Although the 2006 version of The Wicker Man, starring Nicholas Cage, was initially billed as a terrifying remake of the classic horror film from 1973, the circumstances in which I saw the film resulted in it being anything but terrifying. The sheer awfulness of the film, coupled with the fact that I saw it with five friends after consuming too many sugar-related products on the biggest, loudest television I could possibly imagine, made it one of the funniest films I’ve ever seen.

It started with a friend of mine sending me a YouTube link. “Please watch this,” she said. “It’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.” I start up the video, and I see, much to my surprise...Nicholas Cage, in a bear suit, punching a lovely young woman in the face.

Bewildered, but very amused, I asked my friend, “What the hell did you just send me?”

“It’s The Wicker Man,” she answered. “We must watch this. It literally looks like the worst movie ever made.”

No, I’m not a masochist. I don’t enjoy torturing myself by watching horrible films. But it’s been my experience that some of the worst films can be the funniest, and this was no exception.

Shortly later, I rented the original film, just to have a frame of reference when comparing the two. I’m not entirely sure if it was a “masterpiece of cinema”, as so many people refer to it as, but it was certainly well-executed, and very disturbing and thought-provoking. I wondered if the remake, if not as excellent, would share some of these same admirable qualities.

The night I finally saw the remake of The Wicker Man involved vast amounts of sugar, barbeque, an impromptu jazz piano battle, and a very entertaining story about finding a wheelchair at Goodwill. We were at a friend’s house for the first time, and upon viewing his impressive entertainment system, we knew this was the perfect way to watch the film. When we finally popped in the DVD, I was still sceptical as to how bad this film could possibly be. I was willing to have an open mind about a movie that features, well, Nicholas Cage punching a woman whilst in a bear suit. However, when I saw this remarkably silly scene on a giant high-definition television, it truly was even funnier than on YouTube. Nicholas Cage screaming about how a doll got burned on surround sound had me exploding with laughter. It wasn’t just the overall shoddiness of the film (it had a paper-thin plot and horrible dialogue that sounded like comic relief but wasn’t, to name only a few issues), but the fact that we had still been expecting at least a somewhat scary film while still knowing it was going to be laughably bad. It was the perfect mix of emotions – being surprised at how terrible the movie was but still in on the joke all along.

I suppose the sugar, the giant TV, and the wheelchair story helped as well.