I first saw it. I haven't laughed that hard ever since...

[@Jenninka]

I always need more Kath & Kim references in video essays by non Australians

[@jammysmears4077]

8:17 JD Vance jump scare.

[@MissAlmostFine]

*shudders*

[@serene1172]

‘ALL OF THE CHARISMA OF JD VANCE IN A DONUT SHOP!!!!’ IM HOWLING

[@Christopher_Culpepper]

I remember watching The Shape of Things a few years after it came out, and was struck at how the character of Evelyn was so unrealistic and so blatantly the vessel for the directors animosity, even as a media illiterate 22 year old, I also remember watching the Wicker Man remake with friends and laughing at how preposterous the film was. But it took me a while to connect the two movies to the same director, and once i did, it was a light bulb moment. "This guy is just absolutely insecure about women!". One inexplicable decision: at the end credits, the movie is dedicated to Johnny Ramone, guitarist for the punk band Ramones.🤦‍♂🤷 Also, RiffTrax back in 2007 actually did a joke commentary track for Wicker Man.

[@JosephEarnest-e9q]

I’m used to Nicholas Cage movies: weird+campy+Cage. But WOW, I was not aware of Neil’s whole career of trying to create the “perfect” anti-Bechdel test.

[@louurich9087]

Christopher Lee said that Wicker Man was one of the best films he ever made. He was also a fairly devout member of the Church of England. I always wondered if that showed he felt his own religion could be too rigid. Well never know for sure, but it at least shows the original was made by people with a type of mental flexibility and openness the topic requires.

[@casanovafunkenstein5090]

It's possible. Bear in mind that CoE is protestant, so any criticism of Catholicism in how they depicted Howie may not have been seen by Lee as representative of his own beliefs. It's also worth noting that Lee was most passionate about the films he did that skewed closest to victorian literature and whilst that film was an original screenplay it doesn't feel out of place alongside Dracula and Frankenstein in the way it presents a less black and white morality to the proceedings (Dracula is a monster, but he's also a very lonely person who wants connection with a woman who he believes to be the reincarnation of his late wife and is socially ostracised for what he has become. Frankenstein is a person who is motivated in part to create a being that represents a type of masculinity that he isn't capable of achieving for himself, but that ultimately creates a being that is incompatible with society and is both a victim of prejudice, but is also an incel who demands to have a female counterpart made for him as a sex slave and goes on a violent rampage when she rejects him. If Victor was content with who he was (which was no doubt made harder by his father adopting his sister with the explicit intent of making the two marry so that people wouldn't accuse Victor of being gay. Victor's dad legitimately thought that pressuring his kids to declare that they were engaged in incest would be better than speculation about his son's sexuality, so he really is the true villain) then he would have been a brilliant doctor and contributed a lot to society)

[@oneinathousand2156]

I read an interview with him from 1993 which was later put on the Cinema Retro website where he admitted that he wasn’t as devout as his friend, Peter Cushing, and that he wished he was, his tone implying there was a reason he couldn’t bring himself to have more faith. I don’t know if he became more religious later but I can imagine that might have had to do with whatever he saw during WWII and its immediate aftermath. I also saw another interview with him, I don’t remember where from, where Lee said he saw a lot of himself in Summerisle in both his good and bad qualities.

[@Tareltonlives]

It's funny that the conservatives of older generations are less conservative than a lot of their counterparts today.

[@zainmudassir2964]

He also said the favourite historical character he played was Muhammad Ali Jinnah,founder of Pakistan. I suppose he could have empathy for people regardless of his personal faith with is rare nowadays

[@MordredsGirl]

​@@casanovafunkenstein5090 I feel obligated to point out that in the original Dracula, that reincarnation subplot does not exist. It was an addition made to the Coppola film, which has, I suppose, now become canon to Dracula's lore. Dracula's predation on Lucy and then Mina was meant to reflect how 'monstrous' he really was, a stranger from 'the east' feeding off Good British Women. Victorian Orientalism at its finest. Hilariously, in some of the alternate versions of Stoker's novel that have been discovered, Dracula has a cult who worship him.

[@FionaOfMountLawley]

The Bee Box is a poem by Sylvia Plath and that's just the first one which came to mind. Of all the poems about bees by many writers they could have chosen....

[@0meAcat1]

"Hows it feel to really hurt someone" // "aghghh the beees" a conversation! Good critical excercise, the super cut of nick cage just hitting women in the face is regrettably a masterpiece

[@hollandscottthomas]

I'm going to use "regrettably a masterpiece" a lot in regular conversation now, thank you.

[@fredadams2297]

If I push down the like button harder does it make the like more powerful? I’m always excited to see a new essay! I don’t mean to reduce your work down to the product of a (sadly defunct) group of creatives, I truly love your individual voice, but so many wonderful cultural artists came out of (that specific period of) Cracked. Keep doing what you’re doing!

[@Tareltonlives]

Wait a minute, does that mean that Dawn of the Dead and the Wicker Man have something in common? A subversive humorous satire of our culture by the 70s counterculture remade by surrealist misogynists with little to no connection with the original? How many times must this happen?!

[@mikey-wl2jt]

we might add in the remakes of RoboCop, Total Recall, and Judge Dredd (not 70s, ofc)

[@DoAllDogsLikeMarmite]

You'd think even if he needed bee poems, LaBute would have gone for Emily Dickinson instead.

[@weatheranddarkness]

He probably believes his momonism bars him from reading anything by women so he couldn't have done enough reading to even find an "appropriate" quotation. There is a funny irony here, and I think it speaks to how actually inept Labute is, and that is the William Blake bit seems to be the thesis of the film, but he made his protagonist erase it anyway. I'm certain he saw it as a plot act to replicate and not one with actual meaning. It all just feels meaningless through his lens.

[@cartilagehead]

As a theater degree holder who had to read a whole bunch of Neil LaBute in undergrad, his career trajectory will never stop being fascinatingly weird to me EDIT: oh wow, okay. I did NOT know about the whole "getting fired from the MCC" thing. I thought he was just a deeply weird and edgelordy Mormon 90s playwright who had a penchant for writing really horrible and hateful women characters and went on to make a bunch of bad-to-mediocre films and a show for the SyFy network that I never heard anybody talk about. I did NOT know about the MCC.

[@LittleMissLounge]

Oh, he was/is Mormon? That explains a lot.

[@Totallyunderrated-1]

Theatre degrees are totally underrated qualifications.

[@skywalkerchick]

@@LittleMissLoungewouldn’t be surprised if he only joined in order to get cheaper tuition at BYU. Non-Mormon BYU students have to pay about 2k more than the Mormon students

[@springshowers4754]

Glad you're talking about how weirdly sexist the remake felt. I'm surprised you're the first one I've seen mention it.

[@maskoolio5824]

The career trajectory of In The Company of Men to the wicker man remake is really incredible.

[@FTZPLTC]

Wow, I'd heard of Neil Labute, but I had no idea that he was *this* bad. Really comes off like a writer who sees any story or work that makes genuine social commentary and thinks "Oh yeah, well, what if that, but the opposite of that?! CHECKMATE ATHIESTS." EDIT: Oh wow, House of Darkness was him too? That makes sense, that movie was really bad. Another one where you think there *has* to be a twist coming because otherwise it's just insufferable but, nope, it is, and there isn't.

[@timbeaton5045]

The original works in part due to Edward Woodward's perfect performance as the repressed uptight (outasight, man!) Christian puritan moralist. And even the odd inclusion of Britt Ekland, with an overdubbed Scottish accent doesn't matter. The down to earth casting works perfectly, and the overall coolness of the direction sets it apart from many a horror film. Even if it would be considered tame by latter day standards. None of this applies to the remake.

[@oracleofthemundane9593]

The novelization adds some interesting bits here and there. Sgt. Howie is repulsed by the public lovemaking, but partly because (as he thinks) the act of sex isn't as beautiful as he thought it would be. But he also vows to himself that when he marries his fiancee, he will be considerate and not make her do all the work in their marital bed.

[@Lifad2011]

Do you think Labute thought he was making some commentary on how he saw feminism as making a strawman fallacy out of men, but failed to realize he was doing that exact thing to feminism with this movie? God Neil Labute sucks…

[@dinosaysrawr]

Add Neil LaBute to the roster of people whose art makes a ton more sense when you learn that they're Mormon.

[@roberteaston42]

The double fakeout dream sequence is the first sign of many showing how different the remake is.

[@username-unavailable]

I would like to point out that Nicolas Cage's dinosaur fossil addiction is what leads him to play in movies like The wicker man He does not want this. He needs this because he has an addiction to fossils

[@woagnya]

Can’t blame him tbh

[@robertborland5083]

I saw this on Nebula & greatly enjoyed it. An excellent aspect of the original that is absent from the remake is the music -- the '73 Wicker Man soundtrack would be an excellent 1970s folk music album in its own right but also adds so much texture to the setting.

[@johnpjones182]

It really is a musical disguised as a horror movie...or the other way around.

[@robertborland5083]

@@johnpjones182 Spot on. That element was what I was most surprised by upon first viewing.

[@kallandar13]

I love the music so much that I regularly listen to the soundtrack (it’s on Spotify, but I also have it on CD 😅).

[@brianbarrett3161]

Excellent commentary. Didn't know any of that about LeBute. This movie wouldn't have existed without Nicholas Cage desperately wanting to be in the remake, and I always thought the first thing to go wrong, the first wrong step down a road of bad decisions, was they made him the inspector and not Lord Summerisle. The inspector is supposed to be chaste and pious, and that's not really in Nick's range, and once you strip those qualities from the inspector, what is Wicker Man?

[@williamroeben]

Thank you for the VERY long-suffering tone at the late 26/early 27 minute point, I actually laughed out loud :)

[@RileyRobertson-oi4fo]

Labute also tried to pull the ol' "Actually, we totally *meant* to make a campy piece of shit as a comment...on...on something or other" years later after the film had garnered it diabolical reputation

[@timeliebe]

The remake is...exactly what I would have expected from Neil Labute, a simplistic misogynistic Christianist take on a story that is disturbing and powerful precisely because it's NOT simplistic, and criticizes both religions pretty harshly. (I mean, sure Howie is an uptight, self-righteous tool, but is that really so bad that it deserves an incredibly painful and unwilling death? That's the part I find hardest to deal with, and as Maggie points out it's also the part that makes it such a great movie.) Labute's remake has Nic Cage going FULL CAGEEEEEEE!!!!, crudely harassing and assaulting women-which the writer/director seems to think is somehow...an appropriate way for a MAN! to treat an island full of women? His death is also needlessly cruel, breaking his legs, stinging him with bees which he's seriously allergic to, THEN putting him to the Wicker Man and setting it and him ablaze. It feels like the movie's trying to say he has a right to be abusive to women, but the women are sadistic and revel in his pain and suffering more than using him as a sacrifice to bring back prosperous honey harvests. The end also had the women coming back to the mainland to find a new man to serve as a sacrifice, which implies this one didn't work out....

[@CutsceneArtist]

4:14 The End! It's perfect! NO NOTES! 😂

[@0meAcat1]

Endless notes lmfao

[@richardcopeland5934]

If my memory serves me right. I recall Christopher Lee saying, ' The Wicker Man was one of the best performance he'd ever done.' He really enjoyed playing Lord Summerisle.

[@d.w.stratton4078]

I was going to make a bee pun, but I was afraid I might wax loquacious...

[@woagnya]

Ayyyyyyy

[@antondalemma5484]

No deeper thoughts. Just in to say I missed Maggie Mae's sessions these past few months.

[@FluxChanneler]

The only time I'd seen the remake, my brain and capacity for media literacy were both still developing, but I genuinely didn't grok that I was suppose to be on Cage's side, and I figured his being burned alive at the end was comuppance for running around punching random women and stealing people's bikes at gunpoint.

[@sholem_bond]

"The Wicker Man" says ACAB in both versions, too, but the original really seems to emphasize more than the remake that like... He could really just go back to the mainland. (In the remake the vibe is just more overtly antagonistic toward him, so it seems to make more sense that he's suspicious, while in the original, the people on the island seem more chill and much less malevolent, at least initially.) His persistence in trying to find a criminal to pin the alleged crime on and punish with State violence, in spite of an apparent lack of affected people/accusers/victims once he gets to the island, is part of what dooms him (as I recall).

[@sholem_bond]

In the remake he's not even within his jurisdiction (!)... I forgot about that, but WOW, at least in the original, the guy did have a legitimate reason to be there.

[@outofcake]

IIRC they say the sacrifice needs to come of his "own free will", so while the cult's trying to act suspicious to entice him to come and stick around, they also avoid being SO suspicious that he'd have iron-clad evidence something is wrong and therefore his duty would require him to stay (at least up til the point when they sabotage the plane, I guess by then he's filled his free will quota). So they stay on the "silly little scamp" side of the line until pretty late in the game, which is far more effective imo.

[@FreyaEinde]

I may be big braining a thing that wasn’t intended in the remake at all by the director or writer, but there’s a pattern of Nic Cage’s character wanting to be congratulated for heroism of defenseless women and constantly being bewildered by why that protection is being rejected. It’s a goofy allegory as presented, but the movie reveals his conceit to be just what it is…an ego boost that he needs after being totes responsible for getting that girl and her mom killed. That’s what gets him on the island to begin with. In the foreshadowing scene with girl in the car he does a pointless chase to return a doll…that was clearly thrown away. The chance to play hero and be admired by a woman that very much did not need him is the dudes major foible.He’s also a person who doesn’t care about anything beyond his own personal agenda as well, so it’s fitting ultimately that his own self delusion ends up getting him in the end. The classroom scene with the school girls highlight “Quixotic” hero as foreshadowing and uses a misdirect with the teachers blatant sexism to throw Nic Cage off what’s actually being made fun of.

[@atsumaruthepartydragonslay5007]

I haven’t watched this film yet and I’m just learning about it in this video so please correct me here, but in the perspective of the film, doesn’t it make sense he’d at least stay to make sure the letter wasn’t real? I mean, if you get a letter claiming someone was abducted in a small community but they all say “no we’re chill” once you get there, you don’t just say “oh ok!” and leave! :P (the impression I get just from the vid) This all being said, I am NOT defending this fuckin cockhead cop and my trans ass would also join the pagans lmao

[@alexbennet4195]

If a community appears to be covering up the disapреаrance/murdеr of a сhіld… you should shrug your shoulders and let them?

[@jjoshaugh]

"I know you have clicked on this for..." No I saw the original Whicker man many years ago and I wanted a refresher on it. Its a great film, even when you accidently catch it in the middle of the night on a Black and White portable TV in your parents house in Rural Ireland. (Actually, I'm not knocking that as much as that might appear.) That said, I've never seen the Nick Cage one because the air of SUUUUUUCK that settled over that movie is palpable. I think they could have done a decent movie still but transplant the ideas to Contemporary America, with a Bible Belt evangelist and drugged up nutzo Hippies who got all their ideas from bad 60s New Age pulp crap someone made up and called "Paganism". Hell a Folklorist Scholar screaming "But that's nor what the Pagans believed!!!" could have been fun. Since I'm about to see the part where you tear the newer one apart, I'm sure that's not what happened.

[@theuncannydag]

This has to be the maddest I've ever heard Maggie talk in a video. Not unwarranted, tho

[@pluribus_unum]

Not a fan of Bee-movies.

[@pattheplanter]

Jupiter Ascending was a classic bee-uty of a film.

[@Readingeye]

The original Wicker Man made me think the cop was an ass, but an understandable ass. Meanwhile the Labute version is just an ass.

[@spiralswithinspirals]

He had characterization, motivations, learned things as the audience did, and the callousness built up to a satisfying ending. Barry Lyndon was mentioned in the context of a "poor me ;(" film, I can see that. While the abusive, self-serving behavior went on wayyyy too long, I suppose he had *some* comeuppance? Maybe not as satisfying in how many lives he ruined over the cop intruding and being... tolerated as this season's game.

[@oracleofthemundane9593]

Woodward's Sgt. Howie is an uptight prig, but he does care about a young girl who has no connection to him. The Rowan Morrison in the original is just another of Her Majesty's subjects, and (to paraphrase the anonymous letter) Sgt. Howie feels duty-bound to see what's happened to Rowan because she is entitled to the protection of the law (as he represents).

[@sayhibobbi]

Part of me wants Louise Fletcher (Nurse Ratched) in this cast, but it would have instantly telegraphed Neil LaBute's intent to make the population of the island a bunch of crazy b/witches. Speaking of LaBute, something I noticed in his speech pattern: he talks a lot like T*ump, rambling and going off into tangents. Do all misogynists talk this way?

[@spiralswithinspirals]

Yeah, sorta. He's driven by grievance politics and has no real points to make beyond creating literal straw feminists to "take down" and perform sexualized violence on.

[@majestyzx9081]

The real worst remake ever is probably Psycho. I have a soft spot for the wicker man remake as a comedy though. I honestly kinda love it. Not enough that I'd put it on, but if it was on TV, I wouldn't change it.

[@tzimaka]

To me it plays like a farce and I enjoyed it.

[@AaronHendu]

I love the original and the Vince vaughn one lol

[@tzimaka]

@@AaronHendu psycho 2 too

[@KimiClark19]

I always say that the original and the remake are both enjoyable, but for very different reasons. Nic Cage punching people in a bear suit never fails to get me laughing out loud.

[@jswell886]

The '73 Wicker Man movie is a bloody masterpiece. Sergeant Howie's reactions to the rituals are mostly hilarious until he sees the Wicker Man. I love that I disliked the character right up until that moment, and then I just felt terrible for him

[@thesejoots]

when my friends and i watched the niccage version for our bad movie night, we were so confused that the amazon rental cut the leg breaking scene and the NOT THE BEES scene. it was a bizarre disappointment.

[@chebghobbi]

I've tried to watch this film a couple of times and it was so terrible i could never get past the first ten minutes. Watching this video got me thinking: as per the quote from Robin Hardy in this video, Howie may not work if The Wicker Man were made today and set in the UK, but I suspect the original story could have been translated quite well into a modern US setting - they could have made Howie/Malus an evangelical Christian, then set the story around an isolated community in rural Appalachia so something roughly equivalent to the Scottish folk music in the original could be included.

[@theapocalyvid]

I think the difference between a work of art being meaningfully or pointlessly edgy is whether there’s any purpose or shape to the thing. A knife can be sharp, a metal cube can have sharp edges, and yet both are fit to touch if used carefully. Other times, edgy art can be as chaotic and destructive as a nail bomb. Neil LaBute seems to make the latter.

[@jessierudolph4179]

He’s a pizza cutter, all edge and no point

[@helenl3193]

​@jessierudolph4179 a pizza-cutter with a too short handle - all edge, no point, and you'll hurt yourself if you try to use it for its intended purpose

[@Serai3]

No, it isn't. I saw that thing in the theater, and believe me, it is exactly as bad as I remember. I'm a nearly lifelong pagan, and a HUGE fan of the original, and this travesty could hardly be worse. Here's a little review I posted in the comments to a pro's review of this... thing: ----------------------- This was not only the worst remake I've ever seen, it's one of the worst FILMS I can remember. It was obvious practically from the first five minutes that LaBute just did not get the point of the original Wicker Man AT ALL. It's not "Paganism is bad", but rather "Arrogance is dangerous". By removing the fact that the cop is a tight-assed fundamentalist Christian, the script completely upended the whole plot, since that's the reason not only why the inhabitants of Summerisle (and why the extra "s"??) lured the cop there, but also why he fell for the whole thing. He was so busy getting offended by the paganism and so abysmally ignorant of other religious realities that he never saw the Wicker Man coming. But nooooo. LaBute had to go the tackiest route possible, grabbing his balls in utter hysteria at the very idea that women might have something to say when it comes to religion. And just what is up with that change anyway? Why did he feel it necessary to make this what used to be called Dianic paganism? It's not like the kind of religion seen in the original doesn't exist anymore - I know plenty of American pagans. The superfluousness of the whole concept speaks volumes of LaBute's intense problems with women. Take for instance the fact that the island he presents is so...grim. Nobody seems to have any fun, ever. In the original, you had a population of happy, hard-working, lusty people, tilling the earth and each other, content in their lives. In this version, the place is utterly joyless. No music, no dancing, no smiling, no laughter. Just frowsy, unwashed hags (old and young) ruled over by a horrid cliche of a wicked stepmother. Dreadful. And the whole thing about "we came here hundreds of years ago to worship the Goddess". OH BITCH PLEASE. _No one_ makes those kinds of claims anymore. That whole "tradition" thing went out the window years ago. Any pagan worth his/her salt knows that for the self-serving bullshit it is. If LaBute was going to make a film about a particular religion, I'd have expected him to do at least a bit of research first. Besides which, the kind of (un-)community presented here is completely unviable - there's no way it could survive fifty years, let alone five hundred. I've been a happy worshipper of the Goddess for thirty years now. The original Summerisle is a place I've always longed to visit. But you couldn't possibly pay me enough money to step foot on LaBute's Island of the Fanged Vagina Monsters. (And yes, I am a woman myself.) It's beyond ridiculous - as the reviewer states here, it's insulting and pathetic, telling far more about LaBute and his genital panic than even he probably realizes. Feh. -------------- By the way, your censorship of the girls dancing around the fire amuses me because those girls were not n*ked. They were wearing flesh-colored leotards. They were local girls Hardy had recruited, and they weren't happy about the idea of jumping around with no clothes on, so he obliged them by finding something they could wear and shooting them from far off, but if you look really closely, you can tell they're not bare. 😅

[@reneedailey1696]

Likely she did it to avoid YT striking the video.

[@stu212]

My grandmas old caravan was at the site where they filmed the original and i can remember sleeping at the base of the legs so many times as a kid and then watching the film as a teenager i could never sleep there again haha. Burrowhead was a really beautiful place with amazing sunsets

[@chupachups9989]

The way nick cage all of the sudden started beat the shit out of the women was hysterically funny

[@jasonrhome710]

Wait, Riff-Tracks is on Nebula now? Man, I need get back over there. Still need to watch Dracula's Ex-Girlfriend too. And your flick. Unrated has been great.

[@jasonrhome710]

Oh, costume! Umm.... dachshund or black cat.

[@shadyguy23]

I'll be honest we watched the 2006 movie drunk in freshman year of college, and were too busy laughing at how ridiculous/incompetent every scene was, that we didn't even think about how much this movie hates women, but it really does. It's just that Nic Cage also garners exactly zero sympathy or respect for himself over the course of the movie so you're totally on board with them killing him.

[@SuperPal-tr3go]

Yeah even as a teenage boy I could tell this movie was weird about women. Like... its so blatant about it.

[@d.w.stratton4078]

20:12 Jesus out here catching strays, god damn Maggie! I guess literally lollll 34:21 Ted Cruz out here catching strays, god damn! 😂😂😂😂😂

[@d.w.stratton4078]

I'm just sad for the scenery industry. Nic ate every last crumb of the scenery in the bees scene. So many people out of work.

[@nextabe1]

I remember seeing part of In The Company of Men a long time ago. More recently I've tried to search for it without knowing the title, but was unsuccessful. Thanks for solving that little mystery!

[@SchnitzelRada]

16:10 ,he's asking the most surface level question that you can ask as an artist. You also don't have to depict sexual assault onstage to ask that question. It's pretty obvious that he has a weird grudge against women. I really hope all the women involved in his work felt comfortable while working with him. Edit: he's got incel brain.

[@Tareltonlives]

Finding out who Neil LaBute is, it explains so much why the remake is so terrible

[@LongKestrel]

volcel cop has a silly prank played on him