Arcadian (2024)
Directed by Ben Brewer
Written by Michael Nilon
Starring Nicolas Cage, Jaeden Martell, Maxwell Jenkins, Sadie Soverall
Release Date April 12th, 2024
Published April 10th, 2024
Arcadian stars Nicolas Cage as Paul. In a post-apocalyptic world, Paul is among the lucky few who escaped devastated cities for the relative peace of the countryside. He's managed to do this while carrying to babies, Joseph and Thomas. Are they his children? We don't know for sure, we never see the mother. Paul could very well have rescued these two babies and is taking them to safety. Regardless, it's a demonstration of character and fortitude that, in a post-apocalypse beset by monsters, that anyone would rescue and raise not one but two babies.
After we roll the opening credits we jump ahead to Joseph and Thomas as teenagers learning from Paul how to be self-sufficient and stay alive in the post-apocalypse. The trio live on a farm, far from the ravaged cities but the beasts, be they aliens or some other sort of monster, are now coming for them. Having assumedly taken what they can from the large cities and suburbs, the desperate monsters are learning and adapting, they are figuring out how to get around the defenses that Paul and his sons have built on the farm.
What do we know about the monsters? They don't go out in daylight. In fact, it appears that the sun harms them. They also have fearsome claws that, over time, can scratch through even the biggest wooden door. This wasn't always the case. Nor was it always the case that these monsters would try and dig holes, but this appears to be happening as documented by Joseph (Jaeden Martell), who has become fascinated with studying the monsters, charting their evolution and learning about their weaknesses and way to fight them.
Find my full length review at Geeks.Media