Review of Arcadian
Arcadian (2024) Dir. Ben Brewer
A post-war Earth inhabited by an monstrous terror is the stage for Arcadian, a new chiller that has a few echoes of a similar recent horror seeing a family tormented at night by an unknown evil.
Nic Cage plays Paul, a father of two squabbling boys as they all try to maintain a normal life in the countryside. But as the sun goes down, they methodically lockdown their home to protect themselves from whatever lurks outside.
With blood and scratches on the door, the audience is left wondering what is attacking. The authorities? Local people? Or something worse.
Well, it’s something worse.
The film sets up its world without too many explanations. The real focus is the family dynamic with Cage trying to maintain a close unit with strict curfews and stern words. Trying to make keep his kids safe and secure, the boys however deal with regular sibling rivalry, teenage love issues and try to live as much as a normal life as possible.
Whilst Cage chastises them with “are we not men” as they argue at the dinner table, the mix of military style rules whilst attempting to provide regular activities like driving lessons shows despite their efforts, there’s really no room for childhood.
The film’s attempts at larger family themes are honourable but it really takes an age to get going. There’s far less tension being built than it is slightly tedious. Eventually we get a few attacks after the first third, a later cave-based sequence is more-than-solid and there is one particularly gross scene I enjoyed. But I was crying out for more.
The movie has corresponding themes to It Comes At Night with Joel Edgerton. But the real problem is this: it’s A Quiet Place. To me it’s such a straight up copy of its ideas and themes that all I could do is constantly think of how that film did everything better.
The farm location. An attempt to set up a rural paradise. The unknown assailants that turn out to be monsters. The creatures’ weird shaking. A family unit held together by a father figure. Wayward children trying to maintain normalcy. A family member sacrifice. It’s all here. And it’s all the same.
The naturalistic filming is a positive (the action is sometimes incomprehensible though) and there’s some Covid-parallels I noticed, but the admittedly good acting is in service of very little. And an 83% Rotten Tomatoes score? Get outta here.
Unfortunately it’s neither the artistic/subtle Cage of Pig and Dream Scenario nor the crazy Cage of Mandy and Mom & Dad. In fact, don’t get your hopes high at all as he practically disappears for 60% of the movie.
In the end, like ordering A Quiet Place through Temu, it mostly feels a dour duplicate of a film that will still be in most people’s recent memory. And this overfamiliarity ends up harming so many of its positive aspects leading to a disappointing experience.
★★½
2.5 / 5
Mike Sales
Arcadian is in cinemas 14 June
