DVD review
Directed by: Neil LaBute
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Ellen Burstyn, Kate Beahan, Frances Conroy

Cop Edward Malus (Nicolas Cage) is called to a remote, private island over the case of his ex-fiancee’s lost daughter. Malus is an outsider in this Pagan matriarchal community, but that’s just the start of his problems...

As if the 1970s haven’t been plundered enough for unnecessary remakes of landmark films, 2006 saw Neil LaBute (In the Company of Men) adapt the much admired Wicker Man. The chilling 1973 classic was set on a remote Scottish isle run by Christopher Lee, and the police officer is the devoutly religious Edward Woodward. The remake updates the tale for the Internet age, turns Lee into Ellen Burstyn and relocates to North America. None of that is particularly bad in theory, but we end up with a movie that’s both overwrought and dull at the same time.

Cage’s cop obsesses over the death of a girl killed in a road accident he witnesses, to the point where he starts to see visions. With the child’s blonde hair and red jacket, it’s as if LaBute has begun a muddled remake of Don’t Look Now by mistake.

“I’m out there bouncing around in circles,” says an over-excited Cage, “and I can use a little help.” So could the narrative, which cannot settle on a consistent tone. There are numerous in-jokes and nods to its forerunner; for example giving the Willow character (Kate Beahan) the surname Woodward. Beahan, regrettably, is no Britt Ekland, and Cage has some laughable lines near the end (“Step away from the bike!”). This slightly different edit is accompanied by a reasonably chatty and informative UK-exclusive commentary but LaBute is often irritatingly flippant given the supposed solemnity of the subject matter. Ian Calcutt

VERDICT: 3/10
This unwelcome reworking throws out most of the mystery and tension of the original, and unravels well before the story’s famously iconic ending.