The best part of the monster movie Arcadian is Nicolas Cage. And the worst part of Arcadian is the lack of Nicolas Cage. Confusing, I know. But this duality is what makes Arcadian interesting but also incredibly frustrating. For those not in the know, this movie stars Nicolas Cage, who plays Paul, in the midst of an apocalypse where these mysterious monsters come for the humans at night. We don’t really know what started the apocalypse and how Cage ended up here but he does everything possible to protect his two sons, Joseph and Thomas, and ensure that they’ll be able to take care of themselves when his time comes.
As a certified Nicolas Cage fangirl, this movie caught me by surprise. That’s quite often the story with this actor who takes on the most random projects and somehow makes them work. Thanks to Cage I was absolutely glued to my seat as he played the grumpy but understanding dad who loved his kids. But as soon as he went out to go and find one of his children, I knew that this wasn’t really a movie about Nicolas Cage. It was a movie about his children. And I really wish that the trailer would have been a little bit more forthright with that fact. Because I came to watch this movie for Cage and not his children. Sorry, not sorry.
It’s not like I didn’t give his on-screen children a chance. I truly did. Joseph was the inventor of the family who wanted to study these mysterious creatures that scratch their walls at night. And Thomas was a fixer who almost always narrowly missed curfew because he was sweet on a neighborhood girl. The problem lies in the fact that the brothers, who are supposed to survive this world together when their father is incapacitated, have no chemistry. Because of that, it feels like their stories don’t align. One could die and the other one wouldn’t care. Even I wouldn’t care. Because they don’t have the chemistry to make me care.
For a moment there, Arcadian had me thinking that Paul was okay after this explosion that seriously hurt him. He got up while these monsters rampaged into the house and his children were setting up the final trap to destroy them. But he sacrificed his life to save his children and Thomas’s girlfriend. And because I didn’t care for Thomas or Joseph, his death didn’t hit as hard. It still hurt me because I’m a fan of the actor and I wanted to see more of him. But because the other two actors weren’t able to convince me of the emotional depth of their story, I didn’t understand the connection between the father and his sons. And that made the story crumble.
Then there are the monsters. Creating monsters is always a challenge. You have to balance out the buildup with people’s expectations but also what you’re capable of. You also have to take into consideration that you want to create something new. So I do give the creative direction of Arcadian kudos for doing something different when it came to the monsters. I had no idea if they were more wolf or more bug or dinosaur. But they absolutely freaked me out when they reached through that hole in the door, inches away from Joseph’s face. And they also freaked me out when they connected with each other and turned into a giant wheel of monster flesh. Yes, this is what happened in the movie.
In a way, the monsters worked for me. It felt like the movie was taking a risk. But it’s kind of sad that the monsters worked for me more than the actual co-leads, especially when the monsters were hanging on by a single thread of believability. What would have saved this movie truly would have been Paul surviving. And I know that Nicolas Cage isn’t omnipresent and he can’t survive everything. But for the framing of this movie, he should have survived. They should have lost one of the sons to create an emotional response from the dad that would eventually build to a climax where he destroyed all those monsters.
Even then, I don’t regret watching Arcadian. I got to watch Nicolas Cage in a spooky monster movie. That’s a win for me. And if anything, it’s preparing me for his upcoming role in the horror movie Longlegs.
Arcadian is now available to stream.
