Arcadian (2024) Review!!

Synopsis – A father and his twin teenage sons fight to survive in a remote farmhouse at the end of the end of the world.

My Take – With recent critical hits like Pig (2021), The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022) and Dream Scenario (2023) to his name, we have truly entered an age of Nicolas Cage resurgence.

And though his latest feature, a survival story set in a post-apocalypse wasteland, which pits loving families against sinister horrors might make it sound like A Quiet Place (2018) rip-off, in the hands of director Benjamin Brewer (The Trust), who biggest credit includes being the lead visual effects artist on Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), we get a solid feature, that terrorizes and surprises in equal measures.

While the screenplay from writer-producer Michael Nilon (Braven) sets the stage as a tender coming-of-age drama about fathers and sons, it’s the monsters that bring the big, delicious, funky thrills of the film, sparking screams and gasps and cheers. The moment the sci-fi horror-thriller gives the prolonged look at a single limb of its nighttime terrors, it scared the daylights out of me.

These things are so mesmerizing that they actually upstage the film’s legendary headliner, who on his part brings a welcome, rare, understated performance to the monster mash.

Yes, the film does take a bit to reach its full momentum and could have done more with its characters, but considering its effectively eerie score, mesmerizing performances, and the kind of effects we’ll be praising for many years to come, this film delivers on being a satisfying entertainment.

Most importantly, a massive cut above what we have come to expect from most Nicolas Cage thrillers over the past decade.

Set in a dystopian future, 15 years after most of humanity has been decimated, the story follows Paul (Nicolas Cage), who along with his fraternal twin teenage sons, Joseph (Jaeden Martell) and Thomas (Maxwell Jenkins), and a dog, lives in a decaying remote farmhouse with near-zero contact to other humans.

Save from the well-fortified Rose Farm a stretch nearby, run by a couple and their teen daughter Charlotte (Sadie Soverall), and houses a compact militia of gunmen. A place where Thomas mostly likes to spend his time.

Though by day, Paul’s small family resembles normalcy as the brothers bicker and their father does his best to mitigate the sibling ire, but at nights, they ritually fortify their home and hunker down as unseen carnivorous nocturnal monsters come out at night to hunt, scratching at the doors of their sanctuary in a desperate attempt to get in.

However, the one day, Thomas loses track of time and has to rush home under the setting sun, he falls into a crevice with no way out and no defense against an onslaught of burrowing creatures. Forcing Paul to venture into the darkness to save his son, leaving Joseph home alone to defend their home against the increasingly savvy monsters and their relentless attacks.

The film takes time to craft compelling and believable characters in the first half of the film before things go from bad to much, much worse makes the back half all the more nail-bitingly intense and emotionally investing. And when it finally becomes a full-fledged monster film, it’s everything a horror fan could hope for.

Here, director Brewer refrains from giving away too much about the monsters in waiting, forcing us to use our own imaginations, but when they do arrive, crashing through the roof and the floors of the farmhouse, they are savage creatures unlike anything ever seen on film before.

The very best monster scene isn’t even one of rampage. Instead, it’s one that shows how sly these mysterious beasts are. It begins with a single latch left unlocked. And what unfurls through a peephole is an echo of the outrageous possibilities of doom.

It’s not so much about what is shown, but how. The wide shot patiently gives viewers plenty to watch and the time to really wriggle in awful anticipation. As a monster flick, the film often backs up its confident decision to show creatures in their VFX glory by executing incredibly nightmarish special effects that bring chatter-teeth beasts to life.

However, it’s not just the visual impact of the film‘s dreadful beasts. The sound design is among the most unnerving I’ve ever experienced. It will shake you to your core. We hear the creatures long before seeing them, serving to immediately put viewers on edge even as things remain relatively calm. Once the monsters emerge from the darkness to attack, their sounds are amplified in a bone-chilling way.

Sure, the film never explains all that much about how and whys of the apocalypse and other things. But in the end, it doesn’t matter much as director Brewer‘s eye for intense battles between humans and inhuman enemies is on display and furiously accomplished here. When it gets there, it full-on gets there and rarely relents.

Performance wise, Nicolas Cage delivers one of his more restrained turns, once again showcasing his tremendous versatility as an actor. His steady guidance, protective nature, and genuine connection with his co-stars draws you in. However, the three talented youngsters with whom Cage generously shares the screen, Maxwell Jenkins, Jaeden Martell, and Sadie Soverall, absolutely shine and carry the narrative. On the whole, ‘Arcadian’ is a solid action horror flick that is both thrilling and terrifying.