Latest news with #TheWickerMan
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Influencer culture pilloried in prose
Part mystery, part satire and even part horror, second-generation Chinese-Canadian writer Liann Zhang's debut novel is a bizarre but entertaining look at the world of social media influencer culture. Julie Chan is a supermarket cashier with no friends who steals food from work to keep herself fed. One day, she receives a disturbing phone call from her estranged twin sister, Chloe, a rich influencer with followers in the millions. Sensing something is wrong, Julie travels to Chloe's New York City penthouse and finds her sister dead on the floor. As she's about to report the death to the police, Julie quickly makes the rash decision to switch places, ditching her sad, anonymous life for her twin's more comfortable and glamorous one. Julie Chan is Dead With unwitting help from Chloe's manager, Julie seamlessly continues her sister's social media life, interacting with fans, receiving lavish gifts and going to trendy parties. At first, no one in Chloe's world suspects the truth, and everyone writes off any strange behaviour as her just being '#sad' and '#grieving.' But it doesn't take long for her aunt and cousin to figure out what's going on, and Julie soon finds herself being blackmailed. In order to pay off her scheming family members, she becomes a lot more obvious with paid endorsements on her channels, while watching her numbers drop on each platform. Thankfully, Julie has her new influencer friends to cheer her up. A group of mostly indistinguishable twentysomething white women, the Belladonnas are led by Bella Marie, whose level of fame and wealth seems almost unattainable for a social media personality. But, of course, Julie soon learns her new friends may be hiding some sinister secrets. Toronto- and Vancouver-based Zhang was only 16 when she had her own brush with internet fame, gaining over 20,000 followers on a skincare-themed Instagram account. The author, who now has a degree in psychology and criminology, says this book was inspired by the fellow influencers she met through group chats. Clearly she has some strong, negative feelings from this experience, as most characters are quite unlikable — even Julie, who quickly embraces her new personality. Zhang takes some fun shots at influencer culture, and that cynical humour drives the first half of the novel. But it does get dragged down by some very predictable turns. Then a huge twist comes that makes the second half seem like a different book altogether. It quickly delves into cult-horror territory — think Rosemary's Baby or The Wicker Man but with trite self-help affirmations and beauty tips. The shift may be a bit jarring for some readers, but Zhang's cutting humour is amped up, along with the overall pace, which all leads to a ridiculous, over-the-top finale. While it has some flaws, Julie Chan is Dead is a fun, memorable debut. Hardly an influencer, Alan MacKenzie is struggling to find 600 subscribers for his YouTube channel.
Daily Mirror
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Nicolas Cage's 'meme-worthy' moment in new movie was inspired by classic film
Nicolas Cage stars in Lorcan Finnegan's new thriller The Surfer, which sees the Hollywood icon spiral into madness In his latest outing, The Surfer, directed by Lorcan Finnegan, Nicolas Cage revisits the offbeat, manic energy he's renowned for, plunging into a sun-drenched abyss of insanity. Cage plays a nameless surfer who travels back to his hometown in Australia with the intention of repurchasing his childhood residence. However, his plans are foiled when he and his son (played by Finn Little) are met with aggression by a clique of hostile locals at the beach, spearheaded by the captivating yet confrontational Scally (Julian McMahon). This unwarranted hostility relentlessly chips away at Cage's character's sanity. As the surfer's mental state continues to deteriorate, his desperation reaches new depths when he resorts to scavenging for food and entertains the notion of feasting on the dead body of a rat he had encountered before. Director Lorcan Finnegan shared an insider's perspective with Express Online, recalling the details of the scene: "We had two rats, one that had a mechanical part to bite him and another one that was soft for whacking against the card", reports the Express. "So he threw that away and he's supposed to find it the next day and think about taking a bit out of it. He picked it up and that's as far as it was in the script." Cage's penchant for injecting a bit of the unconventional into his characters ensures that each portrayal is nothing less than fascinating. Movie buffs and Cage aficionados, prepare for a scene set to join the ranks of the iconic 'Not the bees!' moment from The Wicker Man. In this moment, the surfer pockets a rat, turning it into an impromptu tool against Pitbull (Alexander Bertrand), one of Scally's henchmen. Director Finnegan revealed: "But then Nic put it in his pocket and he wasn't really sure why yet, but he was kind of formulating an idea. "The art department wanted the rat back, they were like, 'We need to keep that, we only have one', and he's like, 'No, no, I need to keep it in my pocket'." As it turns out, the wacky fight sequence was a brainchild of Cage himself, taking inspiration from a film icon in a classic flick from the '50s. Finnegan continued, explaining Cage's inspiration: "Then, I think it was the next day, he was telling me he had this idea that's related to Sabrina, the Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart movie. "There's a scene where Humphrey Bogart takes an olive out the jar and puts it into another guy's mouth and says 'Eat it!' "He'd rewatched that film just before coming to Australia and thought it was just hilarious, so he had this weird connection and wanted to take the rat and shove it into Pitbull's mouth during the fight and say 'Eat it!' So that was another bit of Cage magic. "I think there are little lines he'll give the film if he loves the process of it because he feels like it needs a little bit of something." Film enthusiasts can celebrate as Sabrina is now available for streaming on both NOW and Paramount+, offering an opportunity to delve into the roots of Nicolas Cage's most recent bout of inspired madness.
Irish Examiner
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Colin Sheridan: Facing up to my childhood fear of small islands
Many years ago, RTÉ screened a movie on a Friday night that was preceded by a short, introductory lecture from writer and director Gerry Stembridge. It usually followed The Late Late Show, so was a neat and natural segue from Gaybo calling Bernadette in Tullamore to tell her she's just won a Renault Clio. The late movie was a brilliant concept. The film chosen was always offbeat - Robert Altman's revisionist western McCabe & Mrs Miller, for example — but what made the idea so oddly compelling was Stembridge's preamble. He had a wonderful ability to de-nerdify whatever director was in the dock that week, while giving guidance on what to watch out for (Hitchcock's cameos, epic needle drops). History of tensions on set between actors on set, and casting what-ifs, that sort of thing. If memory serves, the intro lasted around ten minutes, so by the time the movie started you felt like Barry Norman, armed with cultural context and a half dozen anecdotes of misbehaving starlets. Even now, in the time of information ubiquity on the internet, such a brilliant segment would be immensely popular. Especially now, I would argue, as the entire raison-d'etre of immensely popular two-hour long prestige podcasts such as the Rewatchables is what Stembridge did in the time it took to make a late-night sandwich. If the State broadcaster is looking for ways to encourage discerning taxpayers to keep paying their TV license fees, they could do worse than get Stembridge back in a dimly lit studio and let him riff on Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon again. We would all learn something. My devotion to the late-night movie did have some unintended consequences, however. After a particularly fraught viewing of the 1973 folk-horror movie The Wicker Man, I developed a rather acute case of Insulaphobia, or a fear of small islands (undiagnosed, of course). Anybody who has watched the movie might understand why. It tells the story of a righteous police officer who visits the verdant Hebridean island of Summerisle off the coast of Scotland, to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. There, he is appalled to find lots of funky pagan rituals going down. Christopher Lee is in it as a Lord obsessed with agriculture. A woman with a sexy Scottish accent says stuff like 'you'll simply never understand the true nature of sacrifice,' over and over. Need I say more. My memory has banished much of The Wicker Man's horror and (if not the gratuitous nudity) from my little mind, but the opening shot has stayed with me for almost three decades. It begins with overcast aerial shots of the Scottish countryside, particularly the Hebridean islands, filmed from a seaplane. As the camera glides over the misty, rugged terrain, a folk-style ballad titled 'Corn Rigs' plays. The song, with lyrics adapted from a Robert Burns poem, is deceptively cheerful, evoking rural life and sexuality, while subtly hinting at the pagan themes of the film. The credits appear in simple white text, fading in and out over the natural landscape. It's a beautiful and unsettling sequence, creating a contrast between the serene scenery and the sense of isolation and foreboding that underpins the film. Ever since I saw it, I've been afraid of small islands, which, when you live on the West of Ireland, can be embarrassing and problematic. I was forced to face my fears over Easter when I headed west, out to Inishbofin. Of all the islands, Bofin is up there as the most beautiful. On the boat ride over, however, as the imposing Cromwellian fort juxtaposed itself surreally against deserted sandy beaches, I couldn't help feeling like the polite police constable sent over to investigate some shape-shifting shenanigans. My mood wasn't helped when — just off the boat — I was invited to an islander's party over the other side of the island. It was to begin around 3pm on Saturday and end, I gathered, sometime Tuesday I stayed in my room peeking through the shutters as my kids cycled the length and breadth of that idyllic piece of rock, stopping only to catch pollock with their new friends. They only came inside to change their saturated socks and go again. 'There's a bonfire on the beach tonight,' my son told me. 'And we're going?' I did my best Gerry Stembridge impression and tried to summarise the plot of The Wicker Man, but he had no interest, perhaps distracted by why I was suddenly wearing a cravat. Understanding I'd lost him to the cult, I figured it was best to face my fears and at least tip down to the inevitable human sacrifice, if only for journalistic reasons. There was indeed a bonfire, and food and crates of a locally brewed IPA. There was also an epic game of football on the beach. People of all ages had gathered, and there was no sign of Christopher Lee. I left with the youngsters, long before midnight. The following morning at breakfast I did a rough headcount, and it appears all islanders were accounted for. Everyone who lived there seemed oddly happy, if a little dismissive of our mainland ways. I sailed for home, another fear conquered, content the only cult encountered was the simple beauty of island life. Behind me, perhaps gently mocking me, the bonfire on the beach still raged.
Metro
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Nicolas Cage's instantly iconic 'deranged' moment in new film was all his idea
Nicolas Cage has revealed that he is personally responsible for a glorious new entry in his enviable quote canon from new film The Surfer. The Oscar-winner, 61, has long built a reputation for his unique delivery when it comes to lines and how he interprets them. Combined with his capacity to play intense characters who often flip out in movies like Vampire's Kiss, The Wicker Man and Colour Out Of Space, and it's no secret that Cage is a popular meme and star of many 'losing his s**t' YouTube montages. But this latest line might just be the best – so it's no surprise it came from his own mind and a slightly unusual Hollywood inspiration. In The Surfer, Cage's character is bitten by a rat, which he quickly kills by smacking it against a car door. Later, when he's so hungry he can't see straight, he finds the dead rat and bites into it. After being interrupted he pockets the rat to use later, which comes during a fight when he truly snaps – resulting in his character pulling the rat from his pocket and shoving it into his opponent's mouth. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video 'Eat the rat!', he exclaims wildly – and thus another iconic Cageism is born, joining his collection of iconic quotes. In a new interview with The Guardian, Cage confirmed that it was him who wanted to say 'Eat the rat!' before being inspired by the quality of the rubber prop to go one step further. 'I had gotten the idea from an old Billy Wilder movie called Sabrina, where Humphrey Bogart takes an olive out of a martini glass, puts it in his uncle's mouth and says: 'Eat it'. 'I couldn't stop laughing when I saw that moment. When I saw the prop rat, I said, 'I'll put it in my pocket,' because I liked the way the rubber tail was moving,' he explained, adding that he found it 'amusing' and felt he could 'use' it in some way. Cage decided to 'channel it in more of a punk rock way than Bogart did with the olive, by shoving the rat in Pitbull's [Alexander Bertrand] mouth'. He continued: 'It was a cathartic moment. By that point in the movie, I thought my character has gone through enough suffering and that he's earned the right to go big and shove a rat in the guy's mouth.' In the film, Cage plays a man who returns to his beach side hometown in Australia, only to be humiliated in front of his teenage son (Finn Little) by a local group of surfers who claim ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood. This territorial behaviour slowly starts to drive Cage's character crazy as he contends with what is basically a cult of gangster surfers. Without giving too much away, it's a gradual journey that builds up to the Longlegs star barefoot, covered in bird poo and hallucinating thanks to severe dehydration. And he really wants his surfboard back. The star himself has previously shared his understanding of fans catching onto this one, as he whipped the audience at Cannes up into a frenzy by roaring 'Mangez le rat!' (his meme-worthy line, translated) during the film's six-minute standing ovation when it premiered last May. 'Eat the rat!' is destined to become the battle cry of discerning Midnight moviegoers & drive-in denizens, once they get a gander at Nic Cage's latest gonzo turn,' predicted Toronto Star movie critic Peter Howell on X after seeing it a Cannes. 'A sunburnt miragic descent into madness and male ego' with 'reliable crazy man Nicolas Cage' @The13Ben then praised from the BFI London Film Festival screening, while @AlecSaracen described it as a 'deranged in-your-face nightmare comedy'. 'Only Nic Cage could bring the unhinged energy and dedication needed for The Surfer to work,' added @KatieMayBone. When the footage of Cage's reaction from Cannes was posted online by Variety's London Bureau Chief Alex Ritman, fans were into it with @pamela_lpz_ replying: 'Oh we are so back!!!' More Trending 'He's the only actor ever actually,' added @m_midniter. The Surfer, directed by Lorcan Finnegan, also stars Julian McMahon and Nicholas Cassim. The Surfer is in UK cinemas from today. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Netflix viewers rediscover 00s sci-fi thriller with 'unexpected' twist as it climbs the charts MORE: It's Gary Oldman's 'alcoholic era' but he isn't tempted to even take a sip
Daily Record
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Cast and crew of The Wicker Man join fans at Dumfries and Galloway filming locations
Actress Lesley Mackie, associate director of music Gary Carpenter and musician Matt Deighton joined Mostly Ghostly at Anwoth Old Kirk. Cast and crew of The Wicker Man joined fans for a special tour of some of the cult classic's filming locations on Saturday. Mostly Ghostly held a tour of Anwoth Old Kirk and graveyard, which was used for some of the scenes in the original 1973 production. And guests of honour were actress Lesley Mackie, who played Daisy in the original film, associate director of music Gary Carpenter and musician Matt Deighton. The event was part of a special weekend of celebrations to mark the debut screening of a new documentary about the film. Fergal O'Riordan – who was also at Anwoth on Saturday – gave Return to Summerisle – Something About Sacrifice – its premiere at Newton Stewart Cinema on Saturday night. Despite being released more than half a century ago, the film – which starred Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland and Christopher Lee – still generates interest, as proven by the number of people who visited Dumfries and Galloway over the weekend. Many scenes were filmed around the region – including the film's finale, the burning of a giant wicker man. And that was recreated on Sunday night, when a 25 foot high wicker woman – created by Girvan-based willow artist David T Powell – was burned on the cliffs at Burrowhead Holiday Park, where the original sculpture was burned in the movie. There was also a Wicker Man evening, an after party following the documentary's debut screening and the release of a new beer brewed for the occasion by Isle of Whithorn's Five KingdomsBrewery.
