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The acclaimed actor could be the ideal choice for a daring scary movie centered on Jesus Christ, however not for the reasons certain fans could guess. Truthfully, Cage doesn't actually act as Jesus in The Carpenter’s Son: his role is referred to simply as a craftsman. Cage is positioned as the Joseph within this story, working to uphold his religious convictions as his son (portrayed by the young actor), his now-teenage adopted son, starts to exhibit divine powers. The explanation it's hard to envision another leading star playing this part is that even as the figure becomes weighed down with numerous challenges, Nicolas Cage looks almost emotionally convinced that the dark, grim little movie is worth his time.

Cage's Latest Film Selections

Cage has spending those years more carefully in recent years. He yet stars in more films than most average viewers could possibly view — as an illustration, did you know that he has completed a trio of separate frontier films in the past three years? — but he also mixes in high-profile A24/Neon gigs for example one recent hit, Pig, and Longlegs. The Carpenter’s Son sounds like one of those, because it’s genre-adjacent, possibly controversial, and approaches a campy-sounding concept with gravity.

Movie's Storyline and Direction

Sadly, writer-director Lotfy Nathan does not reward viewer engagement. The film begins with a compellingly nomadic context, presented as inspired by an apocryphal lost gospel regarding Christ’s childhood. The Carpenter, The Mother, and their child travel frequently, anxious of religious persecution or distrust regarding their son's unusual abilities. “Disaster trails us,” Cage mournfully notes. It goes on as dark forces focus on the household where they currently live, initiating with that traditional religious challenge for the son.

At times, the movie resembles an Exorcist-style supernatural thriller, except that not one of the lead characters are directly possessed. Instead, they grow more and more distant mutually, when these forces infect a resident female (the actress, named “The Stranger”) that the son forms a relationship with, and presents all troubling visions of a grim future. The Carpenter especially struggles with his role in this story, at times berating the boy he can’t fully understand.

Debate and Caution

This material is apt to stir disagreement, and the director handles it with a lot of care — excessive, maybe. The notion of a teenage boy facing his eventual sacrifice and tempted by mysterious forces is truly scary, but Nathan may be hesitant regarding seeming gratuitous and keen to indicate his goals, thus he frequently falls back on gloomily threatening visuals. Characters continually reflect — the singer-actress, who demonstrated real promise in the 2024 Crow remake, of all things — cedes her performance to her character's costume, sometimes broken up by a few gnarly horror imagery.

Cage's Acting and Film's Flaws

Meanwhile, Cage dabbles in exactly the kind of overacting that those who enjoy his campier roles could be expecting. One scene (featured) in promotional material where Cage erupts and yells “I’ve lost my faith!” If that kind of theatrical release is included in a Jesus-themed horror movie, perhaps a more brazenly silly approach would make better use of the actor's readiness to exaggerate as required. Rather, The Carpenter’s Son echoes the weaker straight-to-DVD movies Cage made during the last decade — not the cheesy thrillers so much as the narrative films and supernatural thrillers that typically appear interesting, and often contain several notable memorable scenes, but in the end seem like, well, cheap home video fare.

Honestly, several of these, though not as grand, were more entertaining overall. Here is where I need to disregard my own dogma, not religious but professional: Long ago, a beloved editor persuaded me to banish words like “boring” or “dull” from my film-criticism vocabulary. Such terms convey little except a subjective and generically described lack of patience, disengaging from the task of vividly conveying the mental and emotional experience of viewing a particular movie. It's hard to convey boredom without seeming uninteresting yourself. It's just as unclear as calling a movie “interesting.” “Explain further,” in other words.

Yet, I acknowledge, I was bored during much of the film. To the movie’s non-exploitative credit, it is a devotional type of stultification, not due to this movie is moralizing, but as it takes a sort of obedient endurance to sit through it. At some point in the beginning, this feature locks into a monotonous pattern of ongoing suffering, and never really