‘Arcadian’ Movie Review: A Rock-Solid Post-Apocalyptic Thriller With Scary Monsters
Photo from RLJE Films
From Jeremy Kibler
Any incoming genre film with a post-apocalyptic setting is bound to be overlooked and just seen as derivative. Debuting director Benjamin Brewer’s Arcadian may look like a smaller-scaled A Quiet Place at first glance, but it’s the strength of the performances, an emotional rooting interest in the characters, and some truly menacing monsters that make this worth a look.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: it’s the near future, and some kind of unexplained disaster has taken out most of the human race and spawned a bunch of gnarly monsters. 15 years into this new normal, patriarch Paul (Nicolas Cage) has raised his two sons, Thomas (Maxwell Jenkins) and Joseph (Jaeden Martell), to live off the land and scavenge for supplies during the day. Thomas, the more outgoing boy, spends his days helping at the wealthy Rose family’s farm and to flirt with Charlotte (Sadie Soverall). At night, they fortify their home from the creatures that roam the earth. Of course, one of those days, Thomas doesn’t come home before dark and Dad must go out for look for him.
What life was like for Paul before this apocalypse doesn’t really matter to the story. There’s no mention of his sons’ mother; it’s now just a father and his boys being raised as men. If one is hoping to witness another bonkers performance from Nicolas Cage, his work as Paul is more restrained and no-nonsense, and it works for this kind of story. Maxwell Jenkins and Jaeden Martell are strong as very different brothers who often resent each other, and writer Mike Nilon makes the correct choice in centering on their relationship and how it evolves. There is also a little moment between Thomas and Charlotte in an open field near her family’s farm where they play a game of explaining what happened to the world in ten seconds; it’s efficient and doesn’t just feel like exposition, especially since both characters explain the status quo differently.
The mouth-chattering creatures themselves are inventively designed and even genuinely scary at times; rather than describing what they look like, one just needs to discover these nightmarish beasties. One scene where Joseph holds down the fort alone is hair-raisingly suspenseful, as we see a monster’s long, pointy arm extend through the door as Joseph sleeps by the fire. Even a third-act moment in a refrigerator for shelter during an explosion is extremely visceral. While it isn’t a total hindrance, the film is erratically shot most of the time, but with certain sequences, that choice does lend a thrilling immediacy.
For all of its familiar nocturnal-monster and this-is-the-end elements, Arcadian is rock-solid and surprisingly moving.
Rating: 3.5/5
Arcadian is now in theaters.
