Okay full disclosure, I have a bias towards Nicolas Cage films. He won me over with The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and now I get as much enjoyment out of his films that are badly scripted and acted as I do from the good ones.

This is one of the better ones and for a post-apocalyptic monster movie, it has one of the most fascinating representations of the monster that I have ever seen. It is definitely one where the reveal of the horror makes it more intriguing rather than less.

The scene is set for us where we see that there has been an apocalypse, something to do with pollution, and Cage is Paul, a solo father with two perhaps twin boys in an isolated farmhouse trying to survive. We then jump forward to 15 years later where the boys Thomas (Maxwell Jenkins) and Joseph (Jaeden Martell) are smack in the middle of adolescence, wanting to be more independent and affected by hormones.

The horror is something undefined, we just know that you can’t go outside after dark and everything must be locked down at night for the family to survive. There is neighbouring Rose Farm that Thomas escapes to at any opportunity. They are a bigger farm and he is making himself useful there because he is attracted to the daughter Charlotte (Sadie Soverall). We are left in no doubt that this is going to be a problem as Thomas arrives home later and later, potentially putting them all in danger. 

At some point, Paul is incapacitated and so the two boys must fend for themselves and try to save him. They are a bit like Cain and Abel, and for a moment I thought this might be a biblical allegory, but it delves into their very different personalities – one a charismatic adventurer, the other a nerdy genius. 

It builds to an interesting climax and a satisfying enough ending. Probably my only criticism is that somehow the dramatic arc feels a bit muddled and not so convincing. It feels like we are getting this happened and then this happened and then this happened rather than understanding the motivations and the drive of the narrative.

There is also some criticism for the fact that Cage is comatose for a lot of the film and although the two young actors to a really good job at holding the story, it does make Cage seem a bit of a marketing enticement to get you through the door.