Because over here and in Britain -- paganism isn't dead.
Oh, it's not dead here either. It was, but it's not anymore. But just as in most other Christian countries (certainly in Britain), it took a rather long vacation after Christianity became the law of the land before a few enthusiasts brought it back starting in the late 19th century. The Old Faith has had a few resurgences (by romantics and nationalists in the 19th century, by hippies in the 60s, and by nazi skinheads in the 80s, much like Wicca was invented in 1954) but it's very much a fringe thing as a religion. Then again, it's hard to tell when a myth dies; the Old Faith was dead as a religion by the 13th century, but there were always fairytales and superstitions that kept elements from it even when we were good Christians. Midsummer is a great example; there are bits of it that look pagan, but most of them go back no more than a couple of hundred years.
So the point is, a commune like the one in the movie wouldn't have had an unbroken tradition going back to the Olden Days with festivals every 90 years. Having it be a community of hippies who just reintroduced their approximation of the Old Faith (much like Lord Summerisle in Wicker Man) both makes more sense, and gives the villains here more agency as opposed to making them curious foreign cultures that must be accepted for what they are.
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Oh, it's not dead here either. It was, but it's not anymore. But just as in most other Christian countries (certainly in Britain), it took a rather long vacation after Christianity became the law of the land before a few enthusiasts brought it back starting in the late 19th century. The Old Faith has had a few resurgences (by romantics and nationalists in the 19th century, by hippies in the 60s, and by nazi skinheads in the 80s, much like Wicca was invented in 1954) but it's very much a fringe thing as a religion. Then again, it's hard to tell when a myth dies; the Old Faith was dead as a religion by the 13th century, but there were always fairytales and superstitions that kept elements from it even when we were good Christians. Midsummer is a great example; there are bits of it that look pagan, but most of them go back no more than a couple of hundred years.
So the point is, a commune like the one in the movie wouldn't have had an unbroken tradition going back to the Olden Days with festivals every 90 years. Having it be a community of hippies who just reintroduced their approximation of the Old Faith (much like Lord Summerisle in Wicker Man) both makes more sense, and gives the villains here more agency as opposed to making them curious foreign cultures that must be accepted for what they are.