Arcadian – SXSW Premiere Review

★★★½

They mostly come out at night… mostly… in Arcadian, a movie that combines aspects of It Comes At Night, A Quiet Place, I Am Legend and Critters 2 to deliver a post-apocalyptic farmhouse action-horror, with great creature design.

This is Nicholas Cage’s latest horror thriller, in which a father (Cage) and his twin sons Joseph (Jaeden Martell) and Thomas (Maxwell Jenkins) living in post-apocalyptic rural America must survive nightly attacks from nightmarish creatures, intent on breaking into their remote farmhouse.

That setup places Arcadian in the tradition of It Comes At Night, I Am Legend and A Quiet Place – a “barricade yourself in before the sun goes down” kinda movie, with Cage’s patriarch training his sons up in what it means to be capital-m Men in this dangerous new world. Namely, lock the doors, load the guns, watch the clock, don’t mess up and never, ever, drop your guard.

This is complicated by the nearby farm, whose community includes the pretty, winsome Charlotte (Sadie Soverall, excellent). That’s enough to turn Thomas’s head. But is it enough to take his eye off the setting sun?

Benjamin Brewer (who did SFX for Everything Everywhere All At Once) gives robust direction from a script by Michael Nilon (Braven). There’s not as much Cage here as you might expect (we mainly follow the two boys) and when he’s on screen he’s in reserved, taciturn mode. But fear not: when it comes time Cage kicks monster ass, if that’s what you’re here for. Speaking of the monsters, the creature design is excellent, coming in somewhere between giant crocodiles and the Annihilation pig-bear, and boasting a terrifying sonic attack.

The tension is nicely orchestrated, and there’s a particularly terrifying moment where one of the boys is asleep in a chair, shotgun on his lap, guarding the house. Ever so slowly, the viewing slot on the front door slides open, and… to say any more would be a spoiler, but it’s easily one of the horror images of 2024.

Arcadian never really rises above any of its influences, with a script that draws from various predecessors without adding much new. But it’s solidly shot, engrossing, and boasts strong performances from all involved. If you wished It Comes At Night had actual monsters in it, coming at night, well, here you go.

Some good chaotic action, a gung-ho shotgun-blasting climax, strongly drawn family dynamics, and that one particular standout scene (brrr!) all combine to make this an easy recommendation. Check it out!

Arcadian premiered at SXSW ahead of a US/UK/Ireland theatrical release on 12 April, and is coming to Shudder later this year.