Sometimes, a Nicolas Cage-starring oddity will break through and catch mainstream attention. That happened with Mandy and Pig, keeping Cage’s cult bona fides alive even as he starred in bigger (but still weird) films with heftier marketing budgets, like Longlegs and Dream Scenario.
But sometimes, a worthy but daring Cage film will slip through the cracks. Not enough people saw 2024’s The Surfer, for instance—and it seems that despite its out-there premise, The Carpenter’s Son also failed to achieve much notice. That may change, however, now that it’s on digital. It also would make for some delightfully subversive holiday movie programming.
Now available on Apple TV, Prime Video, Fandango, and more (see platforms here), writer-director Lotfy Nathan’s The Carpenter’s Son is succinctly described as a Jesus horror movie, with Cage playing the future religious icon’s father.
The official description: “A remote village in Roman-era Egypt explodes into spiritual warfare when a carpenter, his wife, and their child are targeted by supernatural forces in The Carpenter’s Son. Joseph (Nicolas Cage), Mary (FKA twigs) and their teenage son, Jesus (Noah Jupe), have lived for years under threat, clinging to their faith and traditions. But a stopover in a small settlement unleashes growing chaos when a mysterious stranger (Isla Johnston) tries to entice young Jesus to abandon his devout father’s rules.
With every pull of temptation, the boy is lured into a forbidden world, as a terrified Joseph realizes that a demonic power is at work. Violent, unnatural events inexplicably follow Jesus, and he begins to experience nightmarish visions of the future. Finally, he learns the fearsome truth about his new playmate, as well as the child’s real name: Satan.”
The Carpenter’s Son got some viral attention for the unique pronunciation of Satan that popped up in the trailers (“Suhtan”), and perhaps now that it’s widely available for home viewing, it will achieve the meme status it’s clearly destined for.
Will you be checking out The Carpenter’s Son this festive season and adding some unhinged Nic Cage to your yule?
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