A father tries to protect his teenage sons in a world destroyed by an apocalypse and filled with terrifying creatures, this is the familiar premise of Arcadian: but it takes that idea and runs with it. I have to give credit where it’s due; Director Ben Brewer and screenwriter Michael Nilon manage to come up fresh material in a genre which has been done over again so many times before. You thought you’d seen it all, didn’t you? Well prepare for your jaws to drop as these monsters show us what they’re capable of doing with their unique abilities, working together to satisfy their hunger. It’s not just them though – strong performances from across the board help lift this narrative out of its sometimes too-simplistic plotting. A lean film in terms of runtime (running at less than ninety minutes), Arcadian packs a punch.
Paul (Nicolas Cage) runs at full tilt through a crumbling city on the edge of collapse. Gunshots echo, sirens wail, explosions rock the air as he reaches his destination. Paul enters a garage and picks up two infants hidden within. He clings tightly to those babies as the skyline behind him reveals itself for what it now is – or rather, no longer is. And then Paul keeps going forward into whatever might be left next.
Fifteen years later sees him nervously scanning the horizon as the sun sets behind his rural compound somewhere outside Arcadian City limits. He bellows at Thomas (Maxwell Jenkins), his eldest son, for being late back from wherever he was supposed to be out near Rose farm earlier today. Joseph (Jaeden Martell) eyes his older brother with annoyed curiosity as they enter the house together – who knows what he’s got planned now that they’re home safe again while dad does his thing locking down every entrance on this floor? Upstairs eating after Joseph says grace; still arguing under howls deeper off in night territory. Paul cuts their bickering off short now; the worst is over, surely – America will be reborn through her survivors and they’ll all come out of hiding sooner than later. Joseph doesn’t share that hope though. He takes notes downstairs while clawing is heard at door and then shrieks come from same place as Paul & Thomas race to steady it from inside – hinges buckling under a withering onslaughter unseen by Joseph who knows they can’t break through but wants more information about them.
The remote setting of Arcadian is important in understanding why Thomas and Joseph clash so often. Brothers are competitive by nature; both restrained within Paul’s rules but aware of reasons for them too. Daylight being only guaranteed safety: monsters are nocturnal creatures which have always shown patterns thus far. But intelligent minds like Joseph’s never believe anything stays true forever.
We’ve been here before with Brewer (The Trust) and Nilon (producer on Cage’s last eleven pictures) – where they quietly build suspense then drop a master reveal; we overhear snippets about what caused doomsday during idle chat, knowledge that couldn’t even begin to prepare us for this post-apocalyptic horror show. First glimpse at baddies merely peels back corner of curtain but it’s enough to get pulses racing and skin crawling all same time – audience members will jump right outta seats when whole thing gets revealed finally because you don’t spend so much time carefully crafting tension just to let people down afterwards
Martell and Jenkins are child actors who have played their roles as adults so convincingly that they are recognized as siblings. Their anger and frustration with one another explodes in the second act—a turn that parallels the turning points of adolescence. Good parents train their children to recognize what is right by them, but Paul has gone further than that: he has taught his sons how to prepare for the coming crisis. They must choose whether or not to keep watch over each other; if they do not, they will face terrible consequences alone.
Arcadian can be understood as a team version of Richard Matheson’s novel I Am Legend and Will Smith’s film adaption of it. Fear lurks at night. What happens when they break through our defenses? There’s also a dog involved. The movie admittedly includes such routine story points as these, which play out along expected lines.
People aren’t stupid. Something clearly lurks in the closet. The trick is to make whatever comes lunging out of the dark even worse than we think it’s going to be—to then jack up every subsequent interaction based on that moment alone. Brewer and Nilon don’t try to reinvent anything here; instead, they stay true until an opportunity presents itself for them not to.
Arcadian works equally well as both a horror movie and thriller. You care about what happens next, you’re scared watching it, you really want these people survive – plus they’re not idiots either because idiots would never survive! These kids do not blindly run into some woods without any plan whatsoever nor put themselves on some platter; dad did not teach those lessons for nothing! These monsters may finally meet their match.
Arcadian was produced by Saturn Films, Redline Entertainment and Highland Film Group – in limited release from RLJE Films currently showing at theaters near you with its Shudder network premiere soon arriving too! Check out the trailer below:
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