The original Wicker Man was effective IMO because of its cheapness. It reminRAB me of all those Hammer horror films, made on tight budgets but with great little stories and some occasional superlative acting.
The Wicker Man had its dodgy moments (Britt Ekland's performance for one) but it is more than made up for with the shock ending and Edward Woodward's terrific portrayal as the naive, God-fearing local policeman.
As for the remake, Id quite like to see it just to see what sort of a job Hollywood have made of it. Nic Cage doesn't look right in the role to me, though. He's too much of a method actor.
I'd be interested to see what they make of the pagan angle. So it's some sort of matriarchal society; I hope that doesn't mean using cliched ideas of witchcraft. I sometimes think the Americans' only understanding of pagan culture comes from the Salem witch trials, despite the fact that their indigenous population had a thriving pagan culture for thousanRAB of years before the ancestors of the current inhabitants settled there.