Arcadian (2024)
Written by Mike Nilon
Directed by Benjamin Brewer
Review by: Mark Walker
Arcadian (2024)
A father and his twin teenage sons fight to survive in a remote farmhouse at the end of the end of the world.
A new Nick Cage film? Don’t mind if I do.
Okay, let’s get this out the way from the off. This isn’t really a Nick Cage film. He’s in it, clearly, you can see him on the poster, but he’s not really the lead and, for reasons that become apparent when you watch, he isn’t on screen for nearly as much time as fans might hope.
Having said that, there are still a few good Cage moments, even from what is, on the scale of CAGE to RAGE, a fairly muted performance.
Anyway, what about Arcadian (2024)

Cage plays Paul, father to Thomas (Maxwell Jenkins) and Joseph (Jaeden Martell) who eke out an existence together in a farmhouse that they board up every night to deter invasions from weird, alien (?) creatures that seem to want nothing more than to chow down on humans.
Like any good post (almost) extinction event movie, there are pockets of other humans also trying their best to survive. Thomas’s crush on Charlotte (Sadie Soverall) the daughter of the head of a nearby community is the catalyst that leads to an accident that leads to another accident that leads to… well you can probably guess. If there is one thing we have learned from movies like this, post-apocalyptic communities have a habit of failing…

Arcadian doesn’t revolutionise the genre, although the monsters add a slightly different edge to the movie (but more about that later). We have seen this kind of set up many times before; the last few puny humans struggling to survive without their taken-for-granted mod cons while being hunted by aliens/zombies/other feral humans etc etc. Most viewers will probably see things unfold before they do on screen, but that can sometimes add to the tension when you know what’s coming and the characters don’t… and there is nothing you can do about it.
This is a minor quibble, though and I still rather enjoyed Arcadian (20224)
It’s well-made and a fun vehicle for the young leads’ talents. It is, for a film where the monsters attack at night, often quite dark, so not a movie to watch on your phone on the bus home, but the slightly drab colours add to the gloomy post alien invasion atmosphere. For a film that lacks originality in the plot department, it chooses a perfect 90-minute run time and doesn’t waste too much of that with any slow burn down time.

Cage doesn’t have much to do here and fans expecting to see some ‘Cage Rage’ will be disappointed. This is a film about the kids, growing up in a world that would see them dead in an instant. The relationship between Thomas and Joseph is strained as they grow up and grow apart; Joseph is the bookish, smart one trying to study and figure out the monsters. While Thomas is discovering girls and a desire to break away from his restrictive existence. It is Thomas’s desire for Charlotte that drives a wedge between them and puts everything they have at risk. Arcadian is about that relationship, about family bonds, and whether their brotherhood can withstand those threats. It’s a coming-of-age story with more than the usual number of monsters.

And so we come to the monsters.
I think these guys could make or break the movie for a lot of people as they tread a fine line between terror and comedy. I personally rather liked them and found them unusual in a good way. While I understand the need to keep monsters in the shadows . Everything from budget to building up a fear of the unknown, or the darkness – I wanted to see more of them.
I am sure I read somewhere that they were modelled on Disney’s Goofy, and I can see that when they appear on screen. But, more importantly, they are just weird. They are able to join together to move fast and efficiently en masse and, just before they attack, their mouths flap open and shut rapidly, slapping together loudly. Like the crocodile from Punch and Judy chowing down on some sausages. It is both funny and disturbing and made me want to know more about them, what they were and why they behaved that way. Or maybe it is better not to know, perhaps that makes them scarier?
Without the monsters, I feel Arcadian could easily be lost amongst all the other post-disaster movies that have done similar things. Which is a shame as there is a decent movie here that. While it won’t set your Letterboxd scores alight, is an interesting enough diversion and a welcome dose of Cage.
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