Movie Review: 'Arcadian' Starring Nicolas Cage

Arcadian (2024)

Directed by Ben Brewer

Written by Michael Nilon

Starring Nicolas Cage, Jaeden Martell, Maxwell Jenkins, Sadie Soverall

Release Date April 12th, 2024

Published April 10th, 2024

Arcadian stars Nicolas Cage as Paul. In a post-apocalyptic world, Paul is among the lucky few who escaped devastated cities for the relative peace of the countryside. He's managed to do this while carrying to babies, Joseph and Thomas. Are they his children? We don't know for sure, we never see the mother. Paul could very well have rescued these two babies and is taking them to safety. Regardless, it's a demonstration of character and fortitude that, in a post-apocalypse beset by monsters, a man would rescue two babies and raise them as his own. That's a great character trait to build on.

After we roll the opening credits we jump ahead to Joseph and Thomas as teenagers learning from Paul how to be self-sufficient and stay alive in the post-apocalypse. The trio live on a farm, far from the ravaged cities but the beasts, be they aliens or some other sort of monster, are now coming for them. Having assumedly taken what they can from the large cities and suburbs, the desperate monsters are learning and adapting, they are figuring out how to get around the defenses that Paul and his sons have built on the farm.

What do we know about the monsters? They don't go out in daylight. In fact, it appears that the sun harms them. They also have fearsome claws that, over time, can scratch through even the biggest wooden door. This wasn't always the case. Nor was it always the case that these monsters would try and dig holes, but this appears to be happening as documented by Joseph (Jaeden Martell), who has become fascinated with studying the monsters, charting their evolution and learning about their weaknesses and ways to fight them.

Thomas meanwhile has... other concerns. Thomas has become friendly with neighbors who live within walking distance. He's been going to the Rose Farm for work and trading supplies but his real aim is to see and perhaps spend time with Charlotte (Sadie Soverall), one of the few people his age who have survived the apocalypse. The burgeoning teenage romance will be tested by the growing danger from the monsters and their quickly evolving ability to attack in stealthy ways. When someone gets hurt badly will the neighbors work together or turn on each other?

Arcadian is directed by first time director Ben Brewer and was written for the screen by first time screenwriter, Michael Nilon. The pair make for a good team. They've created a post-apocalyptic monster movie that doesn't try to reinvent the wheel. They know that some tropes are inevitable and that elevating the familiar with good casting and smart choices is an effective way to make a good genre monster movie. Some will call Arcadian derivative, and they aren't wrong about that. But, while Arcadian is very familiar, it's still quite good because the makers elevate the familiar elements with good choices, strong suspense, and good casting.

Nicolas Cage is a great choice to play Paul. Cage's essential Nic Cage-ness immediately sets him apart from any similar protagonist in a similar movie. While Cage doesn't go full looney in Arcadian, he has a couple of moments where his Nic Cage vibe sets Arcadian apart from similar post-apocalypse movies. Cage is stalwart and stoic until he needs to go to that other level and when he does, it arrives at just the right moment to give the movie a charge.

But, Arcadian is more than just a Nicolas Cage movie. Arcadian is a monster movie and these are some terrific monsters on a budget. Arcadian is not a big budget movie. On the budget that they do have, they managed to create a monster that is scary, is well used to build suspense, and is well deployed once we get a good look at them. The filmmakers take a big risk in showing the monster as much as they do but it works, the monsters are unique. These are fearsome monsters that move in a very strange way that walks up to the line of being unintentionally funny. And yet, I like these characters enough and I bought in enough that the low budget aspects of Arcadian didn't bother me.

Arcadian is a lot of fun. I had a great time watching this movie. For a post-apocalyptic sci-fi monster movie, as derivative or overly familiar as that genre truly is, Arcadian is strong enough to overcome the too familiar elements. The film stands apart because it does the tropes well. The film does what we expect from a monster movie well. We get good monsters. We get good characters. We get terrific suspenseful set pieces. It's a smartly made and efficient monster movie and fans of the monster genre will have a great time.

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