Not sure why at first this remake of the 1974 original with Christopher Lee even took place. But then I saw the year, and watched the film, and now I think I know why. The first was originally more of a Midnight Movie kinda deal, something to see a double-bill with the likes of El Topo or Pink Flamingos. Anti-establishment, pagan, throw in some orgies for good measure. This one? No orgies. But still a lot of the paganisms. And does a little gender-swapping, because of course they do. Sorry Lord SummerIsle, you be a bitch matriarchal cult now! In America!
California Highway Patrol officer Nic. Yes, he’s a CHiP. Just taken care of business, doing his job. Has a workplace incident though. It really messes him up in the head. And when a random letter from an old acquaintance arrives during his recovery time, it hits him hard. An ex-fiance, a missing child in the Pacific Northwest. SummersIsle. Seems like some odd old hippie community kinda thing. Hard to get to. But his last blow-up has left him pretty rattled, so maybe this is a good way to get going on his Detectivins career, so he steps it up. And finds that old hippie community isn’t exactly welcoming to strangers.
On its own, I guess it’s alright in exploring the themes that it does. The original film adaption, based on the book Ritual, is more of a middling cult film in its own right, more “shocking” in its paganisms and explorations around religion and sexuality than anything else. And, well, Christopher Fkn Lee bein’ all bad-ass as he tends to be when not making symphonic death-metal music. But the original did make a name for itself, and obviously had a big influence on Ari Aster obviously with Midsommar as well as on Hereditary. This one is taking those original anti-Christian concepts and flipping it hard into the feminisms camp. Seems this message got picked up a lot since then. Overall it’s ok tryin to ramp up the suspense and mystery, but...Maybe Nic isn’t exactly cut out for the world of detectivings here.
