Cinema has a bit of a post-apocalyptic crisis. The Walking Dead brought back a craze for serious zombie stories in the early 2010s where humans are the real monsters, and The Last of Us doubled down on it by delivering a soul-crushing, highly emotional drama set after the end of the world. The post-apocalypse can be fun with its fair share of color and thrills, but more often than not, stories in this kind of setting are all about solitude and the horrible acts engineered to break down the human spirit.
That’s what director Benjamin Brewer (The Trust, Reptile) seems to be doing during the first act of Arcadian, as the film opens with Nicolas Cage silently walking through a world that is falling apart. The tone and aesthetics make for a scene that feels straight out of Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men. But then, Cage’s character Paul finds twin babies abandoned in a crumbling building. He makes the decision to take the two baby boys in and raise them as his own. Cut to 15 years later, and we meet Joseph (Jaeden Martell) and Thomas (Maxwell Jenkins) as teenagers.
The first act of Arcadian is mostly focused on the world-building of the script, written by producer-screenwriter Michael Nilon (The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Willy’s Wonderland). At first, this horror/survival thriller doesn’t really look any different from other post-apocalyptic settings. There’s isolation and mistrust, a big manor with apocalypse-rich people with plenty of supplies (and guns), and then everyone else scraping by. It is screen-ready for a violent altercation to happen, but we have to wait for it.
First, we get to know Joseph, the smarter and more calculating of Paul’s teenage sons, who every night is ready to help his father barricade their farmhouse, board up windows, lock down doors, and prepare for the unseen horrors plaguing their decimated world. That’s not Thomas. Thomas is more instinctual and open to taking risks, especially if they involve getting close to his crush Charlotte (Sadie Soverall), the daughter of the owners of the nearby richer farm. When Thomas doesn’t show up before sundown, it is time to panic.
As far as post-apocalyptic tales go, director Ben Brewer and writer Mike Nilon do a fantastic job of not telling the audience exactly what happened to the film’s world. Instead, Thomas and Charlotte play a little game where they try to summarize what ended human civilization in 10 seconds, each giving a different version. Was it a mutant cloud with toxins everyone inhaled and turned into monsters? Was it an environmental catastrophe that mutated plants and bugs? Who knows, but it’s enough to be intriguing and to let the imagination run wild.
Though the slower first act threatens to become A Quiet Place-lite, focusing on the human relationships without making the characters all that developed, things change when Thomas is stuck overnight in the forest and Paul is forced to venture out and rescue his son. This means Joseph is home alone guarding the door — which slowly opens as he sleeps, letting something in. It’s a short scene, but it packs so much tension and inventive horror imagery to completely turn the plot around, making Arcane a roaring good time and resulting in one of the best creature feature moments in recent years.
At the center of Arcadian’s success is the creature design. Now, the Xenomorph of the Alien franchise remains unparalleled in horror cinema, and plenty of movies have tried and failed to replicate how effective that creature is. Arcadian doesn’t try that. Instead, it feels like the production team grabbed every monster design they could find and merged them all to make a creature that satisfies every possible nightmare scenario.
The impressive beasts in Arcadian are part xenomorph, part bug, part ape, and all-around disturbing. What makes their design super effective is that we never get a clear view of them. However, the small glimpses of the monsters that we do see make it clear that you absolutely do not want to see more. It almost feels as if it would even hurt your eyes to get a better look at them in action.
Though Arcadian features good performances, be warned that this is not exactly a Nicolas Cage movie. The Cage fans will be satisfied thanks to a couple of badass scenes. However, this movie truly belongs to the teenage twins. This is a story about parents preparing their kids for the future and the mistakes they will inevitably make. Thankfully, Jaeden Martell (It, Defending Jacob) and Maxwell Jenkins (Lost in Space, Dear Edward) deliver the right balance of naive eagerness without coming across as silly teens. The main trio of actors capture just the right amount of nail-biting suspense for this kind of action-packed monster movie.
Arcadian‘s third act is a blast. It trades the cool survival rules of A Quiet Place and the resonant emotion for a more Critters-inspired bonkers creature feature where anything goes. One particular scene with a fiery wheel even echoes the finales of the crazier Resident Evil games, where you realize the creatures can mutate into insanely terrifying new forms. While Ben Brewer’s film does not reinvent the wheel, it does enough with its creature work to feel fresh and deliver high thrills.
Arcadian premiered at the 2024 SXSW Film & TV Festival. The film releases in theaters on April 12!
Release Date: April 12, 2024.
Directed by Ben Brewer.
Written by Michael Nilon.
Produced by Michael Nilon, David Wulf, Arianne Fraser, Delphine Perrier, Braxton Pope, & Nicolas Cage.
Main Cast: Nicolas Cage, Jaeden Martell, Maxwell Jenkins, Sadie Soverall, Joe Dixon, Samantha Coughlan, Daire McMahon, & Joel Gillman.
Cinematographer: Frank Mobilio.
Composers: Kristin Kontrol & Josh Martin.
Production Companies: Saturn Films, Redline Entertainment, & Highland Film Group.
Distributor: RLJE Films.
Runtime: 92 mins.
