The setup: Horror-movie remakes are a dime a dozen, but one of the most potentially interesting director-project pairings was Neil LaBute’s The Wicker Man, which found the always-provocative writer-director taking a stab at the horror genre.
What went wrong?: LaBute often gets taken to task for his misogyny, especially in films like In the Company of Men and The Shape of Things. I’ve always found the accusations a little reductive, but it’s hard to argue against them in regards to The Wicker Man. The story basically boils down to this: there’s a beehive-inspired community where women rule and men serve them silently, and the hero (Nicolas Cage) gets manipulated by the women into becoming a human sacrifice. The community's leader, Sister Summersisle, tells Cage's Edward Malus (pronounced "Male-us" — get it?) that "men have their uses. . . for procreation." Clearly, LaBute is trying to say something about men’s fears of female power, though it’s all so ridiculous that it’s hard to say what that may be.
Read More...
|