the m0vie blog

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Doctor Bernice Murphy, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every Saturday at 6pm GMT.

This week and next week, we are taking a break from our Summer of Scorsese for a Halloween treat. Neil La Bute’s The Wicker Man.

After a traumatic accident on a desert highway, highway patrolman Edward Malus is contacted by his old fiancée. She is living on a remote matriarchal community known as Summersisle, and her daughter has gone missing. Malus embarks on a journey to the island in the hopes of reuniting the lost child with her mother, only do discover something more sinister is at play.

At time of recording, it was ranked 73rd on the Internet Movie Database‘s list of the worst movies of all-time.

Show Notes:

• Recorded 15th September 2020.
• Note: Due to the COVID-19 situation, this episode was recorded remotely. We suspect, going forward that a lot of our episodes will be until the crisis resolves.
• The Wicker Man at The Internet Movie Database.
• The Bottom 100 at time of recording.
• Follow Bernice on Twitter.
• Browse (and order) Bernice’s books at Amazon.com.
• Browse (and order) Bernice’s books at Amazon.co.uk.
• Browse (and order) Bernice’s books at Edinburgh University Press.
• The Rural Gothic in American Popular Culture by Bernice Murphy, October 2013.
• Alex Needham at The Guardian looks at the production and development of The Wicker Tree, the loose sequel to the original Wicker Man, April 2012.
• Janet Maslin at The New York Times reviews In the Company of Men, March 1997.
• Maxie Szalwinska at The Guardian digs into some of the controversy around Neil LaBute’s portrayal of women, June 2008.
• Michael Paulson at The New York Times reports on the severing of the relationship between MCC Theatre and Neil LaBute, February 2018.
• Neil LaBute talks to The New Beverly about the production and legacy of The Wicker Man, April 2017.
• Keith Phipps at The Ringer looks on the wave of 21st century remakes of classic horrors, October 2018.
• Marcus Shorter at Bloody Disgusting argues in defense of the Platinum Dunes versions of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes as worthy remakes, October 2020.
• Michael Dodd at The Missing Slate argues in the first of a three-part article that the horror remake trend was a response to the horrors of 9/11, August 2014.
• Michael Dodd at The Missing Slate argues in the second of a three-part article that the horror remake trend was a response to the horrors of 9/11, August 2014.
• Michael Dodd at The Missing Slate argues in the third of a three-part article that the horror remake trend was a response to the horrors of 9/11, September 2014.
• Dominick Suzanne-Mayer at The Washington Post argues in defense of Nicolas Cage as a living meme, August 2014.
• Nicolas Cage acknowledges some frustration with becoming an internet meme in conversation with The Guardian, September 2018.
• Nicolas Cage talks to The Guardian about being “in on the joke”, July 2013.
• NPR reports on the internet popularity of Snakes on a Plane, March 2006.
• Will Leitch at SyFy looks back on Snakes on a Plane as a product of the internet’s memetic sensibility, August 2020.
• Kate Knibbs at The Ringer discusses Tom Cruise’s infamous couch-jumping, August 2018.
• Nathan Rabin at The A.V. Club looks at the strange misogyny of The Wicker Man, April 2007.
• Michael Atkinson at City Pages discusses the rampant misogyny of The Wicker Man remake, September 2006.
• Lindy West at The Stranger reviews Neil LaBute’s remake of The Wicker Man, August 2006.
• Will Hodgkinson at The Guardian on the unlikely influence of the original version of The Wicker Man on a generation of folk musicians, July 2006.
• Michael Hann at The Guardian argues in favour of the American remake of The Ring, June 2009.
• Meghan Purvis in The Politics of Horror on the matriarchy and misogyny of Conjure Wife, June 2020.
• Nicolas Cage talks to Bloody Disgusting about pushing for the inclusion of the bear suit in The Wicker Man, August 2019.
• Walter Chaw at Decider on the enduring relevance of Roger Corman’s Masque of the Red Death, October 2020.
• Ryan McDearmont at Bee Culture looks back on the legacy of The Wicker Man, May 2018.
• Bee handler John Gibeau talks to Vice about working on The Wicker Man and on bees in cinema in general, June 2017.
• Emma Newbery at The Bowdoin Orient on the pagan horror of the original Wicker Man, November 2018.
• Brian Botham, high priest of the Obsidian Shadow Coven in east London, talks about The Wicker Man with The Guardian, September 2006.
• Allan Brown at The Sunday Times reports on Liam Neeson’s casting in The Wicker Man remake, June 1998.
• Liam Neeson talks to Pop Inquirer about doing One Million Ways to Die in the West in his authentic Northern Irish accent, August 2014.
• Emmie Martin at CNBC on how Nicolas Cage blew through his $150m fortune, January 2018.
• Scott Garner at Curbed on the real estate follies of Nicolas Cage, December 2014.
• Aric S. Queen at Atlas Obscura on Nicolas Cage’s New Orleans pyramid tomb, 2015.
• Ethan Hawke praises Nicolas Cage to Newsweek, September 2018.
• Nicolas Cage discusses his acting style with Esquire, September 2018.
• Follow The 250 on Twitter.
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Filed under: The Bottom 100 | Tagged: bees, bernice murphy, bottom 100, doctor bernice murphy, edward malus, halloween, horror, Misogyny, Neil LaBute, nicolas cage, remake, the wicker man |