OK, the screening last night which was deliberately held at 10:30 PM so that no film critics sneaking in could get a review pulished in the morning papers. No press screenings were held either in the few weeks prior to today's opening of the film which is only ever done when a studio is frightened of what the critics will say.

If you do not wish to here about the film's content stop reading.

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In a word - the film rots. They removed the fairly believable "celtic" origin paganism of the original and suistuted a strange form of man-hating matriarchal Goddess worhsip that resemles some 12 year old's idea of of what the culture of Amazon Warrior woman would have been. The women on the Island off the coast of washington state run everything, the men are slaves and not allowed to talk. The head crazy as bat-shite Priestess, Ellen Burstyn sends out good looking girls into the real world to get themeleves inseminated to keep their gene pool from stagnating. (similar to the "flirty-fishing" of NRM of the sevnties called The Children of God)

Burstyn's grandmother or whatever female ancestor moved their core group to the Island in the late 1800s to avoid religious persecution. She implies they were once living in Salem Massachusettes during the witch trials further muddying the waters of whether they are wiccans that have adopted an ad hoc kind of Demeter worship and abandoned the male dieties or genuine "celtic" (I hate that word) "Witches" with abberant beliefs. She says they fled "Europe" as well for the same reason. Have you ever known a Scottish. Welsh, Cornish, manx or Irish person to claim their ancestors were European? Nope. I don't think so. Their original origins as well as what exactly they believe beyond men are dumb, useless and good for only two things (Fathering children and shedding their blood) is never revealed.

Anyhoo - their religion is a crazy mishmash of disparate beliefs that don't belong together historically. If they had left out the part about their thousands year history - we could have bought it was a cult of personality and none of these things would have been a problem. However, the producers/writers (Cage produced this) wanted us to believe that women like this have existed among us secretly and are among us now. The society in the first film worked because it had a purpose and the belief system had an origin that was defined clearly in the film. In this one, we don't know if these women are Salem "witches" who escaped, misunderstood Wiccans who have read too many books on Isis or what they are. What they appear to be is hollwood idea of paganism. My husband thinks they tried to meld the genuine isis/demeter cult of Harvest Home with Wickerman and got this crap they dished up.

The audience was made up of radio listeners who won tickets and folks who got invites to the screening. The audience booed frequently and laughed at scenes they were intended to cheer or be horrified by. Cage beats a woman at one point, punching her in the face for saying something smug which drew gasps of digust from men and women alike and uncomfortable laughter. The producers clearly wanted the audience to appluad that moment because they wrote the scene for us to believe the woman deserved it but instead, the audience recoiled from it. One person described the woman he beat as "butch" and which leads me to believe that perhaps we were supposed to have judged her a lesbian and therefore that excuse his beating of her. She wasn't attractive and was a person of authority. Maybe the producers wanted us to know that this is what happens when uppity women mouth of the handsome men?? I don't know if her character was written as a lesbian but it seemed possible the inference was intentional.   Lesbian or straight, the beating of that woman wasn't funny or heroic, it was horrifyingly innapropriate. Incidentally Cage produced the film and it was his fist in her face. Bad move, Nick, bad move. Fire the person who told you this would be OK.

The sotry dispensed with the Victim is a virgin and a willing sacrifice thing and the clinker suprise is that the little girl he is searching for is in fact the daughter he fathered with one of the island amazons who went out into the world looking for a sperm donor. The main business of the island is bee-keeping and they refer to Cage as a 'drone."

In summary - this is not a remake - it is a completely different story, different motivations and different conculsions. The only thing they kept was the wickerman istelf which is further absurd given that these women clearly don't come from a heritage of belief that included such a thing.

Avoid this film at all costs unless you want to be enarged by it's stupidity, feel like you were robbed of your ticket money or if you don't like to see smug leading men punch women in the face for no decent reason.