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Nicolas Cage may be the perfect selection for a bold scary movie focused on Jesus Christ, however not for the motivations certain viewers could guess. In reality, Cage doesn't actually portray the central religious figure in The Carpenter’s Son: his character is credited simply as The Carpenter. He is cast as a father figure in this story, working to maintain his beliefs while The Boy (portrayed by the young actor), his adolescent foster child, commences to show supernatural abilities. The explanation it's challenging to picture another prominent performer playing this part is that while his character becomes weighed down with numerous challenges, Cage himself looks almost emotionally certain that the dark, bleak feature is worth his time.

Cage's Current Film Selections

Cage was allocating those years more selectively in recent years. He yet makes more films than most regular audiences could possibly view — for example, are you aware that the actor has made a trio of different Westerns recently? — but he also mixes in prestige independent films such as one recent hit, Pig, and Longlegs. This new film sounds like a similar project, in that it’s borderline horror, likely to stir debate, and approaches a exaggerated description quite seriously.

The Film's Plot and Direction

Sadly, writer-director Lotfy Nathan fails to repay viewer engagement. The Carpenter’s Son opens in a interestingly wandering setting, marketed as based on an obscure religious text concerning Christ’s childhood. The Carpenter, the maternal figure, and their child travel from place to place, anxious of faith-based hostility or suspicion about their son's mysterious gifts. “Disaster trails us,” The Carpenter sadly observes. That continues as dark forces attack them where they currently live, getting a jump-start on that traditional religious challenge for the youth.

Occasionally, the movie mirrors an Exorcist-style supernatural thriller, but not one of the main figures are explicitly taken over. Rather, they grow increasingly alienated from each other, while these entities infect a nearby girl (Isla Johnston, credited as “The Stranger”) who The Boy forms a relationship with, and gives everyone disturbing images of a grim future. The Carpenter notably fights with his place in this story, sometimes scolding his child he can’t fully understand.

Controversy and Caution

The content is prone to court controversy, and Nathan handles it with plenty of sensitivity — overly, perhaps. The concept of a young man dealing with his future martyrdom and seduced by unknown powers is truly terrifying, but the filmmaker may be wary of appearing sensational and keen to telegraph his aims, therefore he regularly falls back on dimly foreboding visuals. The roles constantly ponder — FKA Twigs, who demonstrated notable talent in a recent film update, of all things — yields her acting to her Mother Mary cloak, at times punctuated by several gruesome scary visuals.

Cage's Acting and Film's Shortcomings

Meanwhile, Cage dabbles in just the sort of overacting that those who enjoy his campier roles could be expecting. One scene (shown) in previews where Cage erupts and yells “My faith has been shattered!” Should such of theatrical release is included in your religious scary film, maybe a more brazenly silly style would take better advantage of Cage’s willingness to go over the top if needed. Rather, the film more closely resembles the weaker straight-to-DVD movies he starred in over that period — apart from the B-movies instead the dramas and ghost stories that often seem intriguing, and often contain some select actor's highlights, but ultimately feel like, frankly, cheap home video fare.

Honestly, a number of those, although simpler, were easier to view as a whole. Here is where I must disregard my usual practice, not spiritual but work-oriented: Long ago, a respected mentor urged me to remove words like “boring” or “dull” from my analytical lexicon. These words express scant but a personal and vaguely expressed lack of patience, withdrawing from the job of vividly conveying the thoughtful and sensation of viewing a specific film. It's hard to express monotony without sounding boring personally. It's equally vague as terming a movie “notable.” “Elaborate,” that is.

However, I admit, I felt uninterested during much of the film. To the movie’s non-exploitative credit, it is a religious style of dullness, not due to The Carpenter’s Son is moralizing, but as it takes a sort of obedient endurance to view it. At some point soon after starting, the movie enters a monotonous pattern of simmering distress, and never really