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The acclaimed actor may be the optimal choice for a audacious horror film focused on the biblical figure, however not for the causes some audiences may think. In reality, Cage doesn't actually portray Jesus in The Carpenter’s Son: his role is referred to simply as a craftsman. Cage is cast as a father figure within this narrative, working to keep his faith as his son (portrayed by Noah Jupe), their teenage foster child, starts to display divine powers. The explanation it's hard to imagine another prominent performer playing this part is that although the figure is weighed down with multiple challenges, Nicolas Cage looks almost moving certain that this dark, bleak little movie is deserving of his effort.

The Actor's Recent Film Selections

Nicolas Cage was allocating his time more judiciously lately. He still stars in additional projects than the majority of regular audiences may ever watch — for instance, were you informed that he has made several distinct Westerns in the past three years? — yet he also mixes in esteemed A24/Neon gigs such as Dream Scenario, Pig, and Longlegs. The Carpenter’s Son seems like one of those, in that it’s not strictly scary, likely to stir debate, and handles a over-the-top concept in a earnest manner.

The Film's Storyline and Execution

Unfortunately, writer-director the director fails to repay that serious attention. The film starts from a compellingly nomadic context, marketed as inspired by an obscure religious text regarding the youthful days of the messiah. Cage's character, the maternal figure, and the boy travel frequently, anxious of doctrinal intolerance or doubt regarding their son's mysterious gifts. “Disaster trails us,” Cage sadly observes. This persists when sinister entities target the family where they currently live, getting a jump-start on the familiar Biblical temptation for The Boy.

At times, the film mirrors an Exorcist-style supernatural thriller, though no one of the lead characters are clearly inhabited. Instead, they become more and more distant from each other, as these powers infect a resident female (Isla Johnston, credited as “The Stranger”) who The Boy forms a relationship with, and presents everyone unsettling premonitions of a bleak destiny. Cage's role in particular struggles with his position within the plot, sometimes berating his child who mystifies him.

Controversy and Caution

This material is likely to invite debate, and the director treats it with plenty of care — overly, perhaps. The concept of a adolescent facing his eventual sacrifice and seduced by dark influences is certainly scary, but the filmmaker could be cautious about appearing sensational and anxious to signal his intentions, so he often withdraws to dimly foreboding cinematography. The figures brood incessantly — the singer-actress, who displayed real promise in the 2024 Crow remake, interestingly — surrenders her role to her Mother Mary cloak, occasionally interrupted by a few gruesome scary visuals.

Cage's Acting and Film's Flaws

Simultaneously, Cage toy with exactly the kind of exaggerated performance that his ironic fans could be expecting. One scene (featured) in the trailer in which he loses control and yells “I’ve lost my faith!” When this sort of dramatic explosion is part of your biblical thriller, possibly a more boldly ridiculous style would be more effective of Cage’s willingness to exaggerate if needed. On the other hand, The Carpenter’s Son echoes the poorer direct-to-video productions he starred in during the 2010s — excluding the campy action films so much as the dramas and ghost stories that often seem intriguing, and often contain some select actor's highlights, but ultimately feel like, well, inexpensive direct-to-consumer content.

Truthfully, several of these, although simpler, were easier to view overall. This is when I need to break my own dogma, not religious but work-oriented: Years back, a beloved editor persuaded me to banish descriptive terms like “tedious” or “uninteresting” from my reviewing language. These words express scant except a personal and generically described lack of patience, disengaging from the task of clearly expressing the mental and sensation of seeing a particular movie. It’s difficult to communicate tedium without sounding boring personally. It's just as unclear as labeling a movie “interesting.” “Explain further,” essentially.

However, I admit, I grew weary for a large part of The Carpenter’s Son. To the movie’s non-exploitative credit, it is a churchy kind of stultification, not because this movie is moralizing, but as it takes a type of patient acceptance to watch it. Eventually soon after starting, the film settles into a cyclic tempo of ongoing suffering, and fails to