The Wicker Man

Posted on Mar 7, 2007 in Films/Theatre | 1 comment

Finally saw The Wicker Man last evening. I’m a fair-weather fan of Nick Cage, and I love a good horror/thriller flick. So it was with some excitement that Crystal and I sat through this 100-minute film. All I can say is… well, there was a bit of bait-and-switch at the end. Oh, and it goes without saying this is a spoiler so watch out if you haven’t—and plan to—seen this one.

Premise is good: small town cop witnesses a freak accident, goes a little nuts, and then finds himself on a quest to help his ex-fiancé find her daughter. (It’s set on an island in the northwest, so there was a little bit of home in the movie.) In typical thriller fashion, it has lots of allusion and foreshadowing with Cage’s character’s dreams. The missing little girl and the girl killed in the accident that opens the film seem linked. Are they the same? Is one or the other diabolical? Hard to tell, but as he searches out the mysterious island and its matriarchal inhabitants, it promises to be a creepy, pagan-ritual filled ending.

And it is… sort of. I give the movie credit for its brutal and totally untraditional ending. Here’s the spoiler, so look away if you’re not prepared (I wasn’t): the Wicker Man is a two-story effigy that needs a human (along with several animals) sacrifice before it is burned to appease the gods (of bees and honey, from what I can tell). Cage’s character is duped, cornered, and stung with bees (to which he’s allergic), then resuscitated with adrenaline before having his kneecaps busted with a mallet á la Kathy Bates and James Cahn in Misery. Truly horrible to watch, especially with Cage doing his best to prove he’s in pain. He’s then strung up and drug to the top of the Wicker Man, which is set alight by none other than his “missing” daughter. Hmm… is that irony or just messed up?

As an aside, I was annoyed at the DVD’s menu, which promised a “Shocking alternate ending,” which was no where to be found on the disc. What a rip!