Due to impeccable sound design, formidable creature effects, perfectly timed jump scares and engaging performances, Arcadian just about rises above its narrative flaws, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t left feeling that Brewer and Nilon could have explored so much more in this dystopian thriller. Arcadian is showing in cinemas nationwide from June 14.
Benjamin Brewer’s post-apocalyptic mash-up of A Quiet Place, Alien and The Descent may not offer anything new in the crowded landscape of post-apocalyptic thrillers, but Arcadian does manage to keep its head above water with jump scares, tension, a cracking ensemble cast and fabulous creature design. Arcadian opens with Paul (Nicolas Cage) running through a dark, dystopian world of crumbling buildings, tannoy warnings and explosions. Paul has two infant sons, and his only concern is to protect them at any cost from the crumbling and dying world around them.
We then jump forward fifteen years to a small, rundown farmhouse on the edge of a forest, where Paul, Joseph (Jaeden Martell), and Thomas (Maxwell Jenkins) live lives dictated by the rising and setting sun. It is a world where only a small number of human survivors eke out a meagre existence on what food they can find or grow in a fight for survival.
No one seems sure, or the adults stay silent, on what happened to their world over a decade before or where the strange creatures that hunt them at night came from. Some think these creatures were born of the pollution the human race has churned out, while others believe they have always been there, deep beneath the Earth’s surface. They only know that as the sun sets, safety isn’t guaranteed as the creatures crawl from their underground homes to feed on human flesh.
Joseph has a scientific interest in the nocturnal creatures that desire his and his family’s blood. At the same time, Thomas wants to live free from the constraints of the rules their father applies, sneaking to the Rose farm across the forest whenever he can to see a girl named Charlotte (Sadie Soverall) who lives with an armed group of adults. There is clearly a history between the adults at the Rose farm and Cage’s Paul, which has strangely stopped them from teaming up. But the adults at the farm seem only too willing to embrace Jenkin’s Thomas. However, when Thomas has an accident sneaking back as the sun sets, Paul has no option but to rescue his son as the creatures come out to feed.
Anyone expecting a full-on Nicolas Cage-driven post-apocalyptic creature flick is bound to be slightly disappointed, as this isn’t Cage’s movie. Jenkins, Martell, and Soverall take centre stage in Mike Nilon’s atmospheric story of survival, love, and hunters-turned-prey. And it’s fair to say that all three do a damn fine job; however, a frustrating lack of character development also plagues Brewer’s film, ultimately leaving us with far more questions than answers. Interesting story arcs are introduced only to be left hanging, from the reason the Rose Farm won’t accept Paul and Joseph but opens its arms to Thomas, to the division created between two brothers when one finds love and the other is left alone.
There are also questions about how much the adults truly know and whether they have chosen to conceal the truth from the few remaining young people. Due to impeccable sound design, formidable creature effects, perfectly timed jump scares and engaging performances, Arcadian just about rises above its narrative flaws, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t left feeling that Brewer and Nilon could have explored so much more in this dystopian thriller.
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