ARCADIAN
***
Directed by Benjamin Brewer.
Starring Nicolas Cage, Jaeden Martell, Maxwell Jenkins.
Horror, US, 92 minutes, Certificate 15.
Released in cinemas in the UK 14th June by Vertigo Releasing
It’s the end of the world once more as we follow our old favourite Nicolas Cage facing off against a bunch of mysterious bloodthirsty creatures while trying to keep his family together. This flippant description, along with the films generic poster art, seems to suggest one of Cage’s regular forays into DTV land. What a relief then this is a much more thoughtful and refreshing watch than the unimaginative stretch of those films that take up much of his back catalogue.
Cage plays things here at a low key level, taking more of a supporting role to teenagers Jaeden Martell, who you may remember as the young Bill Denbrough in the IT movies, and Maxwell Jenkins as a pair of brothers raised on a remote farm fifteen years after an unexplained incident has allowed a race of bloodthirsty creatures to lay waste to humanity, scattering the survivors far and wide. Raised without a mother, Martell’s studious and analytical Joseph often finds himself butting heads with Jenkins' more impulsive Thomas. As their father Paul struggles to keep them together, the strains within this small family unit threaten to tear them asunder alongside the mysterious creatures that raid their fortified home every night.
Director Benjamin Brewer, also known for supplying VFX to films such as Everything Everywhere All At Once, manages to make a decent fist of things with a number of familiar elements. Played out in a mostly low key fashion, the stakes are undoubtedly lower and less perilous feeling than the likes of what could be found in the A QUIET PLACE films but thanks to engaging character work from the leads and Brewer’s sure hand with the pacing, ARCADIAN is a worthwhile addition to the creature apocalypse genre. Fans of the classic novel I AM LEGEND and its numerous adaptations will no doubt have a sense of deja vu at the series of nighttime attacks the characters regularly suffer through.
More unexpected is one mode of attack the creatures employ that could have fans of CRITTERS 2 smiling away. Whether intentional or not it is a welcome detail that goes along nicely with the nightmarish snapping motions of the creatures that soon blooms into something more Lovecraftian in design. However there is a tendency to keep the creatures hidden away or obscured that has the viewer wondering if this is due to budgetary constraints or the sometimes needlessly shaky cinematography of Frank Mobilio. This quibble aside, the cinematography nicely captures a chilly, autumnal vibe, a bittersweet visual accompaniment to a world on its knees.
While never getting up to full throttle and putting its audience on edge this is still a worthwhile watch and an interesting sidenote to the long and varied career of its diverse marquee name star and a promising debut for its director.
Iain MacLeod
