The Reel Review
A father and his twin teenage sons try to survive a global apocalypse at a remote farmhouse in the country, foraging for food during the day and barricading themselves inside at night to protect against marauding, deadly alien creatures. When one son doesn’t return home, the father goes out in search for him. Nicholas Cage, Jaeden Martell and Maxwell Jenkins star in this sci-fi horror/thriller.
Working from a screenplay from Cage’s agent and producing partner Michael Nilon (Braven), director Benjamin Brewer’s low-rent, wish.com version of A Quiet Place starts of with a solid-enough premise. But it doesn’t really go anywhere. The characters are one dimensional, the cinematography is so frustratingly shaky and dark that it is hard to see the action, and the monsters – well, let’s just say they look more frightening in a still photo (below) than they do when traveling in a circle like a giant runaway Ferris wheel. Yes, this really happens and it is unintentionally hilarious.
Despite being the headliner, Cage’s role, once injured by a monster early on in the story, is comparatively minor to that of Martell (Defending Jacob, The Lodge, IT) and Jenkins (Lost in Space), who must use all the tricks dad has taught them to save themselves from the monsters and carry this mediocre sci-fi/horror. Although by the time the credits roll, you likely won’t care what happens.
REEL FACTS
• Nicholas Cage isolated himself with his family for three months to prepare for his role in Arcadian.
• RLJE Films has collaborated with Nicholas Cage on a multitude of horror films: 2023’s Sympathy for the Devil, 2021’s Prisoners of the Ghostland, 2019’s Color Out of Space, 2018’s Mandy and 2016’s Dog Eat Dog.
• Arcadian was filmed in Dublin and the towns of Ashford and Kilpedder in Ireland’s County Wicklow.
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