Considering that the Labor Day weekend is commonly used as a dumping ground for movies the studios have no faith in, combined with the fact that the film was not screened for critics, The Wicker Man comes as somewhat of a surprise that it is actually watchable. Having never seen the original 1973 film that inspired this remake, I cannot say how faithful writer-director Neil LaBute (Nurse Betty) has stayed to the source material. What I can say is that he has delivered a mostly successful old fashioned thriller that starts to fall apart when you apply logic to the whole thing. Still, considering everything it had against it, The Wicker Man comes off being a lot stronger than I expected.

California traffic cop, Edward Malus (Nicolas Cage), is grieving over the fact that he was unable to save a woman and her young daughter from a semi accident as the film opens. As he sorts through the cards and letters from well wishing co-workers, he comes across a mysterious letter sent by his ex-fiance, Willow (Kate Beahan), who walked out on him years ago, and he has not heard from since. In the letter, she talks of her young daughter Rowan (Erika-Shaye Gair) mysteriously going missing. Intrigued, and perhaps a bit concerned, Edward tracks the address the letter was sent from down to a mysterious private island where things immediately don't seem right. It is an isolated community where time seems to have stopped around the 1800s, and the people there follow a strange and ancient religion with a strong passion. When Edward finally comes across Willow, she seems afraid, certain that her daughter, and perhaps they themselves, are in great danger. No one in the community seems willing to want to talk about Rowan, or even admit she exists. The clues that Edward uncovers only lead to more questions, and the deeper he digs into the mystery of this bizarre village, the more he begins to fear that time is running out both for him and this mysterious child.

In a day and age where horror films are keen to throw CG monsters and pale ghouls in our faces in just about every scene, it's kind of a nice change of pace that The Wicker Man is intentionally laid back, and lets the chills come from the bizarreness of the situation that Edward finds himself in. Leisurely paced, yet never boring, writer-director LaBute knows how to work up the atmosphere and build an unsettling tension in his surroundings, and the people who inhabit them. As soon as Edward sets foot in the village, something seems immediately off, and not just because the villagers seem to be living in an eternal time warp that traps them in the 19th Century. The film knows how to unsettle us slowly and casually, we sometimes aren't even aware that the movie is doing it. It's certainly a welcome switch after such bombastic horror efforts like Pulse and See No Evil. Unfortunately, the film can't prevent a few cheap jump scares from sneaking in. Everything from crows suddenly flying out of confined places in our faces, to regular everyday items like cell phones having the volume jacked up in a desperate bid to make the audience jump, these moments don't seem to fit in with the rest of the film. Also unnecessary are a number of "creepy" dream sequences that add little if anything to the plot, and seem to exist solely to creep us out with weird sound effects and images.

For most of its running time, The Wicker Man is an intriguing mystery thriller that gets our attention and holds onto it. It's when the answers start coming during the film's final moments that things start to unravel. At the risk of diving into spoiler territory, I will say that I find the end revelation about the village and the whole situation a bit hard to swallow. How these people were able to put together such an elaborate plan, and have it go off so flawlessly would take years of precise planning that I don't think could ever be reached. There are just too many coincidences, too many ways that things could have gone wrong, and too many things left unexplained. That's one of the big problems, many of the films mysteries and images are left unsolved. I don't know if this was intentional, or just the side effects of editing the film down to a PG-13. (The movie does seem like it once held an R-rating.) Whatever the case, I liked the movie more when I was asking questions than when I was getting answers.

Before the movie starts to fall apart under its own premise, things look good for the most part. The cast is generally good, with a decent turn by Nicolas Cage who wisely does not make his character a brooding and depressing hero, given that he is playing a cop with a tortured past. He has a sarcastic wit that I enjoyed, and knows when to not take the material too seriously. The villagers (who are mostly made up of women, since it is a female-driven society where men usually stay quiet and out of the way) are appropriately distant and unsettling, though Ellen Burstyn as the head of the town hams it up more than just a little in a couple of scenes. It certainly doesn't help that during the film's climax, the make up that Burstyn is wearing makes it look like she's displaying team spirit on her face for her favorite football team rather than practicing an ancient and dark ritual. As mentioned earlier, the film makes good use of its old world setting, and the town itself has a welcoming if not off-kilter vibe. For the most part, the film knows how to use its elements to create a creepy atmosphere. Shame it has to end on somewhat of a sour note.

By looking over the message boards devoted to The Wicker Man, I have come to realize that the original film has quite a vocal and devoted following, and claim that the very idea of a remake is sheer blasphemy. Like I said, I have not seen the original, but this version is interesting enough that I probably will be correcting that mistake soon. If the remake gets people interested in the original, does that make it an "abomination" as so many of the more vocal computer critics have called this film? (And trust me, that's one of the nicer words they use.) The Wicker Man does not quite manage to hold itself together by the time the end credits roll, but it at least makes a valiant effort.

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