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Nicolas Cage could be the perfect pick for a daring horror film centered on Jesus Christ, but not for the motivations some viewers could guess. Truthfully, the star does not actually portray the central religious figure in The Carpenter’s Son: his role is credited only as The Carpenter. Cage is positioned as the Joseph in this narrative, working to maintain his faith while the teenage character (acted by the young actor), their adolescent foster child, starts to display supernatural abilities. Why it's challenging to envision a different major actor playing this part is that even as the role grows weighed down with various challenges, the actor seems practically emotionally convinced that the dark, grim little movie is deserving of his effort.

The Actor's Current Career Choices

Nicolas Cage was using those years more judiciously in recent years. He continues to makes more films than most average viewers may ever watch — for instance, did you know that he has completed three distinct frontier films in the past three years? — yet he also mixes in prestige A24/Neon gigs such as one recent hit, another notable movie, and a further title. The Carpenter’s Son seems like one of those, in that it’s not strictly scary, likely to stir debate, and approaches a over-the-top premise quite seriously.

The Film's Storyline and Handling

Regrettably, writer-director Lotfy Nathan does not reward the audience's focus. The film opens in a interestingly wandering context, presented as based on an obscure religious text concerning the early years of Jesus. Cage's character, the maternal figure, and the boy relocate constantly, afraid of doctrinal intolerance or distrust over The Boy’s strange powers. “Disaster trails us,” The Carpenter gloomily remarks. That continues when evil influences focus on them at their new home, initiating on that familiar Biblical temptation for The Boy.

At times, the movie echoes an demonic possession-type horror film, but none of the main figures are clearly inhabited. Instead, they become more and more distant from each other, as these forces infect a nearby girl (Isla Johnston, credited as an outsider) that The Boy bonds with, and provides each character troubling visions of a dark tomorrow. The Carpenter notably struggles with his place in this story, occasionally scolding the son who mystifies him.

Controversy and Sensitivity

The subject matter is likely to court controversy, and Nathan approaches it with a lot of care — overly, perhaps. The concept of a adolescent confronted with his destined offering and tempted by dark influences is truly scary, but Nathan might be wary of seeming gratuitous and eager to telegraph his intentions, so he often withdraws to darkly ominous visuals. Characters continually reflect — FKA Twigs, who showed real promise in the 2024 Crow remake, surprisingly — cedes her performance to her character's costume, at times punctuated by several disturbing frightening scenes.

Cage's Portrayal and Movie's Shortcomings

Meanwhile, the actor dabbles in precisely the type of exaggerated performance that those who enjoy his campier roles could be expecting. There is a moment (also included) in promotional material in which he loses control and yells “My belief is broken!” If that kind of dramatic explosion is included in a Jesus-themed horror movie, maybe a more boldly ridiculous method would take better advantage of the actor's readiness to go over the top when necessary. Instead, The Carpenter’s Son more closely resembles the less successful straight-to-DVD films Cage made during the last decade — apart from the B-movies instead the narrative films and ghost stories that often seem intriguing, and usually have a few choice memorable scenes, but finally come across like, indeed, cheap home video fare.

Truthfully, some of those, while less ambitious, were more entertaining as a whole. Here is where I need to violate my usual practice, not faith-based but professional: Previously, a respected mentor urged me to banish adjectives like “boring” or “dull” from my analytical lexicon. These words express scant except a subjective and vaguely expressed lack of patience, withdrawing from the task of vibrantly communicating the mental and feeling of seeing a particular movie. It's challenging to express boredom without sounding boring yourself. It’s no more expressive as terming a movie “interesting.” “Explain further,” essentially.

Yet, I acknowledge, I grew weary throughout The Carpenter’s Son. To the movie’s non-exploitative credit, it is a churchy kind of stultification, not due to The Carpenter’s Son is moralizing, but as it requires a type of obedient endurance to view it. At some point in the beginning, this feature enters a monotonous pattern of simmering distress, and fails to