Arcadian is a movie that wants to be good without putting in the effort. It’s a sci-fi/horror art house wannabe… a scrappy movie put together on a limited budget trying to be a variation on The Quiet Place. A mysterious alien invasion has wiped out society and only handfuls of people remain, often hunted by the critters.

The problem with the film is that it’s never as interesting, exciting, or scary as it its trying to be. We know very little of what’s going on in the world and the critters are just as mysterious… but they don’t have a unique hook to make any of the creature feature side interesting. Which leaves the character building and none of that is particularly interesting either. I wound up just waiting semi-patiently through the attempts at character growth.

It doesn’t overload the audience with its creatures so it relies on its characters. It allegedly stars Nicholas Cage but he’s in straight-faced mode… and then he bows out of the picture for well over half of it. The two handsome teen boys playing his sons aren’t a good trade-off.

The finale remembers that it’s a creature feature but for all its attempts at being a scary or exciting horror movie, nobody ever really does anything interesting or exciting. The actual creatures though are… different. Hairy beasties with confusing physical forms… at least I haven’t seen them a dozen time before. Not sure if all the creative design ends up with a monster that’s particularly used well in the film though.

I wanted to like this picture but its art house pretensions were boring and its creature feature bits weren’t good enough. The actors are fine even if they bait-and-switch Cage. Overall, it just made me want to watch a better monster movie.

Score: 68