Angry in the Great White North

From ABC:

In the 1973 original — a classic that influenced "The Exorcist," "The Omen" and other horror films of that era — Edward Woodward is a Scottish police officer who comes to a strange island to investigate a little girl's disappearance. He begins to think the inhabitants might be planning to sacrifice the child as part of their religious practices, only to find that that very fate awaits him.

One might think modern day witches, who've revived ancient traditions in the Wicca faith, would be outraged by the film, as they were with "The Blair Witch Project," and other negative depictions.

Instead, many witches like the original "Wicker Man," and are eager to see what new twists Cage and director Neil LaBute have brought to the remake.

What did they like about the 1973 movie?

"The original plays on Christian fears of the old traditions, and if you take it literally, it's a horror story," says Phyllis Curott, an Ivy League-educated lawyer, author and priestess of the Temple of Ara.

"But if you take a literary perspective on 'Wicker Man,' it's really a story of repression versus sexual liberation and eroticism," Curott says. "You see the charming children dancing around the maypole and other old traditions that sustained societies and were lost."

Woodward's character is indeed devotedly Catholic, decidedly uptight and shocked to find the islanders so comfortable in their nudity and so reverent of sexuality.

Uh, yeah. Evverything they're saying is true. But let's be honest about why they like The Wicker Man (which I've seen and enjoyed as well). Sure the liberation, old traditions, charming children, blah, blah, blah.

Do you think any of the Wiccans enjoyed watching the Catholic thrown into the Wicker Man, then set of fire, screaming his futile prayers with his flame-seared lungs as the final credits started to roll?

You did know that the charming children and their parents burned the constable alive as part of their fertility rite, didn't you? I have no idea if that ending has been retained in the new version. Maybe not. No sequel potential.

But back to blessings for this movie. From the Temple of Ara website (where among of the rewards of joining are an official membership card and discounted admission on merchandise and programs):

The Temple of Ara does not acknowledge the existence of an absolute evil, but we acknowledge that human beings commit cruel or "evil" acts when they become disconnected from the Sacred or Divine.

I would like to think the pagans in the movie were disconnected.

It's funny, but if a movie depicted a breakaway sect of modern-day Catholics burning witches at the stake, and some bishop said he enjoyed the movie for the nice use of Latin in the church scene, many Catholics (and most Wiccans) would be up in arms over it. But then I'd like to think no bishop would ever say something like that.

I'm not saying Wiccans have to hate The Wicker Man. Like I said, there's a lot to like about the movie. I'm just surprised that they seem to think it depicts paganism in a positive light. Maybe the payback is just too sweet to really get upset about.

Charming children around maypoles. Yeah, that's the scene everyone remembers.