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The acclaimed actor is likely the optimal choice for a bold horror film about Jesus Christ, but not for the reasons many audiences may think. In reality, Cage does not even portray Jesus in the new film: his character is listed simply as The Carpenter. Cage is cast as a father figure within this story, attempting to maintain his religious convictions while the teenage character (portrayed by Noah Jupe), their adolescent foster child, commences to display divine powers. The reason it's challenging to imagine any other leading star taking this character is that while his character is stricken with numerous challenges, the actor appears practically emotionally confident that the gloomy, grim feature is a valuable project.

Cage's Current Film Selections

Nicolas Cage has using his time more judiciously in recent years. He yet does more movies than the majority of average viewers will ever see — as an illustration, are you aware that he has filmed several different Westerns recently? — yet he also mixes in high-profile A24/Neon gigs such as one recent hit, Pig, and Longlegs. The Carpenter’s Son sounds like a similar project, in that it’s genre-adjacent, likely to stir debate, and handles a over-the-top description in a earnest manner.

Movie's Plot and Execution

Sadly, filmmaker the director fails to repay the audience's focus. The Carpenter’s Son opens in a interestingly wandering context, positioned as drawing from an unknown scripture regarding Christ’s childhood. Cage's character, the maternal figure, and the boy travel from place to place, afraid of faith-based hostility or suspicion about The Boy’s strange powers. “Calamity follows us,” Cage gloomily remarks. It goes on when evil influences focus on the family in their latest settlement, initiating with that familiar Biblical temptation for the youth.

At times, the movie resembles an Exorcist-style horror film, except that no one of the central roles are explicitly taken over. On the contrary, they grow progressively isolated mutually, as these forces influence a nearby girl (Isla Johnston, credited as an outsider) who the son bonds with, and gives all unsettling premonitions of a bleak destiny. The Carpenter notably struggles with his role within the plot, sometimes berating the boy he can’t fully understand.

Discussion and Caution

The subject matter is prone to invite debate, and Nathan handles it with a lot of delicacy — excessive, possibly. The concept of a adolescent dealing with his destined offering and lured by mysterious forces is certainly scary, but Nathan may be wary of seeming gratuitous and eager to indicate his goals, so he often withdraws to darkly ominous cinematography. Characters continually reflect — the singer-actress, who displayed genuine potential in the 2024 Crow remake, of all things — yields her performance to her character's costume, occasionally interrupted by some disturbing frightening scenes.

Cage's Acting and Movie's Shortcomings

Simultaneously, the actor dabbles in exactly the kind of exaggerated performance that those who enjoy his campier roles might be looking for. There is a moment (featured) in the trailer where Cage loses control and screams “I’ve lost my faith!” Should such of florid outburst is part of a Jesus-themed horror movie, possibly a more boldly ridiculous style would take better advantage of his eagerness to go over the top as required. On the other hand, The Carpenter’s Son is closer to the poorer straight-to-DVD films the actor filmed through much of the 2010s — not the cheesy thrillers so much as the narrative films and ghost stories that often seem intriguing, and frequently include a few choice Cage moments, but in the end seem like, well, inexpensive direct-to-consumer content.

Frankly, some of those, though not as grand, were more watchable in general. At this point I must violate my usual practice, not spiritual but professional: Long ago, a beloved editor urged me to remove words like “boring” or “dull” from my reviewing language. These phrases express scant but a subjective and generically described lack of patience, withdrawing from the duty of clearly expressing the intellectual and emotional experience of seeing an individual production. It’s difficult to communicate tedium without appearing dull personally. It's equally vague as labeling a movie “engaging.” “Elaborate,” essentially.

However, I admit, I felt uninterested during much of The Carpenter’s Son. To the movie’s non-exploitative credit, it’s a devotional type of dullness, not for The Carpenter’s Son is moralizing, but since it takes a type of patient acceptance to sit through it. After a while in the beginning, the movie settles into a cyclic tempo of simmering distress, and does not