According to A. O. Scott's review, I was pretty much right in my assumptions about Neil LaBute's remake of the classic film The Wickerman:
"A movie like this can survive an absurd premise but not incompetent execution. And Mr. LaBute, never much of an artist with the camera, proves almost comically inept as a horror-movie technician. He can’t even manage an effective false scare, or sustain suspense for more than a beat or two. Nor does the crude, sloppy look of the film turn into cheesy, campy excess. It’s neither haunting nor amusing; just boring.
"So why does it exist? After a while, as you wait for the bee ladies to stop messing with the poor cop’s head and just tell him what’s what, your mind may wander off in search of interpretation. Do the beehives — a symbol associated with the Mormon Church and the state of Utah — have something to do with Mr. LaBute’s religious background? Did the residents of the island get kicked out of M. Night Shyamalan’s village? Nothing so interesting: just another example of Mr. LaBute’s batty, slightly hysterical misogyny, overlaid with some mumbo jumbo about ancient goddess religions that makes “The Da Vinci Code” look scholarly even as “The Wicker Man” reverses that film’s mushy pseudofeminism. .."
I'm shocked, shocked to find misogyny in a LaBute film!
1 comment:
Here's a link to Steve Bissette's review of the film. Not positive, no.
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