Nicolas Cage can't be topped for the variety of characters he's played and while he's no stranger to films about the almighty, but this is probably the closest he's come to playing an actual religious figure. In The Carpenter's Son, Cage plays The Father of The Child (Noah Jupe) born in Anno Domini in the deserts of the Ancient Roman Empire, along with FKA Twigs as The Mother. These are their names in the credits, as nobody is ever named in the script, but the film doesn't in anyway hide that this is Jesus, Mary and Joseph of New Testament fame. The film is a coming of age story for The Child as he becomes a teenager and begins to discover his holy powers and learns what fates await him in the future, all the while, the town their family have sought out refuge in is being haunted by demonic occurrences.

As a horror film, The Carpenter's Son doesn't hold back in it's Old Testament style terror, in this sense it's certainly not a bible story for the faint hearted, but that could have been surmised from Nicolas Cage having any form of involvement in it. No, with the film opening with a baby being thrown into flames and then carrying on to show the heinous torture of “criminal” punishment of the ancient world – with very graphic depictions of crucifixion to boot – it's understandable that a lot of the audio of The Carpenter's Son is made up of screaming and cries of pain. The film feels very much like an almost Dante-esque depiction of Hell half the time (with one particularly striking sequence being a clear reference to Dante's Inferno) and as a result, it has a constantly eery and demonic atmosphere that can only come from this kind of story.

Suffering within the frames of Lofty Nathan's dark post-nativity tale are a varied cast of performers. Nicolas Cage provides a performance that's very much in keeping with his modus operandi, fans looking for an example of the “Cage Rage” will not be disappointed, with one monologue near the film's conclusion featuring a great use of Cage's innate ability to yell. Noah Jupe is more or less the film's main character and has the most to do within the film's rapid 90 minute runtime. Jupe's transition from scared teenage boy to the young son of God is an impressive feat for the young actor and his turn here as The Child could very well be a film that defines the early stages of his career. Not all is holy in The Carpenter's Son, however, as FKA Twigs does bring the side down slightly with her characterisation of The Mother that consists solely of one, vacant facial expression and some rather wooden line deliveries (to be fair though, she does also contribute to the film's soundscape of screams).

The Carpenter's Son does a lot with it's smaller budget and crafts a gloriously brutal and demonic look into the rarely seen teenage years of Jesus' life. It's utterly relentless with its depiction of biblical horror and provides yet another brilliantly over the top Nicolas Cage performance along with a potentially star making one out of Noah Jupe.

THE CARPENTER'S SON is in UK & Irish cinemas from November 21 and on Digital from December 22. Own it on DVD and Blu-ray from February 23, 2026