The first trailer for Arcadian has been released (via EW) ahead of the movie's world premiere at SXSW later this month, and it finds Nicolas Cage doing everything he can to protect his family from unseen nocturnal terrors.
Cage plays Paul, who, along with his sons Thomas (Maxwell Jenkins) and Joseph (Jaeden Martell), eke out an existence in a dystopian world where mysterious creatures emerge at night to slaughter what little of the population that remains.
Paul has strict rules, but when Thomas arranges to meet a girl in the nearby forest and doesn't return before sundown, he leaves the farmhouse open to attack.
We're not exactly sure what these mysterious creatures are, but Paul theorizes that they "came after the pollution people caused, and they’re here to cleanse the planet of the human race; so we’ll all become extinct.”
The trailer doesn't give us some much as a shadowy glimpse of the monsters, so aside from what appear to be some claw marks on the door and a creepy shriek/growl, that's about all we have to go on.
“What drew me to the project was the brothers at the center of the story and their close bond,” says director Benjamin Brewer, who previously worked with Cage on The Trust. “That's something I can relate to very deeply. I liked the idea that the coming-of-age story could be rendered in a sort of Mad Max apocalypse world, giving these recognizable tropes of growing up a dark fairytale hue, and I was also excited to have an opportunity to work with Nicolas Cage again.”
We're getting major A Quiet Place vibes of this one. Whether it comes across as little more than a lower-budget knock off or has enough originality to stand on its own remains to be seen.
We don't have an embed for the trailer yet, so click the link below to check it out.
"In the near future on a decimated Earth, Paul and his twin sons find tranquility by day but terror by night when ferocious creatures awaken and consume all living souls in their path. When Paul is nearly killed, the boys come up with a desperate plan for survival, using everything their father taught them to keep him alive."