Nicolas Cage's New Horror Movie Arcadian Was Inspired by… Goofy

When you think of the best monsters, names like the Xenomorph, The Thing, or even the Cloverfield monster might come to mind. But now it’s time to welcome a new horror icon: Goofy. That’s because the Disney character was a big influence on the creature design in the new Nicolas Cage film Arcadian.

The movie was directed by Ben Brewer, who recently told IGN he was fixated with capturing the kind of unusual things that he found scary as a kid… like Goofy.

Arcadian’s Goofy Effect

"From the beginning, I had this idea of big nocturnal eyes, and massive spaced-out teeth," he said. "Teeth way too big for the creature’s mouth. Goofy, the Disney character, was a big inspiration."

Specifically, it was the scene in A Goofy Movie where Goofy’s son Max has a nightmare about turning into his father that served as inspiration for the creature that has taken over the planet in Arcadian. Really, it’s not that far-fetched an idea because that Goofy scene is rather off-putting. As Brewer tells it, what makes the scene scary, and why the Goofy influence stuck with him, is the overabundance of personality in the Goofy dream character. Working from a script by Michael Nilon, Brewer wanted his creature to have a soul – for the audience to be scared yet also sense that the monster has a personality.

"That's where the Goofy thing comes in, because in that film, that dream sequence or even like the way Bigfoot is depicted [in A Goofy Movie], it's terrifying," said the director. "It's too much personality. We gave our creatures too much personality because it would be freaky for people."

Ah-hyuck, as Goofy might say.

Humanity’s Replacement?

Arcadian takes place after a catastrophic event has ended civilization. Over a decade later, there are small pockets of people trying to rebuild. That includes Nicolas Cage's Paul, a farmer and father of two boys. When one of the kids doesn't show up after dark one night, it kickstarts a series of events that descend into horror and carnage.

Part of what makes the film interesting is that it never explains how the world came to be this way (a scene has two teens playing a game of trying to guess what happened and explain it in 10 seconds), nor does it explain what exactly are the creatures that come at night to terrorize the remnants of humanity. The things look partially like a primate, partially like a horse, but also sort of like a bundle of bugs. 

If this horror show with all these weird attributes is the most competitive species now, then what does that say about our role? -Ben Brewer

According to Brewer, the creature is meant to be an evolved form of several species that formed a symbiotic relationship to survive some horrific climate conditions. "The combination of organisms becomes a symbol for what can survive on Earth," he said. This ties into the film's exploration of the idea that humans don't belong on the planet anymore, that they ruined it to such a degree that we cannot survive here and should maybe just leave it to the creatures that can thrive on it now. "If this horror show with all these weird attributes is the most competitive species now," Brewer said, "then what does that say about our role as the species taking care of the planet?" 

Nicolas Cage’s Monster Advice

Though there are elements of the initial Goofy design in the final creature — particularly the bump on the top of the head that stayed through to the final creature model — the completed look does not really evoke an ah-hyuck response so much as a terrified scream. You have Nicolas Cage to partially thank (or blame) for that. When the director showed Cage the design of the monster (which is almost entirely CGI, painted over a mo-cap performer who was on set), the star had just one thing to say: "I can't kill that. It's like a Goofy plush toy." 

The actor went on to suggest making the creature something more real, something that could actually survive and adapt to this world. "He started talking about ant colonies and different species that survive through their community, through their society," Brewer recalled. "Nic's a tremendous collaborator, and he's somebody who really absorbs what's on the page. His feedback on the monster was like exactly the right point, and he had tremendous insight into it."

The final design feels like an amalgamation of every single creature idea you could think of. There's an arm that overextends to incredible (and horrific) lengths, a jaw that splits the entire head in half to do a machine gun-like, teeth-chattering move that evokes the noise a Shoebill makes with its beak, and much more. Like the Xenomorph, we never really get a good look at the entire monster; instead, small features are teased that look like different animals, letting the viewers’ imaginations go wild. There are even moments where the creature is shown from the imaginative perspective of the characters, adding fake attributes to make it more subjective and harder to figure out. 

For Brewer, this was an attempt to counter the over-anthropomorphization of nature. "There's so many aspects of nature that just plainly make no sense to us, but make perfect sense to the ecology," he said. "I think it screws up people's ability to clock everything this thing can do. Every time you see it, you learn something new about it."

Unlike a Xenomorph, the creature is not an apex predator. It can be beaten if you overwhelm it. This was important in Nilon's script; the writer emphasized that if there are two people fighting against one monster, the monster loses. "I haven't really seen a movie that shows a monster that is about as dangerous as like a coyote or something," Brewer added. Though the creatures can be killed individually, they are terror incarnate as a pack. The script described the creatures as having a traveling form that they assemble together. 

Brewer and his brother Alex, who helped design the creature, also came up with the idea that they can roll in a wheel. "We tried to be like really true to the idea of not what would be cool for me as a human, but what would make sense for these things if they actually were rolling around," he said. This tied into Cage's idea of a creature that could adapt and thrive, one that felt real — or as real as this monstrosity can feel.

"We ended up with a creature that's very weird and freaky."