Arcadian (film)

Arcadian is a 2024 post-apocalyptic action horror film directed by Benjamin Brewer from a screenplay by Michael Nilon. It stars Nicolas Cage as the father of two teenage boys, all trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. The film is an international co-production between the United States, Canada, and Ireland.

Arcadian premiered at South by Southwest on March 11, 2024, followed by a theatrical release in the United States on April 12, 2024, by RLJE Films. The film received generally favourable reviews from critics.

Plot
The film opens with Paul scavenging for supplies in a storehouse and then fleeing through deserted back alleys, with the pandemonium of an apocalyptic event in the background, sirens blaring and sounds of distant explosions and screams of people. He seeks refuge in a secluded spot, cradling his two infant boys and reassuring them that everything will be okay.

Fifteen years later, after a pandemic has wiped out most of the population and caused civilization to break down, Paul and his twin sons, Joseph and Thomas, live in a derelict farmhouse, eking out what livelihood they can during the day and sheltering from monstrous photophobic creatures at night. As Thomas returns home one evening after sunset from a nearby farm belonging to the Rose family, it becomes apparent that he is the bigger risk-taker of the two brothers, while Joseph appears more intellectual and talks about ways of improving their situation beyond mere survival. After dinner, they hear loud banging coming from the cellar, which stops after three attempts of the creatures to enter the house.

The next morning, Paul finds deep gouges on the outside of the cellar door and decides to reinforce it. Joseph reveals that he has been working on an off-road utility buggy in the barn, and Paul helps him to fix the engine. After Paul teaches Joseph how to drive it, he sends both his sons to salvage some wood for reinforcing the cellar door. Thomas, who is secretly in love with Charlotte Rose, wants to go the Rose farm and leaves his brother, asking Joseph to meet him later on the road leading to the Rose farm so they can return home together.

On his way back from the Rose farm, Thomas trips over a crevice and falls into a cave, concussed and unconscious. After Joseph returns home without his brother and with the night falling, Paul sets out to find Thomas and discovers him in the cave, where they decide to stay until sunrise. When several creatures converge on them through the rocks underneath the cave later in the night, Paul lights a flare, but one of his hands gets trapped in the rocks, and as the charge detonates in his hand, it kills the creatures and causes the cave to collapse.

Meanwhile, home alone, Joseph uses himself as bait and traps one of the creatures, intending to study it later. Driving the buggy in the morning, he finds Thomas and Paul, who is badly injured and unconscious, and brings them home. Thomas insists that they should take their father to the Rose farm, as better care can be provided there, and because Paul won't survive without medication. But Mr. Rose and his wife announce they can't spare any medicine to help him, although they are willing to let Thomas stay on their farm. Joseph returns home with Paul. Thomas pleads with Charlotte. She gives him the medicine, but when Thomas tries to take it home to his father, he is stopped at the gate and held at gunpoint by one of Rose's farmhands, who accuses him of being a liar and a thief and wants to punish him by shooting his foot off.

Back home, Joseph finds a large hole forming under the floorboards and realizes that the creatures have been digging under the house, intending to get inside. At the Rose farm, they attack through a similar hole dug under the floor and kill everyone except Thomas and Charlotte, who escape to Paul's farm. There, Paul regains consciousness and suggests a course of action to fight the creatures. Joseph starts preparing a trap, planning to set off several gallons of fuel as an improvised fire bomb. In order to give the brothers and Charlotte more time to make it to safety, Paul locks the door behind them and holds the creatures off until the bomb explodes, sacrificing his life.

The next day, Charlotte, Joseph, and Thomas set off to check for possible survivors on the other farms in the area.

Cast

 * Nicolas Cage as Paul
 * Jaeden Martell as Joseph
 * Maxwell Jenkins as Thomas
 * Sadie Soverall as Charlotte
 * Joe Dixon as Mr. Rose

Production
In October 2022, it was announced that Nicolas Cage would star in the film. In November, Jaeden Martell, Maxwell Jenkins, and Sadie Soverall joined the cast.

Principal photography began in Dublin, Ireland, in November 2022. In February 2023, it was announced that filming had wrapped and that the film was in post-production.

Release
Arcadian premiered at SXSW on March 11, 2024.

RLJE Films acquired distribution rights for North America, the UK, Australia, and Ireland, scheduling the film's North American theatrical release for April 12, 2024, followed by a streaming release later in the year on Shudder and AMC+.

The film was released in the United Kingdom on June 14, 2024.

Reception
Steve Rose gave the film a 3/5 rating and wrote a review in The Guardian: "A lean and competent, albeit generic, thriller, with the added benefit of Nicolas Cage."

Reviewing the film for Daily Telegraph, Tim Robey was slightly less enthusiastic: "Brewer ... neglects the mightiest special effects at his disposal, which are Cage's face, voice and hands."

Barry Levitt of Empire Magazine wrote, "Though things go off the rails in the third act, Arcadian's intriguing premise and inspired monster design pack plenty of scares into this post-apocalyptic fable."